Hoosier Daily, November 15: What They're Saying About Marquette
In today's Hoosier Daily, we look at tweets of the day, plus what media members from both sides are saying about IU's 96-73 win over Marquette and football headlines previewing Michigan.
Those links plus more are embedded below.
Tweets of the Day
IU-Marquette Headlines
Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star: Hoosiers show nation - and their own coach - how good they can be
This was — what’s the word Archie Miller used? — startling what Indiana did to Marquette, and what Romeo did to the first high-major college opponent he has faced. And it was startling that he wasn’t the only dominant player, wasn’t even the only dominant freshman, on this IU team.
Point guard Rob Phinisee was just about as impressive as Langford, albeit in a different way, a more shocking way, because let’s be honest: We expect Romeo to do this. He scored 3,002 points in high school at New Albany. He won a state title. Won IndyStar Mr. Basketball. Has been named to every possible preseason college basketball watch list, including All-Big Ten and All-American and national small shooting guard of the year and even national player of the year. Romeo Langford dominating in Assembly Hall? We’re not surprised.
Phinisee dominates Marquette’s Markus Howard, and we’re surprised. I mean … right? Phinisee was a recruiting coup in his own right, this kid from Lafayette turning down Purdue to play for IU, and he’s a strongly built, 6-1, 182-pound freshman with elite quickness. But still, this was Markus Howard he was being asked to defend, a preseason All-Big East guard, a junior who averaged 20.4 points per game last season, including 52 against Providence. Howard came into Wednesday averaging 26.5 ppg this season.
And Phinisee manhandled him. Met him at halfcourt, dared him to drive past him, dared him to shoot over him, dared him to do anything positive. Howard couldn’t do it. He’d finish this game with 18 points, but don’t be fooled. He picked up much of that late, when the game was over, when Phinisee was on the bench or assigned to someone else. But in the first half, when this game was decided, Phinisee demolished him.
Five minutes into the game, Howard had three turnovers and the crowd was chanting at him a single word: Over-rated. Indiana led 19-4.
“He’s a stud,” Archie Miller said of Phinisee, who had 12 points, eight assists and one turnover. And then Miller repeated himself, just to be clear. “He’s a stud.”
Mike Miller, HSR: Hoosiers score runaway 96-73 win over Marquette
Indiana was eager to rise to the moment.
That’s what good teams do.
It’s the second week of November, with a series of further challenges still waiting on the docket. But in their first test of the young campaign, the Hoosiers looked intent on setting a new standard.
A 96-73 Gavitt Games victory over No. 24 Marquette on Wednesday night illustrated the kind of season IU is capable of authoring.
“I think, in a way, it puts us on the map a little bit,” senior forward Evan Fitzner said. “We all, as a group, have a lot of confidence in what we can do, but we kind of showed everyone what we’re capable of tonight. I think that was the significance of it.”
Not only did Indiana (3-0) assert itself into the national conversation, it wrote the first line of its postseason resume while locking down one of the nation’s elite scorers.
Miller has a good problem on his hands. Once his roster gets healthy, he’ll face the task of dividing up 200 minutes among as many as 12 players deserving of playing time. He’ll undoubtedly tinker with his rotation before the grind of Big Ten play arrives, and the aforementioned depth means Indiana is poised to survive injuries to anyone outside of Langford.
It’s just one game, but Indiana looks every bit like a team that’s set to contend in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers possess a mixture of young talent and veteran experience that should give them a chance to win every time they take the floor. The toughest challenge in the country awaits in just under two weeks, a Nov. 27 trip to Cameron Indoor to face Zion Williamson and a Duke team dominating headlines in the season’s first week. Until then, Indiana can take pride in the way it not just handled but aced its first test of the year.
Year two of the Archie Miller era is off to a roaring start.
Murphy Wheeler, IDS: COLUMN: IU basketball's win over Marquette was monumental for Archie Miller
The noise reverberated off the walls and rumbled through the stadium. They probably could’ve heard it a few hundred yards across the street at McNutt Quad.
Hell, they probably could’ve heard it in Martinsville.
It literally rattled my seat.
“I thought the atmosphere was crazy,” freshman guard Romeo Langford said. “Especially for my first experience against a ranked opponent in Assembly Hall.”
IU’s eventual 96-73 victory felt monumental, and it most definitely was.
By all accounts, this was the most important victory of the Archie Miller era so far. One might argue the Hoosiers’ thrilling 80-77 overtime victory over Notre Dame at last year’s Crossroads Classic could deserve that distinction, but Wednesday’s win felt different.
It felt like the beginning of something.
Yes, this was a resume-builder. Many fans had been clamoring for a top 25 ranking for IU after starting the season at 2-0, but let’s not kid ourselves — that was a mere pipe dream after playing two RPI-murdering pushovers in Chicago State and Montana State.
A win against a ranked opponent like Marquette, let alone the shellacking they laid down on the Golden Eagles, would be the true test of IU’s clout.
But it still felt bigger than that.
Ben Steele, Journal Sentinel: Golden Eagles dominated from start to finish
Marquette got a swift reality kick on Wednesday night.
Riding high on their first appearance in the Associated Press top 25 rankings in almost five years, the Golden Eagles were brought down to earth with a 96-73 evisceration by Indiana at a raucous Assembly Hall.
"People have been saying how good of a team we have and all that kind of stuff," said MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski, whose team checked in at No. 24 in this week's AP poll. "We're not a very good team right now. That's the reality of it and that was just exposed tonight.
"So we have to get a lot better."
The game started badly for MU (2-1) and never got much better.
Other Headlines
· By The Numbers: U-M Could Do Something Saturday It Hasn't Done Since 1901, via The Wolverine - LINK
· Wolverine Watch: It's Playoff Time For Michigan, via The Wolverine - LINK
· Michigan football vs. Indiana: Scouting report, prediction, via Detroit Free Press - LINK
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