JBL | The Quadaily 25, 2028 Season (Day 154): The Decisions of a Champion (An Homage to Indiana)
To understand what we loved about the Indiana Hoosiers going into this season, we need to look at the national semifinal.
Really, we need to go further back.
Back to Day 34.
Indiana had just dusted Florida, 82-56, in a game that wasn't even that close. Derrick Bynum had 21, on 9-13 shooting (3-5 from 3). Kevon Capel went for 13-8-4-2-1. August Shannon, then starting, had 16.
Malik Harris, though, stayed in a major slump.
Harris, who had been the starting point guard at Indiana since he stepped onto campus, had been in a season-long slump. He had averaged at least 11.8 points a game each of his three years.
This made his early season struggle--he had not scored more than eight points in any game to that point--more agonizing. He had been such a tough-nosed player in a tough conference, someone who had always done what was asked of him.
The coaching staff, though, asked something of him he didn't see coming when the season started.
They asked him to take a seat, in favor of The Daniel Matic.
Sidebar: Now look, we know some people in Bloomington want to call him Daniel O'Matic, or Auto Matic. That's fine. He's THE Daniel Matic, according to The Qaud. Always has, always will be. It's the perfect nickname. Come on. Auto and O' are easy nicknames. THE is more subtle. Now, we move on.
TDM didn't exactly light it up in his first action, either. But there was something about the rest of the team when he was on the floor, especially on offense, that caused the coaching staff to believe it was he, and not Harris, that could get this team to where they wanted it to go. He had shown the flashes in the Florida game, as he had 10 points and four assists in just 15 minutes.
So, after the Florida game, Indiana, then 7-1 (and ranked #1 in The Quad 25), made two changes.
They moved TDM into the starting lineup. They also moved Rodney Collins into the lineup, in favor of August Shannon.
Twenty-five percent into the season, the Hoosiers made a change that utlimately made their destiny.
The demotion of August Shannon was much more questionable to the casual fan. After all, if you take out the first game of the year (4 points), he had games of 23-13, 28-10, 14-17, and 16 in the rest of his starts. At the time of his benching, he was Indiana's leading scorer.
Obviously, this was as gutsy a move as putting a national championship contender in the hands of a true freshman point guard.
Yet, this is what Indiana did. And that's why, to a deeper-thinking fan, this was an easy move. TDM was offense on the second team. The Hoosiers needed a sparkplug off the bench. Collins, a senior defensive guard, gave the Hoosiers an impenetrable defense on the wing.
Indiana now had balance, and a better hierarchy on offense. It obviously identified that, in its construct after the Florida game, there was a ceiling. So, they made a move.
Now, go back to the future, and head to the national semifinal.
Forty-six seconds left.
Sam McArdle's pair of free throws had just put Maryland up, 80-74. Arguably the hottsst team in the nation heading into the tournament, Maryland, would be exacting revenge for their last loss, a 90-88 epic against the Hoosiers on the final day of the regular season.
It does need to be said...the two Maryland-Indiana games are the two best games of the year. This was the rivalry we never got to have, because their only game was on the final day of the season. That might have been the best game all year...at least, until this one (and then, until the title game).
So, McArdle hit the freebies. Kevon Capel (a kid who will be a top-five pick next season; he would have been a top-ten pick in this draft, had he come out) hit a three to cut the lead in half. Demonte Lindsey fouled Mason Hargrove, who hit just one of two free throws.
Capel got the board, Indiana called time, and then Capel turned it over on a bad call by the officials (offensive three seconds).
Hargrove was fouled, and again, made just one of two. This should have been a seven-point lead with ten seconds to go, not five. It's hard to pile on Hargrove here (he wasn't the only one...give us eight seconds), but Maryland went 3-6 from the line down the stretch.
That's when Rodney Collins, the forgotten offensive cog in this system, hit a three with :04 left. He was assisted by TDM.
The lead was cut to two.
Robert Walsh was fouled, and went to the line. He missed the front end, but made the back. It was back to three.
Indiana called timeout, and called for a variety of routes for Lindsey to throw to.
The first option was Bynum, cutting to the baseline. The second was for Capel, coming off a Collins screen; Collins would then flash to the ball.
Unfortunately for Indiana, that was the option available...to Collins. He caught the ball with his shoulders facing the sideline, just off the top of the key. He was well behind the arc.
