Gordon struggled, battled foul trouble...and still had 20. IU, on the other hand, as a team stunk. Yea Im just messing around. Im glad you can take it, and not get all bent out of shape. The IU-UI rivalry is fun. Yea Gordon still had 20, but 12 of those were on free throws. Was he just cold today, or did Xavier do something defensively to throw him off that other teams hadnt done? I'd say there were a number of factors. This was the first real D-I defense he's faced. Sampson's offense stinks (as we all know) so Gordon pretty much had to go on his own to try and score. He was as off as I've seen him. He picked his third foul with 7-8 or so minutes left in the first half and sat the rest of the way. Finally, the officiating was terrible -- though NOT at all the reason they lost -- and he probably should've shot even more free throws (he was consistently mugged when he got the ball). IU must get much, much better running some sort of halfcourt offense and defending inside. They've actually regressed on the later, despite actually adding interior players without losing any. Xavier was a game I've been worried about since I first saw IU play -- they're a bad matchup. This week offers two tough games, but Georgia Tech is at home and not that great, and I think IU matches up better with Southern Illinois (not to say they'll win, of course). Yeah, a horrible shooting game. Again, a lot of 1-on-1 plays. Not nearly enough offensive flow. But even the open shots weren't falling. Couldn't finish around the rim. As for Gordon, Xavier did to him what teams are gonna have to do to contain him. Put a bigger man on him to make it tough for him to shoot. And when he drove to the basket, they threw another big at him. He was frustrated. They were hacking him a lot, most of which was called. On one hand, he played like a freshman by not looking for his teammates when he got in trouble. On the other, he knew his shot was off and still scored 20 by taking it hard to the hole. Xavier was easier the tougher team. They challenged everything IU did. SIU will be the same way. But you are right, we matchup better.