Despite an early season loss to the surprising Xavier Musketeers, the Hoosiers have proven to be a solid all-around team, led by freshman Eric Gordon.
What most impressed me is the poise shown during Sunday's 4-point win over the Fightin' Illini. Gordon had originally committed to the Illini, before switching after Sampson's hiring at Indiana.
The Illini had plenty of motivation going into this game, and they played probably the best game of their season, leading by as many as 9 points. But the relentless and consistent inside-outside attack led by White and Gordon endured the ups and downs of such an emotional game, and sealed the victory.
Currently ranked in the top 10 and tied with Wisconsin at the top of the Big Ten standings (thanks to a Michigan State loss to Iowa), the Hoosiers are poised to have their best season since the days of Bobby Knight.
Another statistic to keep your eye on is the Hoosier's home winning streak - currently at 27. My Fightin' Irish are just ahead of us at 30, but Memphis leads the nation at something like 44 straight home wins. BYU has the easiest home schedule of the teams ahead of us in consecutive home wins. Memphis faces No. 7 Tennessee on the 23rd of February. Notre Dame faces tough Marquette and Pitt teams at home this year. If we are consistent, our biggest challenges to the home winning streak will be Connecticut on the 26th of January, and back-to-back games against Wisconsin and Michigan State on the 13th and 16th of February.
I'd like to see us (or Notre Dame) have the nation's longest active home win streak at season's end. Indiana has always been, to me, the home of basketball (we've all seen the movie Hoosiers...) and having the top 1 or 2 home win streaks would help bring some of the attention back to Indiana after so many years of obsession with Tobacco Road.
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