Christian Watford, Cody Zeller Lead Indiana Over Mighigan, 73-71

College Hoops Player of the Day for Thursday, January 5, 2012

Tom Crean is building a champion at Indiana.

Crean's 12th-ranked Hoosiers won for the third time this season over a ranked opponent with a 73-71 home win over #16 Michigan, improving their record to 14-1 and 2-1 in the Big Ten.

The Hoosiers, already victorious over then-#1 Kentucky and #2 Ohio State, are becoming a force to reckon with both inside and out of the rugged Big Ten conference. Thursday night's win over the Wolverines was a testament to the power of their inside-outside game, wherein forwards Cody Zeller and Christian Watford dominated inside, scoring 18 and 25 points, respectively, with Watford grabbing high-scorer honors for the game. Watford also grabbed seven rebounds and had four assists.

Indiana led for most of the game, taking a 39-32 lead into the break, but the Wolverines fought back in the second half to tie the game and briefly lead in the final moments, but Zeller and Watford were simply too much to handle and the Hoosiers held on for the win.

Watford, a 6'9" junior forward from Alabama, hit on eight of 11 shots from the field and had three 3-pointers in four attempts, while freshman Zeller - who's older brother Tyler plays for the North Carolina Tar Heels - was eight for 10 and displayed moves in the paint that belied his tender age.

The Hoosiers finished last season with nine straight losses and did not play in any post-season tournaments past the Big Ten. This season, with the addition of Zeller as a complement to Watford inside, they appear to have their sights set on a lengthy run beyond the regular season.

Thomas Robinson, Christian Watford Lead Kansas, Indiana Past #2 Ohio State, #1 Kentucky

College Hoops Player of the Day for Saturday, December 10, 2011

With only the Army-Navy game and some Division 1 playoff games on tap Saturday for college sports fans, attention turned to college hoops as ESPN presented back-to-back "road test" games featuring the two top teams in the AP Poll, #1 Kentucky and #2 Ohio State.

In the first match-up, the Buckeyes were overwhelmed by an aggressive Kansas team which led from the opening tip to the final buzzer and handed Ohio State its first loss of the season, 78-67.

Paced by junior forward, Thomas Robinson's 21 points, the Buckeyes had few answers inside as their star player, Jared Sullinger, sat out the contest with a foot injury.

Robinson's 21 points tied Will Buford's total for Ohio State for game-high honors, though Robinson was much more deadly in the lane and around the hoop, going 7-for-9 from the field and nailing 7 of 8 free throws while ripping down seven rebounds.

In the second game, unranked Indiana remained unbeaten at 9-0, knocking off the #1 Kentucky Wildcats, 73-72, on Christian Watford's buzzer-beating three-pointer that sent players and fans streaming onto the court like the Hoosiers had just captured the national championship.

The game was a statistical oddity, in that Kentucky outshot Indiana, 56%-43%, but the Hoosiers made hay outside the three-point line, hitting nine of 15 attempts, easily outshining the Wildcats' 2-for-9 effort from beyond the arc.

At one point in the second half, the red-hot Hoosiers made seven straight threes to build their lead to 10 points, but Kentucky continued to play hard inside and eventually take a two-point lead with just 5.7 seconds remaining on Doron Lamb's free throw.

Watford, a 6'9" junior with range, led all scorers with 20 points, made 8 of 15 shots from the field, going 4-for-6 from three-point range, including the clutch game winner.

With upsets to the top two teams in the polls, #3 Syracuse, an easy, 85-50, winner over George Washington went to 10-0 and will likely be the nation's #1 team when the new poll comes out on Monday. Indiana will surely be ranked, how high they go and how low Kentucky and Ohio State fall is a matter left to the voters.

No matter what, the Wildcats and Buckeyes each took home failing grades from their early-season road tests.