Down on its luck Indiana is looking up, finally, after an impressive 79-75 overtime road victory over No. 6 Michigan State on Saturday night. The Hoosiers came in with every excuse to fold against the No. 6 Spartans -- and picked up more along the way. They brought with them a pesky seven-game losing skid they haven't been able to shed, endured an early-game injury from second-leading scorer Juwan Morgan, who played 12 minutes but left and did not return, and still prevailed to achieve one of the more gritty wins yet under Archie Miller. During their recent skid, the Hoosiers (13-9, 4-7 Big Ten) haven't done much of anything well. They haven't shot well, haven't taken care of the ball, haven't scored at a high-enough rate to win games. So it comes with a bit of irony that Saturday, IU found its greatest success by ... fouling. The Hoosiers fouled Nick Ward, then Xavier Tillman. They fouled Alex Henry, then Matt McQuaid. One by one, shot by shot, IU's hack-a-Sparty strategy paid off. Michigan State (18-4, 9-2) made just 9 of its 21 free-throw attempts, including some very critical ones down the stretch that let Indiana push the game to OT, that ultimately decided the game. IU's outlook is instantly brighter now. It will need to pad its resume with more quality wins, to be sure, but this shorthanded road win led by freshman Romeo Langford, who had 19, and sophomore Aljami Durham and Justin Smith, who had 14 and 13 points, respectively, could be an inflection point. If the Hoosiers can use this as a launching pad they could fulfill their lofty preseason projections, which had them comfortably in the field of 68 come Selection Sunday. That's a long ways from where we sit on Feb. 2, sure, but with Langford leading the way and IU's youngsters growing up immensely in the span of one night, it doesn't seem as farfetched as it did during that gauntlet of a seven-game losing streak.<doc-sep>1. The Hoosiers rediscovered their former selves. They could’ve crumbled. Plenty of times. Instead, the Hoosiers rose to the moment and saved their season. Indiana entered a raucous environment inside the Breslin Center and provided the better effort. IU outplayed No. 6 Michigan State in the 79-75 overtime win, while avoiding the prolonged offensive droughts that doomed the team during its recent seven-game losing streak. They did it all without their most important player, sticking together when Juwan Morgan went to the locker room with a left shoulder injury late in the first half. Justin Smith’s presence was felt on the defensive end. Al Durham played with the toughness and energy that has come to be expected from him. Romeo Langford was Romeo Langford. For the first time in a month — perhaps longer? — Indiana looked connected. The Hoosiers looked poised. Most importantly, they looked tough. It all added up to IU’s first road win over a top-10 team since Tom Crean’s Hoosiers beat Michigan to win the 2013 Big Ten title on the final day of the regular season. Saturday’s win came only eight days after IU coach Archie Miller publicly called out his team’s fragility, lamenting how “soft and scared” the Hoosiers looked during an embarrassing home loss to No. 5 Michigan. Against Michigan State, IU looked different. The Hoosiers looked like their former selves, rediscovering the personality they cultivated during the season’s first few weeks. “I meant every word of it,” Miller said, reflecting upon his words after the Michigan loss. “I mean, there was absolutely zero toughness, zero passion to compete (against the Wolverines). With the offense looking like it is, I mean, it’s almost as if we started to go in that route of one end’s gloomy, so the other end’s going to be gloomy. We had to get out of ourselves, we had to understand what we had to get going here, and it started with leadership. I think we have clarity on that now. “We played hard (on Saturday night), we played unselfish, and I can’t complain about that. It’s not all them, either. When you’re a soft team, or when your coach says something like that, the coach is soft too, he means it. I mean, I didn’t say anything I didn’t believe our team wasn’t or I wasn’t doing for them. Again, it starts at the top, always goes to the bottom. You’ve got to be able get your message across, you’ve got to be able to get some things to sink in, and without question, (Saturday) we looked like a different team.” The question now becomes, is this sustainable? A few areas inside of Saturday’s win — 50 percent 3-point shooting, outrebounding MSU, 48-40 — will be tough to repeat with regularity. One great win doesn’t mask the flaws inherent within this group. But there’s no good reason why Indiana can’t continue to play as tough as it did against the Spartans. In East Lansing, the Hoosiers displayed the kind of grit that propelled them to a 12-2 start to the season. They played hard, displaying a will to win. Although it’s still not clear exactly who this team is — or wants to be — the capacity is still there to play hard and play tough. If that continues, the Hoosiers will have plenty to play for. 2. Indiana found its shooting stroke. One of the keys to beating Michigan State — or any good team on the road, for that matter — is hitting the shots that open along the perimeter. In the Spartans’ three losses prior to Saturday, they allowed at least 10 3-pointers. Kansas hit 10 of 23 in a season-opening win over Michigan State. Louisville also hit 10 in a ACC/Big Ten Challenge victory in November. Just last week, Purdue used 