That's when TDM came flying from the opposite wing. He began squaring to the hoop as he reached Collins. Collins, setting a natural screen simply by existing (realistically, Maryland should have just fouled Collins in this spot, but come on, these are college kids). Collins tip-passed it to Matic, who got off a clean look.
Boom.
Overtime.
Indiana relied on the guys they trusted to step up back on Day 34. In overtime, they relied on their stars--Bynum, Capel and Lindsey, to get them to the championship. And they did.
In the title game, however, they relied on the guys who were asked to do a job they weren't ready to do when the season started.
But first, let's talk about Brandon Dampier.
Look, when we wrote our tournament preview, it's true...we had all four teams in the Final Four. It's also true that we picked Indiana over Missouri (87-85). And this is what we said about this game, and about Dampier:
::Indiana 87, Missouri 85
Indiana will be tested in this game, no doubt. But they've proven they can win high-scoring games all year. We won't stray from our preseason pick, especially when the preseason pick spent 2/3 of the season atop our poll, and only fell off because of two late losses. This is the best team in the nation in our view. Brandon Dampier is, far and away, the best player in the nation. We expect him to show it in this one, perhaps to the tune of 44-17-5. But, basketball being a team sport, we think the perimeter defense of Indiana will force the rest of the Tigers to falter when the game is on the line.::
Dampier had 20 of Missouri's first 24 points. When he came out, with 9:50 to go in the first half, it was 24-23, Missouri. Indiana simply had no answer for him.
Dampier came back with 6:06. Indiana was up 36-30, though it felt more like 50-30. The way Indiana outplayed the Tigers in that three-minute stretch, it felt like the game was pushed out of reach.
Of course, it was not.
This game was the ultimate testament to Brandon Dampier's time in college. He was a man among other men. Yes, Indiana played a position down, as Bynum, a natural SF, had to defend Dampier for most of this game. (To be honest, after a couple of fouls, Bynum acquitted himself well.) This does not slight what Dampier did in this game whatsoever.
We thought (okay, we just threw it out there) that he would go for 44-17-5.
Dampier finished with 45-17-2 (but with five blocks). He was 20-28 from the field. The rest of the team was 14-39. A big reason Indiana won this game was because of their ability to stay grounded on defense.
To that point: Dampier shot just seven free throws.
Indiana had just 12 fouls, this in a game in which they trailed for much of the second half, including in the final minute.
Now, let's go back to Indiana, and the start of this final installment of the 2028 Quadaily: August Shannon and Malik Harris doing their jobs.
Shannon was fine in moving to the bench role; he is a natural scorer, and proved to be quite capable of filling the role Indiana needed him to fill. In this game, he had two threes with Dampier out of the game in the first half, as the Hoosiers looked to take control of the game. He finished with 14 points, providing valuable scoring for a second unit that was 115th (8th in the Big Ten) in bench scoring.
In this game, their bench posted 38 points, up from their average of 33.5.
There is another unsung hero to discuss, before we move on. That is KeSean Thompson, their senior backup post. Thompson never started a game at Indiana, though he played in 130 of them. He averaged 12.4 minutes per game this year, and posted a career-high 5.3 points.
In the national title game, Thompson had to spell Bynum, when he got into early foul trouble. He also had to spell Lindsey, when he got into late foul trouble. The result was 11 points, on 5-8 shooting; this tied a season-high for him. He also had three assists, (all for threes). He played the game of his college life in the final game of his college life. Simply amazing, and a total microcosm of this Hoosier team.
But, of course, there's Harris.
Harris struggled with the adjustment to the bench. Part of this was good for Indiana. A decline in his production meant that Indiana was simply a better overall team. Remember, when he was a major producer, it was done when the team was...well, mediocre. Harris is solid, tough-nosed...but he is not a scoring guard. And that he was moved to this role meant that Indiana was simply in a better place. This is also due, in part, to his contributions over the past three seasons.
But, still, he struggled all year long to find his rhythm. When you go from being a three-year starter, to no longer being the starter, that can be difficult.
Yet, in this game, the final one of his career, the one that he never thought he would play in...well, his pride had been swallowed long ago. He would not let the turbulance of the season, the end of his career (surely as he hoped, but not at all as he hoped), get in the way of this moment.
With 1:28 left, another curveball was thrown. Harris was brought in for Shannon. Shannon,e xhausted, needed the break. It was evident. And TDM, who had just scored six of the last eight points for Indiana, was the hot hand.
