Watford leads IU in battle on the boards

To help get his team on the board in the Big Ten, IU sophomore forward Christian Watford knew he had to crash the boards.

The last time he had 10 or more rebounds was Dec. 22, a loss to Northern Iowa that spawned a six-game losing streak. Before an 80-61 IU (10-8, 1-4) victory against Michigan (11-7, 1-4) on Saturday in Assembly Hall, Watford hoped to flip that script.

“First and foremost, I wanted to get a lot of rebounds,” he said. “I felt like I did that. I came out of the jump and got like five rebounds pretty quickly so I did a good job with that.”

Watford finished with a game-high 10 rebounds to complement his 17 points, his third double-double of the season, as the Hoosiers dominated the battle on the boards 37-18.

“We needed to do a great job on the glass tonight, and our players responded to that,” IU coach Tom Crean said. “It was all of them. They were there and they carved out space. They had five guys in the paint when the shot went up. We were active on both ends. If we’re going to be successful, if we’re going to win games, then you have to win the rebounding game.”

The numbers spoke volumes.

IU had so many rebounds because it followed through on its game plan of locking down Michigan’s transition offense, which Crean said he considered one of the Wolverines’ greatest strengths.

Not only did the Hoosiers hold their opponents to zero fast break points, but they also limited the Wolverines to 36.4 percent shooting from the field as a whole.

“We had very good carry-over from a very good week of practice,” Crean said. “Our players understood that it began with what our defensive transition was going to be like because of how well they push the ball up the court and get it up the court. They did an excellent job with that.”

With execution came energy. Junior forward Tom Pritchard, who started his first game since Dec. 4 and had seven rebounds Saturday, said hustle from teammates fueled him and the rest of the team to crash the boards harder.

“When you see one guy diving on the floor and getting a loose ball, giving all effort, you want to give 100 percent effort and be there for them,” Pritchard said.

On the other hand, Michigan had so few rebounds because IU shot lights out.

The Hoosiers made seven of their first 10 shots, and the Wolverines went until the 9:24 mark of the second half before they collected a defensive rebound.

IU shot 67.4 percent from the floor for the game and made 17 of 24 shots in the second half — and all 10 of its free-throw attempts — to deny Michigan from making a comeback from a 30-15 IU first-half lead.

“They only missed 14 shots,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “So there are not a whole lot of rebounds on 14 shots, and when you have that you are never into your transition. You aren’t able to do a lot of the things that you want to do.”

With the dominance on the glass Saturday, IU pushed past its next opponent – No. 17 Wisconsin – for fifth in the Big Ten in rebounding margin.

The Hoosiers will be looking to add cushion to that lead and record consecutive Big Ten victories for the second time in Crean’s tenure when they visit the Badgers on Thursday.

“We finally got one on the board,” Watford said. “Now we feel like maybe we can run off a couple of them, get on a winning streak and see
what happens.”