Column: Four takeaways from IU - Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Indiana Hoosiers are the outright champions of the Big Ten for the first time since the 1992-1993 season.

For obvious reasons, this is the main thing that many IU fans will take away from Sunday’s thrilling 72-71 victory over Michigan.

But as the Hoosiers now move into the postseason, there are a number of lessons that can be taken away from the final regular season game of the year.

Here are a few of them.

Cody Zeller is IU’s go-to-guy

When the Hoosiers needed buckets in the worst way, Cody Zeller was the guy to deliver it for IU.

"The big fella" – as Victor Oladipo calls him – posted his 14th career double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds, but it was his six points in the game’s final 41 seconds that carried IU to a stunning victory over the Wolverines.

“I just wanted to be aggressive,” Zeller said. “Good things happen when me and Christian (Watford) catch the ball in the post. That had been working earlier in the game, so our guards were just throwing it in and playing off me. I was just trying to make a play.”

Zeller’s aggression in the closing stages of the game was the difference for the Hoosiers. After scoring only nine points in the first half on 4-of-9 shooting, Zeller righted the ship with 16 second-half points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field.

“A guy like (Cody) that plays the way he does, he will be so much better for what he has dealt with at Indiana and the scrutiny he goes under and the way it gets handled sometimes,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “He brings it every day. I mean he brings it every day. He doesn’t always have a great day, but he brings it every day. And today was one of those great examples.”

Not only was Zeller’s dominance down the stretch was an example of his reliability, it was also an illustration as to why he was voted as the preseason player of the year.

“I’ve been saying all year long that he should be the player of the year,” junior guard Victor Oladipo said. “If you don’t give it to him, there’s something wrong with y’all.”

Zeller quickly added, “if the team wins, everyone gets what they want individually. That’s what I’ve been saying all year.”

Even if he is quick to redirect praise to his teammates, Zeller is IU’s best player and in crunch time of big games, like Sunday’s game against Michigan. The Hoosiers rely on him more than anyone else.

Oladipo can do it all

Whether it was his lock-down defense on Michigan’s Trey Burke or his knack for being in the right place at the right time – like under the basket to rebound and put-back a Watford air ball as the shot clock was winding down – Oladipo was everywhere.

For the game, his stat line read 14 points, 13 rebounds (a career high), three assists, one block, one steal in 33 minutes of play, but Oladipo’s biggest contributions to IU’s success Sunday cannot be measured in these numbers alone.

How can you accurately measure the value of a guy that always guards an opponent’s best scorer with a style of defense that is predicated on creating havoc?

“I was just trying to get him tired, you know, slow him down a little bit,” Oladipo said. “I felt like picking him up full and denying his touches, you know kind of get him out of rhythm a little bit.”

Burke may have finished the game with 20 points, but when Oladipo was on him, none of those were coming easy.

In the end, the constant pressure Burke was facing may have worn him down just enough.

“He’s a phenomenal player as you guys can tell,” Oladipo said. “He made tough shots, big shots. Maybe he didn’t have the legs to hit that free throw at the end, who knows. It was just a great overall victory.”

Regardless of how IU’s victory came, Oladipo said winning an outright Big Ten title is the realization of the aspirations he had when committing to Indiana.

“It’s a crazy feeling,” Oladipo said. “That was the reason why I came here, to be known as one of the greats. To be known as the reason why Indiana basketball came back and to actually be a part of that is an amazing feeling.”

Free throws are crucial

The last minute of the game illustrates why you can never stress the importance of free throws enough.

Starting with Glenn Robinson III’s two free throw attempts with 52 seconds remaining, Michigan went 1-of-4 from the charity stripe to close the game.

After Robinson split his free throws to give Michigan a five-point advantage, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Trey Burke would have chances at the line to put the game on ice.

Instead, both Hardaway Jr. (70.8 percent free throw shooter entering Sunday) and Burke (79.4 percent from the line before Sunday) would miss the front ends of their one-and-one opportunities – giving the Hoosiers life.

If Hardaway Jr. or Burke hit their free throws, there wasn’t much IU could have done to claw back, but the missed freebies allowed IU to keep the game within one possession before grabbing the lead for good.

Now that we are in March, everything on the hardwood is magnified by ten, including late-game free throws that could put a game away.

The Hoosiers benefited from Michigan’s shaky free throws, but IU should also learn from the Wolverines’ misfortune.

From here-on-out, tournament basketball means that teams are facing do-or-die games every time they step out onto the court.

If IU is going to make a deep run through both the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, the Hoosiers cannot have breakdowns at the line like Michigan did on Sunday.

IU might be down, but they are never out

With 52 seconds remaining, Robinson hit one-of-two free throws to give Michigan a five-point lead.

At this point, IU could have panicked. They could have raced down the floor, only to put up a quick, poor quality shot.

They could have, but they didn’t.

Instead, the Hoosiers relied on the experience that they have gained in late-game situations to calmly fight back.

“We’ve been in that position before and we know what it takes to win in times like that,” Oladipo said. “We practice moments to score, times to score all the time. We just realized that we were going to have to come together and execute at the end. We did a great job of that and then the big fella making big plays.”

Feeding the ball to Zeller for IU’s final six points of the game wasn’t some brilliant, new revelation that came about, because the Hoosiers were feeling the heat – it was what they were doing well all day.

“The best thing about the end of the game is that we continued to play the end of the game like we played the game,” Crean said. “We never got down.”

“Nobody felt like we weren’t going to come down and make plays. They stayed committed to what was working. Nobody got into a ‘I got to win this myself’ and they knew that number 40 was impossible to guard tonight."

On a night when the Hoosiers clinched a special honor for the program, Crean took a moment to reflect on just how special of a group this year’s team is.

“I cherish every moment I’m with those guys,” Crean said. “I really do. It has nothing to do with how long they stay. Those are special guys.”

Now, Crean’s special group will be put to the ultimate test of mental toughness and skill – tournament time.