So, Harris came in, and Indiana went to a two-point lineup in the national title game, with, again, 1:28 left.
The game was tied.
Rodney Collins, we should point out, could not go in the game. He fouled out with 2:13 to go.
Over his career, Shannon played in 132 games. He played just four minutes, in his career, as a shooting guard.
In his career, he was 106-318 from three (going into this postseason). He was just 5-22 from three this year, and 14-60 last season (23.3%).
In this postseason, Harris was 0-5 from three across the five games before the title game. He shot just 5-28 in the entire postseason.
And so, here we are. Tie game, 1:28 to go. Indiana gets two shots at breaking the tie, but fail to do so. Dampier gets the board, comes down, and throws down the final of his 45 points. The Tigers lead, 91-89.
Harris gets the inbound, comes down, gets a screen from Lindsey, and fires up a shot.
Twenty-three percent from three the past two seasons.
Eighteen percent this season.
Zero percent in the postseason.
5-for-28 from the field, period.
Team down two.
Thirty seconds left.
Senior point guard.
Harris knew it was good before its trajectory reached its apex. He was already running down the court, holding three fingers in the air.
THAT is a senior point guard.
Indiana by one.
On the next, and perhaps most pivotal possession, Derrck Bynum showed why he has been the top prospect all season long.
He pulled the chair on Brandon Dampier.
In case you're unaware of this move, it's when a defender, knowing a player is putting his weight on them in the post, times it just right...and steps aside. The offensive player, losing what they had been placing their weight upon, usually falls down.
Bynum waited for the perfect moment to spring this upon the freshman. Missouri came down and waited; they didn't just fire up a shot. They knew they had a post player who scored 45 points in an ultra-efficient fashion. Jeez, Dampier was 20-28 from the field. Come on.
So, with ten seconds left, they initiated. They didn't trust in their outside shooters to be able to get them from a three-point hole...so they waited, and went to their star.
And Derrick Bynum pulled the chair on Brandon Dampier.
Just as the ball was headed his way.
Dampier, not seeing this coming, grabbed Bynum as he tried to regain his balance.
Offensive foul.
Indiana called time, and Bynum got the inbound. He was fouled, and did what leaders who have had the spotlight, the doubts, the questions, the unwarranted criticism, the cautious praise, on them for two seasons.
He sank both free throws.
Missouri had two chances to tie it. Tyler Wnuk missed a three with :03 left. Brandon Ball managed to get the rebound, then he called timeout, which was probably not what Missouri wanted. But Missouri didn't want to be in this position, period. It was the nightmare scenario, after all. The Tigers were 62nd in the nation in three-point percetage...but they were 306th in threes made, just 346th in attempts.
Threes were not their thing.
And now, with the season, banner, net, immortaility and free meals all over Columbia, all of that on the line...they had to sink a three with a second left.
Of course, and with great irony, it was Derek Gibson who took the shot.
Gibson had bombs lobbed his way in the CJBL Tournament preview by the 40ish Minutes podcast, where it was said that, if you wanted Missouri to lose, you let Gibson shoot all he wanted. It's also been said that Gibson's draft prospects are inflated, the result of being the guy who feeds Dampier. And it's been said that Gibson can get bull-headed and take it all on his shoulders at times.
With a second left, he did just that.
Gibson peeled off what was supposed to be a screen, by him and his 6'7 frame. He began to set it, then flashed to top of the key. He received the ball and threw up a shot. It actually had a chance, but was off to the left.
Indiana, through its wing defense and use of the total team, had survived the effort of the best player in college basketball.
Interestingly, Dampier was actually under the team's ORtg of 116.7. That's due to his 48% usage rate, we're guessing. Gibson's ORtg was 146.0, mainly deut o his 10.1 usage rate. Trey Blakeney, who Indiana identified as a guy they wanted to shoot (good call; he was 3-11) finished with just an 85.6 ORtg).
THE Daniel Matic, by the way, had an ORtg of 195.2. That's why he was placed into the starting lineup. Collins played a very poor game in this one, mainly due to the foul trouble. But Shannon and Harris picked him up.
This is what the Hoosiers did all year long.
This is why they cut down the nets, will get to hang a banner, and will get free food and booze anywhere in Bloomington for the rest of their lives.
It began back on Day 34, when the coaching staff identified a way they could be better, and two players put the team first. And while it was almost taken down by a superhuman effort by a superhuman basketball player, in the end...
...the team reigned.
We look forward to the movie about this team.