12 3-pointers to dispatch the Spartans in West Lafayette. What seemed like an unlikely scenario for the Hoosiers came to fruition. IU went 10-for-20 from beyond the arc, matching its season high. The Hoosiers saved the bulk of those big shots for late in the contest, hitting seven of their final 10 3-pointers. At one point late in regulation they connected on four in a row. The Hoosiers remain the worst 3-point shooting team in the conference, having made only 27.9 percent of their shots beyond the arc during league play. When Evan Fitzner drained a deep shot four minutes into the second half, it marked his first 3-pointer since Dec. 19. One game doesn’t change the fact that this team, by its nature, won’t want to find itself in any jump shooting contests down the stretch. But perhaps a performance such as this is enough to help boost the Hoosiers’ waning confidence. “We went into practice and worked on our flow offense, our movement,” Romeo Langford said. “We just executed it real well tonight.” 3. The bench was outstanding. Through a combination of injuries, inexperience and developmental growing pains, Indiana’s reserves haven’t produced at an adequate level for much of the season. That wasn’t the case on Saturday. The bench scored 28 points — five more points than it produced across the previous three games combined. Not only did IU’s subs score, they offered hustle plays, too. “Our guys came off the bench and they were ready to play from six to eight players,” Langford said. “However many players we played, they were ready to play, and that was a big key to our win. Some of our guys got in foul trouble, and the guys on the bench, the next man up was ready to play.” De’Ron Davis and Devonte Green gave IU crucial contributions, with Davis providing a presence in the post and Green giving the Hoosiers a shooter on the outside. Davis logged a season-high 25 minutes after playing only 22 minutes since Dec. 22. He also scored a season-high 12 points and added six rebounds and four assists after missing the past three games with an ankle injury. Green played 34 minutes, adding 11 points, three 3-pointers, five rebounds and five assists in his first game back from a three-game suspension. Say what you will about Green, and through his erratic play and approach, he’s earned a critical look. But he’s one of the few players on this team with the capacity to hit shots, just as he did at Michigan State. The Hoosiers need that arrow in their quiver. “They’re two juniors,” Miller said. “That makes a big difference for our team. Them coming back tonight obviously helped our depth.” 4. Romeo Langford delivered winning plays down the stretch. Although he finished merely 6-for-18 from the field, Langford surfaced when IU needed him most. For Langford, 12 of his team-high 19 points came during the final 13 minutes of the contest. As IU and Michigan State went blow-for-blow late, Langford injected himself square into the middle of it. His stepback with 3:34 remaining in regulation gave the Hoosiers a three-point lead, and after Kenny Goins’ third 3-pointer of the game briefly put the Spartans ahead by one, Langford answered with a drive straight down the lane to help IU retake the lead. Langford’s 3-pointer at the 3:13 mark of overtime put the Hoosiers ahead for good. And while his scoring was much-needed, there were different dimensions of his game that pleased Archie Miller the most. “The thing I was proud of Romeo about was his energy level defensively,” Miller said. “Rebounding. Made a lot of plays for us tonight that didn’t have anything to do with scoring. And I think that’s the thing that goes really unnoticed about him at times. People want to say, score, score, score, score, and at the end of the day are you playing winning basketball complete? He’s a complete guy, and tonight he really didn’t let anything bother him. He just hung tough the whole time, made some really timely, big buckets at the end of the clock. To me, on this kind of stage, as a young player, that’s what you like to see with him. No complaints with Romeo’s attitude and effort. He’s an unbelievable kid and teammate.”<doc-sep>EAST LANSING -- Cassius Winston willed Michigan State to an improbable 13-game winning streak, as he turned into a Big Ten Player of the Year candidate and lifted the Spartans to first place in the Big Ten But for the second time this week, he wasn't able to bail his team out in the second half against an upset-minded opponent. Indiana came back in the final five minutes of regulation and stunned No. 6 Michigan State in overtime, 79-75, on Saturday night at Breslin Center. The win snapped a seven-game losing streak for Indiana, which hadn't won for over a month. After winning 17 straight games, the Spartans (18-4, 9-2) have now lost two straight, after also losing to Purdue on Sunday. The loss was the Spartans' first at the Breslin Center this season. Winston cut Indiana's deficit to one point on a 3-pointer with 31 seconds left but missed the final two shots of the game as Indiana hung on. The Spartans forced a turnover following Winston's make, but he missed would-be go-ahead a floater in the lane with 15 seconds left. After an Indiana free throw at the other end, he got one last chance with four seconds left, but had a layup blocked as the Hoosiers closed out the improbable win. That capped off a night in which the Spartans were beaten on the glass, struggled to score on its fast break and had its worst foul shooting performance of the season. Michigan