The Hoosiers are one game away from winning the Big Ten title outright, and Thomas Bryant said he knows what they have to do to claim it.
“Defensive execution out there,” the freshman center said after the win against Illinois last week. “We are a pretty good team. On the defensive end, when we are getting stops like we did today and getting down there to get a bucket, we are a hard team to play against.”
Without sophomore guard Robert Johnson on the floor against the Illini, defense was the key focus for the Hoosiers.
Johnson, while not one of IU’s leading scorers, has been a constant on the defensive end this season. IU Coach Tom Crean has also recognized him for being IU’s best guard rebounder.
Those two things — defense and rebounding — were keys in the second half against Illinois.
They also helped IU knock off then-No. 4 Iowa a couple of weeks ago in Assembly Hall. Tonight, they’ll face the Hawkeyes again with the Big Ten regular season title on the line.
With Iowa’s loss to Ohio State on Sunday, IU earned at least a share of the conference title.
The Hoosiers kept the Illini to 47 points last Thursday and outrebounded them by 20.
Senior guard Nick Zeisloft, who started in place of Johnson, said he and his teammates had to raise their level of intensity.
“(Johnson) is a tough pit bull out there,” Zeisloft said. “We all had to bring that intensity on the defensive end, fighting the offensive end because that’s what he brings to the game every time he goes out there.”
Bryant said they made defensive adjustments at halftime, which led to a dominant second half.
“Our defensive intensity was different, way better than the first half,” he said. “We executed at the offensive end too, so that really picked it up with us. When our defense is good like that, our offense flows.”
The IU defense has shown obvious improvement from this time last season to now.
On several occasions this season, it’s been the difference in games.
One of those was the first half the Hoosiers played against the Hawkeyes on Feb. 11.
The Hoosiers led by as many as 16 in the first half, they outrebounded the Big Ten’s best rebounding team 39-35, and their defense held Iowa’s bench scoreless.
But that was in Assembly Hall, where the Hoosiers have been unbeatable this season. They’re a perfect 18-0 at home.
Not only will they have to play a top-25 team on the road, but Iowa is a team that has been upset in its last three games, most recently by Ohio State, and also by Wisconsin and Penn State, two unranked opponents.
When Iowa came to Bloomington, IU earned its most impressive win of the season. But the Hoosiers have yet to get a signature conference win on the road.
Crean said he knows it won’t be easy to repeat.
“We won the game, but we made too many mistakes here,” Crean said. “We had too many errors defensively. We should have switched this and we shouldn’t have switched that and we have to be better at those things.”
