Trevor Mbawke leads Minnesota to upset of No. 1 Indiana
- Minnesota beat No. 1 Indiana%2C 77-73
- Trevor Mbakwe had 21 points and 12 rebounds
- The Hoosiers were outrebounded 44-30
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota got to every loose ball, every offensive rebound and was simply tougher than Indiana on Tuesday night.
The numbers will back that up. The Golden Gophers manhandled the top-ranked Hoosiers in a 77-73 victory at Williams Arena that ended with the fans storming the court.
Minnesota had 23 offensive rebounds. It scored 40 points in the paint. The Gophers had 21 second-chance points. The list of domination goes on and on.
Indiana coach Tom Crean said his team suffered a physical letdown.
"It wasn't so much the toughness though that was a part of it," Crean said. "We weren't physical enough. We didn't create the first hit. There were too many times when that shot went up and they were there before we were because we weren't into their bodies.''
The Hoosiers had some individual breakdowns, too.
Trevor Mbakwe manhandled Cody Zeller in ways that Indiana's sophomore center hasn't been exploited in his two-year Indiana career.
Christian Watford, as Crean would say in the postgame press conference, was a non-factor.
This one was about physicality and Indiana didn't show up in that regard. Mbakwe had 21 points and 12 rebounds, six of the boards coming on the offensive end. Zeller had nine points and seven rebounds, but those numbers don't really tell the story.
Here's Zeller's night in a nutshell:
• He was 2-of-9 from the field. He hit a 6-foot turnaround on the low block and scored on a transition lay up that could have easily been called a charge.
• He had three of his shots blocked. But that doesn't really do it justice either. The blocks were of the straight down, all-hand-on-ball variety.
• He had four turnovers and just didn't look comfortable. The last one came when he had tried to drive to the basket and dribbled the ball off his legs. Zeller also had a defensive rebound earlier in the game where he tried to slam the ball in his hands as it came off the rib and the ball caromed out of bounds.
Crean didn't agree with the assertion that Zeller wasn't in the flow of the game.
"I don't know about that,'' Crean said. "They were physical with him. Extremely physical. There was some of that. Cody is certainly capable of a lot and he'll bounce back just fine.''
In many ways it was just one of those nights for the sophomore big man. He probably hasn't looked that ineffective in a game since his first Big Ten game as a freshman when he had four points and three rebounds against Michigan State.
But when you're looking for the big reason why the Hoosiers (24-4, 12-3 Big Ten) still need two wins in their final three games to claim at least a share of the Big Ten title, you don't need to look far.
The buck has to stop with Zeller.
Mbakwe looked like a player who wanted to force the action. Zeller seemed more comfortable when not mixing it up. And on both ends of the floor. There was a possession in the first half where Zeller ended up on a guard on the perimeter while Jordan Hulls tried to defend 6-11 Elliott Eliason in the post. In took two shots but Eliason scored.
In fact, Eliason was a sparkplug off the bench for Minnesota (19-9, 7-8) with seven points and five rebounds in 14 minutes.
Hulls, who led Indiana with 17 points, had 14 in the first half. He was confident, hit 5-of-6 shots including four 3-pointers, and allowed the Hoosiers to lead at the break 34-30.
In the second half, he didn't score until he hit a 30-foot 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds to play to get the Hoosiers to within three at 76-73.
Crean said Hulls wasn't able to find his shot as much in the second half because he had to handle the ball more than usual.
Terry Hutchens writes for The Indianapolis Star, a Gannett property.