Indiana @ Illinois - A Great Game?

Before I get to the Indiana @ Illinois game I'd like to make a brief comment on posting. Just as I resurrected Defend The Rock from it's hiatus I entered Graduate School. While at first I was posting frequently, I have noticed that both my post count, and quality has gone down drastically of late. I am hoping that as I get back into the groove of being in school I will be able to better manage my time, and thus make more frequent, and substantive posts. In the meantime, I'd like to thank my fellow Defend The Rockers who have been picking up the slack for me of late.
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Tonight after class TITTLE500 and myself watched the game. I DVR'd it as I would not have been able to make tipoff. We isolated ourselves from the internet and ignored various calls and texts that might've clued us into the outcome of the game. I had a conversation with a classmate about the game that went something like this:

Her: Good luck, I hope Indiana wins tonight, what do you think their chances are?
Me: Road games in the Big Ten are always tough, but come on, Illinois is terrible!

At the conclusion of the game TITTLE500 and I had a similar discussion, discussing how while this win was important, how "good" of a win was it really? It took us 2 overtimes and some luck (not to mention some wretched FT shooting by Pruitt) to win against an Illinois team that has shown nothing all year long.

The Hoosiers had a couple guys who really could've been goats of the game but managed to shine in their own ways. Both Ellis and Crawford made quite a few mistakes but made up for them big time with crucial plays/totals. Crawford's poor ball handling (nothing new) juxtaposed with his perfectly timed 3's. Ellis' missed free throws and foul trouble masked by his big 3 and always reliable rebounding performance.

Eric Gordon was clearly preoccupied in the first half with all sorts of thoughts running through his head. Whether the crowd was getting to him, or if he was just trying to do too much is up for debate, but as always seems to be the case, he got his points and helped IU to a win. I made a comment late in the game that is really seems that against tougher opponents, Gordon almost makes his impact below the radar (or as below the radar as Eric Gordon can be). Often times I find myself surprised that he's scored the last 10 IU points, or something to that effect.

Looking back at this game, it was a great game to watch, there can be no questioning that. But for IU fans that have a nagging doubt about how good this team actually is, it wasn't encouraging. The Hoosiers seems to have the pieces to be able to field one hell of a team, but that puzzle still hasn't quite come together to form a cohesive image yet.