Jordan Bohannon is Mr. Clutch. And on Friday night, he showed that in spades, while in the process dealing a severe blow to any NCAA Tournament at-large hopes Indiana might still harbor.
He didn’t stop with Northwestern less than two weeks ago, when he hit a three-pointer in the final second to cap a rally from a 13-point deficit.
Bohannon had 17 points, but 12 of them came in the final seconds of regulation and overtime with four of his five three-pointers ripping the hearts out of Hoosier fans everywhere. It looked like Indiana might pull out a big road win, one they desperately needed for their NCAA Tournament hopes, but Bohannon had other ideas.
First came a tough shot from past the right wing with 28 seconds left to tie the game, and overtime resulted after the Hoosiers missed a three-pointer and couldn’t get anything on an offensive rebound. He then put them ahead just over two minutes into the extra session, then hit another off a loose ball less than a minute later. The final dagger came as he had the ball with the shot clock running down in the final minute of overtime, and when that shot went through the net, the Hawkeyes’ 76-70 win was pretty much cemented.
Bohannon took over after Tyler Cook (18 points, eight rebounds) and Luke Garza (16 points, nine rebounds) did much to set the stage. The Hawkeyes held Indiana to 6-27 from long range and had a 46-38 rebounding edge to win the possession battle by just enough.
It’s a devastating loss for Indiana, who never trailed in regulation after they regained the lead with two minutes left in the first half and now falls to 4-12 in Big Ten play. A win on the road against a good Iowa team would have done wonders for their profile in spite of their conference record. They have now lost five in a row and 12 out of 13.
At this point, let’s just say that if they somehow snag an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, it would be embarrassing for the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. The Hoosiers are 13-14 overall with home dates with Wisconsin and Michigan remaining, meaning they could pull off two high-quality wins. If they are selected with an at-large bid, they would go in with 15 losses and likely no better record than 19-15 or 20-15. At some point, losses add up.
On Friday night, it was Mr. Clutch for Iowa who handed them one that will sting as much as any of the recent ones.
Side Dishes
In the Horizon League was a game that could rival Indiana-Iowa in terms of a dramatic finish. UIC led Green Bay 39-20 at the half, and early in the second half it didn’t look like Green Bay was going to make it a ballgame. Over five minutes in, they still led 47-31, but then the Phoenix scored 11 unanswered points, and still down 60-53 with 3:05 left, scored the next ten points and then held off UIC at the end for a 63-62 win that puts them a game up on the host Flames at 9-6.
The Ivy League is now Yale‘s to lose after the Bulldogs took care of Dartmouth 77-59 in New Haven on Friday night, largely because a little after that game ended, Brown knocked off Harvard 88-79 behind 30 points from Desmond Cambridge. Brown had lost 19 in a row against the Crimson, and they end that skid in a way that deals a severe blow to Harvard’s hopes of getting the top seed in the league tournament as they are now two games back heading into Saturday night’s showdown in New Haven, which is the second and final meeting of the teams. Meanwhile, defending champion Penn is in real danger of missing the league tournament, as they lost 79-77 to Columbia in overtime to fall to 3-6, which is two games back of fourth-place Cornell, 68-59 losers at Princeton on Friday night.
The picture at the top of the MAAC has very little additional clarity after Friday night’s action, as the most competitive conference race still sees a game and a half (two in the loss column) separating first place from sixth, although the next two teams in the standings lost to push them further out. Rider beat Niagara 97-91 in Lawrenceville to go to 10-6, and Iona joined them at that record by edging Manhattan 66-62 on the road. Ahead of all of them just slightly is Canisius, who went to Monmouth and edged the Hawks 60-59 and is now 10-5, knocking the Hawks back to 9-7. Canisius has battled through adversity and some inconsistency to get to this point.
In the MAC, Buffalo took care of Kent State 80-57, and they got some help elsewhere as Ohio beat Bowling Green 92-87 in overtime, putting the Bulls all alone in first place.
Jim Boeheim will be on the Syracuse bench when the Orange host Duke on Saturday. Late Wednesday night, Boeheim struck and killed a pedestrian along an interstate highway as he tried to avoid a disabled vehicle. He did not attend or coach practice on Thursday and it was not clear if he did so on Friday.
One team that has been consistently inconsistent this season is Texas, and the Longhorns now have an added challenge to that as they have suspended Kerwin Roach II indefinitely for a violation of team rules. The senior guard is their leading scorer and no stranger to disciplinary action, as this is his second suspension this season and third of his career.
Another suspension announced on Friday doesn’t involve a player or coach. Iowa radio broadcaster Gary Dolphin, who has broadcast their basketball and football games for 22 years, won’t be on the call of another game this season after he made a reference to “King Kong” when describing Maryland big man Bruno Fernando right after the Terrapins’ 66-65 win on Tuesday. Like Roach, it’s not the first time he has been suspended this season, as he was suspended for two games after making disparaging comments about Iowa junior Maishe Dailey on a live microphone during an earlier game.
In what’s become an annual tradition of treating teams in postseason tournaments as guinea pigs for rule changes, the NCAA announced that they will operate with different bonus free throw rules in the NIT, along with a few of the same experimental changes they did a year ago in the form of an extended 3-point arc, a wider free throw lane and different shot clock rules. With fouls, team fouls will be reset at the ten-minute mark of each half and teams will shoot two free throws after the fifth foul in either segment, and if a team does not reach five fouls in a segment, two free throws will come after the second foul of the last two minutes of the half.
Tonight’s Menu
It’s a big day of action as usual, with a number of key games on the slate.
- The big ones start right away in the ACC as Louisville hosts Virginia and Clemson hosts Boston College (noon), then North Carolina hosts red-hot Florida State (3:45 p.m.), and in the one everyone is waiting for, Syracuse hosts Duke (6 p.m.)
- The Atlantic 10 slate is highlighted by Dayton hosting Saint Louis (4 p.m.)
- In the Big 12, Oklahoma hosts Texas in a key matchup (noon), then TCU hosts Iowa State and West Virginia visits Baylor (2 p.m.), Kansas State hosts Oklahoma State (4 p.m.) and in perhaps the biggest one of the day, Texas Tech hosts Kansas (8 p.m.)
- The Big East slate starts with Providence hosting Marquette (noon), then Creighton hosts Georgetown (2:30 p.m.) and St. John’s takes on Seton Hall at Madison Square Garden (8 p.m.)
- A rivalry game in the Big Sky can also affect the standings a bit as Montana hosts Montana State (9 p.m.)
- Highlights in the Big Ten are Ohio State visiting Maryland (2 p.m.)
- Though one result from Friday night means it’s lost a bit of luster, an Ivy League showdown is on the docket in New Haven as Yale hosts Harvard (7 p.m.)
- In the Mountain West, Nevada hosts Fresno State in a game of a little more importance now (8 p.m.), while UNLV hosts San Diego State later (10 p.m.)
- SEC play gets going early with Tennessee visiting LSU (noon), then Auburn visits Kentucky (1:30 p.m.), Florida tries to add to their winning streak as they host Missouri (4 p.m.), Mississippi State hosts South Carolina and Alabama hosts Vanderbilt (6 p.m.)
- A big game is on tap in the Southern Conference as Furman hosts undefeated Wofford (4 p.m.)
- The top two teams in the Summit League will try to keep pace with each other and tip at the same time, as Omaha visits North Dakota State and South Dakota State hosts South Dakota (5 p.m.)
- In West Coast Conference action, Gonzaga hosts BYU (10 p.m.)
