“THIS IS NO PLACE FOR GAMES, TRAVELER!”

Jan 29, 2023 - 4:20 AM

[START]

You are in a forest.

[GO SOUTH]

You are in a forest.

[CONTINUE GOING SOUTH]

You have reached the Upstairs Pub.

[ACQUIRE AMF]

AMF (1) has been added to your inventory.

[GO NORTH]

You have reached Assembly Hall. A grey-haired man in a coat and Patagonia vest approaches.

HOLTMANN: “Well met, traveler! Can I interest you in a Brice Sensabaugh three to cut the lead to 15???”

[CAST JALEN HOOD-SCHIFINO]

HOLTMANN: “Time to end this little game!”

HOLTMANN runs in place before falling through the ground and disappearing.

---

Anyway.

Indiana men’s basketball is on a five-game winning streak in the Big Ten, the first of its kind in seven (!!) years.

Despite very much levelling up his alteration skill to get a piece of metal to fall from the Assembly Hall jumbotron (which is probably the newest thing in the building btw), there was nothing Chris Holtmann could do to prevent this.

It was a close game for much of the first half until Mike Woodson fired up the buzzsaw and went on a 15-0 run in the final five minutes before the halftime buzzer sounded to take a 46-30 lead into the locker room.

With that kind of lead already built up, all Indiana had to do was remain firmly in control and not let Ohio State sneak back into it. On paper, the Buckeyes are an offensive force built to do just that.

In reality, Woodson crouched over to the Ohio State bench and put a bucket over Holtmann’s head.

Just about any Ohio State run was met with an immediate answer from Indiana, be it Trayce Jackson-Davis beating [insert OSU big here] in the paint or one of Trey Galloway, Miller Kopp or Tamar Bates hitting a three.

And then there was Jalen Hood-Schifino.

The freshman phenom hit a 6-9 clip from the arc, which has been pretty much unthinkable from a Hoosier for the past five or so years. He was on fire and his teammates kept getting him the ball.

It was necessary too. Holtmann saw how the “don’t double TJD” method from Brad Underwood worked and didn’t want any of that, getting the Buckeye forward to swarm the paint as soon as Jackson-Davis got the ball.

This wasn’t going to be the kind of game we’ve gotten used to, where Trayce puts up 30 and the defense looks mystified. He was gonna need help and his six assists are more than enough to show how willing he was to share the ball.

That’s another thing about him. He’s dominant, but he’s not gonna go “It’s Trayce time” and try to score with four dudes in the paint or something. He’s gonna find Race Thompson under the rim or a shooter on the perimeter because, for the FIRST TIME IN FOUR YEARS he actually has those.

Wild what can happen when a coach decides his roster needs to be able to shoot, huh.

Ohio State was decidedly not doing that, with the assist margin being 17-9 in Indiana’s favor. You can find Brice Sensabaugh on the perimeter and let him do what he does best, but that’s not always gonna work and he’s gonna be gone in a year.

Holtmann kept trying to beat Indiana with one guy or Zed Key doing the “raise the roof” celebration after a dunk that gets Indiana’s lead ever closer to being down to just ten points and that went about as well as you’d expect it to.

Indiana was playing team basketball and the Fightin’ Brices really didn’t have a shot.