SportsLine.com Report
March 17, 2000

Round 1: Hoosiers go flat vs. Waves

With distractions surrounding his team, stemming from allegations of the way he's treated past players, Indiana coach Bob Knight could have used a victory to divert the attention from him and his team back to the basketball court.

But Pepperdine took advantage of the Hoosiers and played solid defense in easily whipping Indiana, 77-57, at the East Regional in Buffalo.

The 11th-seeded Waves, an at-large entry after winning the regular-season title in the West Coast Conference, pulled the biggest upset of the first round, giving the Hoosiers their second consecutive lopsided loss in the NCAA Tournament. Last season, Knight's troops were beaten 86-61 in the second round by St. John's.

Pepperdine led 24-8 and kept Indiana's all-Big Ten shooter A.J. Guyton from firing the Hoosiers back into the game. Guyton, who averaged 20 points coming in, was held to three, all on free throws. It matched the lowest point total of the year for Guyton, who had three points in an 87-63 loss to Illinois, the Hoosiers' worst of the season.

Guyton finished his career as the fourth-leading scorer in school history with 2,100 points.

How They Got There

The Hoosiers are appearing in their 15th successive NCAA Tournament and seventh in a row as an at-large entry.

Coach Bob Knight's team wasn't considered to be sure-fire NCAA material in 2000, but surprised forecasters by finishing fifth in the Big Ten (10-6) thanks largely to an improved defense and the offensive firepower of league co-MVP A.J. Guyton.

IU was in position to gain a share of the conference championship with five league games to play, but it lost three of the five.

Starting Lineup

• PG Michael Lewis (6-1, 180, Sr.): Close to becoming Indiana's career leader in assists, he's feisty enough yell back at Knight when he feels he's been unfairly criticized. Not a big scorer, but capable of hitting the open 3-point shot.
• SG A.J. Guyton (6-1, 175, Sr.): The Big Ten co-MVP, Guyton is a dangerous perimeter shooter and a deadly free-throw shooter. He has improved his ability to create his own shot, rather than live off what free opportunities he gets from the screens Indiana constantly sets for him. He is the only Hoosier who can create off the dribble, so he draws constant attention, which often has worn him down and left him too tired to finish games strong.
• C Kirk Haston (6-10, 230, So.): He's on his way to becoming a major inside scoring force, but is still somewhat inconsistent. Haston can hit the jumper out to 15 feet and has a nice hook shot that looks like it came straight from the 1960s. He struggles on defense, particularly with agile players who can take him out on the floor and drive around him.
• SF Dane Fife (6-4, 190, So.): The Indiana defensive specialist, Fife draws the toughest perimeter threat the opponent possesses. He is not averse to doing anything -- legal or illegal -- to get the job done. TV replays caught him biting an Iowa player earlier this season. His offensive game is limited. As the final seconds ticked off at Wisconsin, Fife had an open 3-pointer to tie. The result? He airballed it.
• PF Jeffrey Newton (6-9, 215, Fr.): The athleticism is there, but the strength to do the job isn't quite yet. Newton is an Alan Henderson clone, given time to develop. He can shoot out to 15 feet, but in time must become stronger physically to post up and score consistently.

Keys to Success

Guyton has to hit his 3-point shots and Indiana must supplement his outside game with something inside from center Kirk Haston. Haston has a nice, retro-hook shot, but sometimes isn't around to lend his offensive skills because Knight gets fed up with his suspect defense.

Freshman forward Jeffrey Newton and seniors Larry Richardson and Lynn Washington are bangers on the glass, but too often this season IU has been killed on the offensive boards.

The Coach

Knight did a fine job getting 20 wins out of this team, but the thing that long-time observers look for appears to have happened. It looks like his considerable demands have worn down the Hoosiers and left them stale for the postseason. Knight's best teams have always been bulldogs when given a lead, but despite considerable experience, this team regularly folds down the stretch.

The Bench

Indiana has seniors Lynn Washington and Larry Richardson to supplement the frontcourt, and Luke Jimenez and Kyle Hornsby to sub in the backcourt.

Richardson had a 24-point game against Penn State, but generally is not a scorer. He is a 50-percent free-throw shooter, so having him on the floor late in a tight game is a risk. Washington scored the game-winning basket in the upset win over Michigan State on an offensive rebound.

Jimenez and Hornsby are decent 3-point shooters, but neither has been consistently productive.

Offense

Nothing has changed since Knight took over in 1971. The Hoosiers run motion and inflict punishment with every screen they set. And they set scores of them. Guyton will run off two and sometimes three picks to get free.

Indiana's motion is different from many teams in that it involves all five players in the attack, not just the three on the perimeter. No one player screens any more or less than any other, except perhaps for Guyton. There are few plays to scout, really, because how the Hoosiers move is predicated by how they are defended.

Defense

In 1999, Indiana was last in the league in scoring defense, allowing nearly 74 points per game. Think about that -- Indiana last in defense. It seemed incomprehensible to many, and was downright indefensible to Knight.

He vowed the Hoosiers would be better this year, much better, and they are. IU's field-goal percentage defense is down from 42 percent to 40.3 percent. Teams still score 71 points a game, but work much harder to do it and are playing against a much improved Indiana offense that makes allowing 71 per game not nearly as big a problem to overcome.