College Hoops

“I don’t want robots”: Indiana’s energy and motivation drives Big Ten tournament quarterfinal victory over Maryland – Inside the Hall

Amanda Foster

CHICAGO – After the final buzzer Friday night at the United Center, fans exited as the song “This is Indiana” blared on the speakers behind them.

It could only mean one thing: an IU victory.

The song is not one typically heard outside of Indiana, unless Hoosiers fans themselves decide to play it, and it’s certainly not one anyone would expect to hear at a neutral site during a conference tournament.

But Friday night didn’t feel like a neutral site. Because out of 18,892 fans in the United Center, the overwhelming majority of them were Indiana fans. And so, for a few minutes in Chicago, those fans got one more thing to bask in beyond Indiana’s 70-60 win over Maryland.

“I believe we have the best fans in the country,” Trayce Jackson-Davis said postgame. “It felt like a home game out there.”

Throughout the 40 minutes of Friday’s game, the decibels from the Hoosier faithful were up and down — just like their team. Indiana came out of the gate firing, seizing all the momentum and running an efficient and energetic offense. The team wavered as the half went on and Maryland came back to grab a two-point halftime lead.

But coming out of halftime, Indiana was renewed. And who else to jumpstart that than Jackson-Davis?

He didn’t have a bad first half, statistically, but he said he did. Nine points, four assists, one steal and one block don’t live up to the expectations he places on himself.

“I feel like we had to get our legs under us,” Jackson-Davis said. “But after we did in the second half I thought we played really well. We were making good plays, hitting shots, things of that nature.”

In the second half, Jackson-Davis scored 15 points, grabbed eight rebounds and tallied four blocks and two steals. As he has been so many times before for Indiana, he was the literal and figurative leader on the court.

“Trayce just dominated inside,” Mike Woodson said. “In terms of things that were coming to the rim, he made some big-time blocks and altered some shots.”

Jackson-Davis’ ferocity and determination to win shone through when he fought for rebounds under the basket, soared to block a shot, passed the ball off to his teammates, and encouraged them to shoot.

A host of Indiana players benefited from Jackson-Davis’ passing, including Miller Kopp, Jalen Hood-Schifino and Tamar Bates. All three players hit key 3-pointers for Indiana, and each brought almost the same amount of energy as Jackson-Davis.

Bates,…

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