Indiana needs revenge. Plain and easy. The Hoosiers wish to win. They wish to show themselves, they wish to compete and so they don’t need their season to finish.
They’ll do no matter it takes to maintain going. It doesn’t matter in the event that they play fairly basketball or not. A win is a win.
So, whereas Indiana’s 61-59 win over Penn State Thursday evening was removed from good basketball, the one factor that mattered on the finish was that they walked off the courtroom understanding they’d be again the subsequent day.
“I believed our guys fought from the very starting till the tip,” Mike Woodson mentioned postgame. “It was simply a kind of forms of video games — an unsightly recreation — however we made the performs we wanted to make coming down the house stretch.”
That’s the mark of a decided group: maintain preventing, make the performs when it is advisable to and don’t cease till the buzzer sounds. A number of Hoosiers embodied that mentality all through the evening, however one stands out. He’s the one who ensured the victory, coming off the bench to have one in every of his profession’s most necessary and memorable photographs.
Who else might it’s however Anthony Leal?
With 5 seconds left within the recreation, Leal hung again within the nook, watching as Xavier Johnson fed the ball to Malik Reneau, who drove to the basket with one factor on his thoughts: scoring. Leal had the identical factor on his thoughts, so the senior determined to run over and get in place for the rebound.
“The percentages of a shot stepping into aren’t at all times excessive, however the odds of dropping on a tip-in or a rebound is one thing that we discuss rather a lot,” Leal mentioned. “I knew that if he did occur to overlook the shot, to go in there and attempt to make one thing occur was a chance.”
It was a chance, after which it was actuality. Leal received the rebound and the putback, after which he received mobbed by his teammates just some seconds later. Because of him, the Hoosiers prolonged their win streak to 5 video games and have been shifting on to the Large Ten match quarterfinals.
“Coming from the NBA, we name {that a} true professional,” Woodson mentioned. “From a training standpoint, we really feel snug understanding, if we throw him in there, he’s not going to embarrass us, himself or our group.”
Leal did something however. He had his moments all through the sport, ending the evening with eight factors highlighted by that putback and a nothing-but-net 3-pointer. He dove for unfastened balls, was pesky on protection and added 4 rebounds and one steal to his stat line.
“I couldn’t be extra pleased with him,” Woodson mentioned.
Woodson’s satisfaction in Leal was evident from the small smile that crossed the top coach’s face when he talked about his senior guard. It was additionally clear that that satisfaction wasn’t reserved only for Leal — it was for the entire group.
Regardless of being the upper seed in Thursday evening’s recreation, the Hoosiers went in largely considered the underdog. That they had misplaced badly to Penn State in each common season matchups and could be taking part in with out Trey Galloway as a result of damage. The Nittany Lions have been identified for his or her 3-point taking pictures and the Hoosiers have been identified for his or her inconsistent perimeter play.
However Indiana used that underdog mentality and the need for revenge to its benefit. Indiana’s protection restricted Penn State’s offense in main methods, holding the Nittany Lions to 7-of-33 taking pictures within the first half and 7-for-27 from the perimeter general. The protection saved the Hoosiers afloat as they, too, struggled to see photographs fall.
Thursday evening was a battle between two groups who desperately needed and wanted to win, preventing to see who might play a greater model of unhealthy basketball. Indiana received that competitors, as Reneau and Kel’el Ware labored with one another down the stretch to take over the inside. The 2 mixed for 29 of Indiana’s 61 factors and 22 of Indiana’s 41 rebounds and with Galloway out, Xavier Johnson and Gabe Cupps stepped as much as shoulder ball-handling duties. Everybody did one thing good. And in a recreation the place many issues aren’t going very properly, something good is usually a game-changer, regardless of how small.
“Even with one man out, we’ve at all times received to return collectively as a group,” Ware mentioned. “Simply play collectively and lock in on protection, and simply be capable to execute the offense properly to have the ability to come out with a W.”
Indiana did simply that, and Leal was the one who received to maneuver the Indiana sticker one spot additional on the bracket. Earlier than he did so, although, he pretended to maneuver all of it the way in which into the championship spot on the board. It was a joke, but it surely was additionally an indication of what Indiana noticed itself undertaking.
The Hoosiers don’t have any intention of slowing down. They’re going to play groups who beat them previously, and so they don’t need it to occur once more.
“We’ve received the mentality that each matchup we’ve received this match is principally a revenge recreation for us,” Leal mentioned on Large Ten Community postgame.
Revenge is a robust motivator. If Thursday evening is any indication, Indiana may know use it to its benefit.
(Picture credit score: IU Athletics)
Filed to: Penn State Nittany Lions