State went just 8-for-22 from the foul line. Indiana came to Breslin Center having lost seven straight games but didn't back down in the face of a top-10 Spartans team and a raucous home crowd. The Spartans led for most of the second half, before Indiana hit four straight 3-pointers to take a four-point lead with 5:22 left. Indiana entered the game shooting 20 percent from 3-point range over its last five games but went 10-for-20 from deep against the Spartans. The Hoosiers held that lead until Kenny Goins hit an open 3-pointer with 1:02 left that gave the Spartans a one-point lead, at 66-65. Hoosiers freshman guard Romeo Langford responded by bouncing in a layup on the other end to help his team retake the lead with 34 seconds left. Nick Ward drew a foul on the ensuing possession and hit his second of two free throws to tie the game with 18 seconds left, and Langford missed a long 3-pointer at the end of regulation. But Indiana quickly went up by five points in overtime, and Winston wasn't able to will the Spartans ack. Cassius Winston had 26 points to lead all scorers. Xavier Tillman added 13 and Kenny Goins had 12 and tied a school record with 12 blocks. Nick Ward added 11 points. Michigan State now moves on to play at Illinois on Tuesday.<doc-sep>
A day after Iowa upset No. 5 Michigan and No. 24 Wisconsin beat No. 21 Maryland, the Big Ten snow globe has been shaken up again, this time by the Indiana Hoosiers. Archie Miller’s side went into East Lansing on Saturday and pulled off an improbable win against No. 6 Michigan State, taking home a 79-75 victory in overtime. For the Hoosiers, the win snaps a seven-game losing streak. With six of their remaining nine games back at home, Indiana has put itself in a position to compete in the Big Ten. For the Spartans, it’s their second straight loss after falling to Purdue last weekend. Archie: "We have the light at the end of the tunnel that kind of shows you we're gonna have to turn it on a little bit here." #iubb — Zach Osterman (@ZachOsterman) February 3, 2019 THE BRACKET: Print the official 2019 March Madness bracket Here’s what else the win marked It’s the first time since Dec. 16, 2017 that Indiana had beaten a ranked team. On that night, the Hoosiers took down No. 18 Notre Dame in overtime in Indianapolis. The win makes Indiana 3-0 when ESPN’s College Gameday is on-site for a Hoosiers’ contest. It’s the first time Indiana has beaten Michigan State since Jan. 21, 2017. Hoosiers have been down, but not out in this one Indiana has overcome deficits of at least five points in nine of its 13 wins this season. The Hoosiers had been missing that comeback juice in their last seven games, but had it Saturday night against the Spartans. Indiana trailed by as many as six points in this game and went behind by five points with 10 minutes to play in the second half. Michigan State also had a two-point lead in overtime. BASKETBALL SATURDAY: Clemons passes Bird, Hansbrough | UNC beats Louisville Free throws were the difference Two numbers stick out when looking at the box score from this game. Indiana shot 68.4 percent from the charity stripe while Michigan State struggled mightily, making 36.4 percent of its shots from there. Down the stretch, free throws were crucial as both teams were making frequent trips to the line. The Spartans misfired on five free throw attempts combined between the last three minutes of the second half and overtime. The Hoosiers sank six free throws in overtime, shots that essentially sealed the win. Entering this game, neither side ranked in the top 50 of free throw percentage in Division I. Maybe they’ll value the charity stripe shot a little bit more from here on out. Indiana gets it done without Morgan The Hoosiers were without one of their star players, senior forward Juwan Morgan, for most of this game. He was making an impact in the first half — tallying five points, six rebounds and two assists — but left the game just before halftime. Morgan dove for a loose ball and came out of a scrum holding his left shoulder. The native of Waynesville, Missouri didn’t play in the second half or overtime, but his teammates stepped up. Five Indiana players scored in double-digits, including De’Ron Davis and Devonte Green, who combined for 23 points, 11 assists, nine rebounds and two blocks off the bench. Al Durham added 14 points and Romeo Langford led the way with 19 points, five rebounds and four assists, and he also hit a big three-pointer in overtime that gave Indiana the lead. Langford is the top freshman scorer in the Big Ten, averaging 17.3 points per game. Indiana's Durham talks OT win over Michigan State, overcoming Morgan's injury COLLEGE HOOPS: N.C. State's 24 points goes down in history | Arkansas tops LSU Block party While Langford shined for Indiana with big shots, Justin Smith may have had the most important play of the game. With four seconds left in overtime — and with Indiana leading by just two points — Michigan State’s Cassius Winston drove to the hoop and lofted up a shot. But Smith came over and got just enough of his finger tips on the ball to disrupt it. Davis grabbed the rebound, was fouled, made two shots and the game was over. Game of inches. What a block by Justin Smith and what a win for IU. pic.twitter.com/W0dIZDE4PW — Mike Rutherford (@CardChronicle) February 3, 2019 Smith had three blocks in the game to go along his double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds. As a team, Indiana swatted away seven of Michigan State’s shots.