BLOOMINGTON, Ind. --- The Hoosiers gave us an answer to a season-long question tonight. They proved they could win a big game without big games from Yogi Ferrell and Noah Vonleh.
In a 93-86 win over No. 20 Iowa, Ferrell and Vonleh combined for 12 points. That’s 13 percent of Indiana’s points. On a typical night, Ferrell and Vonleh usually account for about 30 of the Hoosiers’ 72 points per game average, which adds up to about 42 percent.
Instead there was a different hero- a hero that had a career-high 30 on 13-20 shooting.
Senior Will Sheehey did everything the Hoosiers needed tonight. He got key buckets, got tough rebounds, and ran the floor just like he always does. He was the catalyst behind IU pulling off an upset that saved this season from complete disaster.
Against Purdue, Sheehey became the 47th player in school history to record 1,000 points and was honored before the game, receiving a ball from IU head coach Tom Crean. Crean joked in the press conference that he thought he was going for 2,000 with the way he played tonight.
Of course he had help, and that came from freshman Stanford Robinson who had 17 points and senior Evan Gordon who had 12 points, both off the bench.
All season long, the question has been who steps up to play second fiddle to Yogi? And most of the time it has been Vonleh. But what happens when Yogi doesn’t play well, or no number two shows up? You get losses to bad teams, an experience Hoosier fans have experienced more than expected this season.
The win tonight is monumental. Not just because it’s a win over a top 20 team, but because of the way IU won. They ran the court the entire game, an offensive strategy that seems to fit this group of players, like Robinson and Troy Williams, but hasn’t been used as often this season, and it was extremely effective.
Of bigger importance was who stepped up. Sheehey has been questioned all season for his play as he missed shot after shot, and in many games barely seemed to show up. This was a year he was supposed to break out after solid years as the team’s sixth man, yet until tonight he had never broken out. We saw a player who can be a game changer.
This night was about Sheehey. Assembly Hall went crazy after each second half basket, and the senior played like we all imagined he would this whole season- the only problem being it took him until the team’s 28th game to breakout. This calling fans to question why it took so long for him to play how we imagined, and ask an even bigger question- where could the Hoosiers be if Sheehey had played like this the entire season?
-Andrew Vailliencourt
@AndrewVcourt
