EAST LANSING, Mich. – In his weekly press conference Friday, and again Saturday after his team lost its fifth straight Big Ten road game 66-58, IU coach Kelvin Sampson had the same message for the media: it’s the home court advantage, stupid. \nSampson may not have been as blunt as the old political adage, but he was no less sure when discussing his team’s road difficulties.\nWhen asked if Michigan State forward Raymar Morgan’s improvement was the major difference between IU’s 73-51 win over Michigan State on Jan. 7 and Saturday’s loss, the coach had his reply ready. \n“It’s home court, you know,” Sampson said after the game. “Michigan State’s struggled to win on the road this year and we’ve struggled to win on the road. We haven’t been beaten at home and Michigan State’s hard to beat (at the Breslin Center). There’s about five or six teams in this league that do a great job of protecting their home court.”\nBig Ten teams typically struggle to win games on the road in conference, but this season, Sampson’s first in the conference, has been especially notable for the difficulty Big Ten teams not named Ohio State or Wisconsin have had winning away from home. \nOf the 22 away wins in the Big Ten this season, 11 of them belong to either Ohio State or Wisconsin. The rest have come sparingly for the remaining 11 teams in the conference. IU is among a group of six teams – including Michigan State, Michigan, Purdue, Minnesota and Northwestern – that have won only one away game since the beginning of the conference season. Illinois and Iowa have each won two.\nIU’s only away win in the Big Ten came at last place Penn State on Jan. 13. Since then, the Hoosiers have dropped road games to Illinois, Iowa, Purdue, Michigan and Michigan State. IU also lost at Ohio State on Jan. 2. \n“It’s amazing in this league,” Sampson said on Friday. “It just is. There’s just not a lot of difference in these teams – it’s the darndest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s the road. You’ve got to be tough as nails to win on the road in this conference. Or you’ve got to be a great team.”
Turnovers buoy, then sink Hoosiers\nThrough its first 29 games, Michigan State’s propensity for turnovers has been the team’s most severe obstacle. The Spartans turn the ball over on 26 percent of their possessions, the highest rate in the Big Ten. \nFor the first 20 minutes Saturday night, the Hoosiers exploited that deficiency. \nIU coaxed 14 turnovers out of the Spartans in the first half, five of them by Michigan State point guard Drew Neitzel. By contrast, IU committed only six turnovers. IU converted 15 points off those giveaways to just four by Michigan State, and took a 30-20 lead into the half as a result.\nBut by the end second half Saturday, the turnovers told a different story. \nIU gave the ball away 10 times in the second half while Michigan State cut their tally to nine. Even more important, the Spartans scored 20 points off turnovers in the second half to IU’s nine. \n“We were the aggressors the first half,” Sampson \nsaid. “We didn’t shoot a particularly high percentage, and I think we missed three point-blank layups in the first half, but I really thought our \nkids competed. They came out and really got after Michigan State. In the second half, we knew we had to withstand \nthe first four minutes, and \nwe did, but after that, the guards have to take care of the ball in this game. It’s a guard’s game.\n“(Neitzel’s) threes and our turnovers – that was the difference,” Sampson said.
