By Craig Smith
BLOOMINGTON — Tom Crean has two measures for judging his team’s progress: as compared to last year and as compared to last week.
By either measure, Indiana is getting better, even if it doesn’t always show up in the win column.
With the exception of a five-minute stretch, Indiana gave as good as it got in a 90-73 loss to No. 4 Kentucky on Saturday in front of a sold-out Assembly Hall and national television audience.
Last year, the Hoosiers (4-5) trailed 36-13 at halftime at Rupp Arena before falling 72-54. Crean said last year’s locker room was stunned.
After today’s game, the Hoosiers were sad, mad and frustrated that they let the game slip from their grasp.
As Kentucky coach John Calipari put it, Indiana came out and punched the Wildcats (10-0) in the mouth to start the game.
Freshman Maurice Creek had seven of his career-high 31 points in the first three minutes of the game as Indiana ran out to a 12-4 lead and sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Devan Dumes grabbed a rebound and put the ball back in as time expired at halftime to pull Indiana to 42-41 heading into the break.
Indiana even took the lead with a Jeremiah Rivers layup before Kentucky took off on its 18-0 run.
The Hoosiers’ rebounding woes were even more apparent during that stretch, as the Wildcats grabbed nine rebounds to Indiana’s three.
Kentucky dominated the boards, doubling Indiana up 49-24.
Crean said the Hoosiers needed more rebounds from their guards and Rivers agreed.
“The bigs were down there, clearing them out for us, but I think we caught up watching and standing there,” the junior point guard said.
Freshman sensation John Wall had 11 points, but Crean made special mention of his seven rebounds. Wall’s seven rebounds led to 11
Kentucky points on ensuing possessions because, as Crean pointed out,
Wall could take off down the floor because he didn’t need to wait for an outlet pass.
Wall also had an effect on the Hoosiers that showed up in Eric Bledsoe’s stat sheet.
Rivers admitted that while the defenses weren’t designed to shut down Wall, he did get extra attention and they sometimes forgot about
Bledsoe. Bledsoe scored 23 points on 8-for-23 shooting, including 4-for-5 from beyond the arc. He did have six turnovers, but those didn’t bother his coach.
“I told him that if he played that well, I’ll take your six turnovers.”
In the past 12 days, Indiana has gone from being a team that lost to Boston University and George Mason in Puerto Rico to one that traded punches with Maryland and Kentucky and beat Pittsburgh.
“We’ve made a lot of improvement since Puerto Rico,” Creek said. “I think we were still studying each other back then and we figured each other out.
“We’re playing as one unit. We still have some things to work on, but once we do those things, we will be back.”
n Notes — Creek’s 31 points were the most for an IU player since Eric Gordon had 31 against Illinois State on Nov. 23, 2007. … Saturday was Kentucky’s first win at Assembly Hall since 1981. … Kentucky leads the all-time series 30-23. … This marks Kentucky’s best start to a season since going 11-0 to begin the 1993-94 campaign. … Indiana hosts North Carolina Central next Saturday.
