What is happening right now
Indiana somehow won its fourth straight in the midst of a lot of external noise and after losing Trey Galloway to injury in the first half. This is something that just did not seem possible a few short weeks ago.
With the win, Indiana will now finish with the same overall record (18-13), Big Ten record (10-10), and Quad 1 record (4-8) as a Michigan State team that is still considered safely in the tournament. A Michigan State team that started the season top 5 in the AP Poll.
At this point, Indiana probably still has to win the Big Ten Tournament to make it to March Madness, but it’s still been good to watch them finish the season on the right note. This was the team we believed they could be, flawed roster and all.
It doesn’t make anything about the future more certain, other than the fact that I’m suddenly more hopeful for a Big Ten Tournament run.
Here are Three Observations:
Kel’el Ware
I’m running out of things to say about Kel’el Ware’s development at this point, but he continues to show us new things every game. Today, it was his strength on rebounds and finishing around the rim.
Tom Izzo tried a number of matchups against Ware, but nothing worked. Ware matched his career-high with 28 points, also pulling down 12 boards and dishing three assists.
He made another 3-pointer today, but really shined in showing his range within the arc. When he couldn’t overpower his matchup inside, Ware was scoring on his floater, showing touch on just about anything inside 15 feet.
With his height and scoring range, he really has the potential to be unguardable when the midrange is falling, as it was today. If he wasn’t a lottery pick already, I would think his stock is rising to the point where he’d have to be considered with those early picks.
Given his obvious NBA potential, today was likely Ware’s last game in Assembly Hall. I for one, am extremely grateful for everything he gave Indiana.
Trey Galloway
Trey Galloway went down in the first half with some kind of leg injury. He tried to gut it out at first, but headed to the locker room, then returned with tights on and hopped on the exercise bike in an attempt to come back in.
At halftime, news broke that Galloway would not be returning to the game. He had some ice on his knee on the bench, but we don’t really know anything more than that. It’ll probably be some time before we get him back.
If Galloway isn’t ready for the next game, today’s win will be even more significant. A better seed will help Indiana in the first round of the BTT if it doesn’t have its new lead point guard in the lineup.
For anyone to go down on Senior Night, it’s really awful that it had to be Trey. He’s meant so much and given so much for Indiana and deserved to end his season and potentially his Indiana career on a better note.
Vibes
The biggest thing I was looking for in this game was the energy level from Indiana. It’s been a whirlwind of a week, and it’s not clear whether Indiana was playing for anything other than personal pride tonight.
The first 15 or so minutes looked great, like a continuation of the play that led to Indiana blowing out Minnesota on the road earlier this week. Indiana got out to a 17-point lead and appeared set to cruise to another double-digit victory.
Then Galloway went down and Indiana was without its best passer and point guard. And Michigan State started making the shots it had been missing in the opening minutes of the game.
Once the Spartans got their lead up to seven points in the second half, I thought this one was over. Xavier Johnson hadn’t been consistent enough in the first half to get this group across the finish line in the second.
But Johnson tightened things up in the second half, as he did last time out. He turned it over just once and knocked down an open 3-pointer to give Indiana the lead back with under ten to play.
For four straight games now, this is a team that’s gone out and fought harder than anyone would have expected to. The team finally appears to have improved, and it’s playing its best basketball as the postseason is set to begin.
Let’s get weird.