Last Saturday, senior A.J. Moye left Indiana’s home court in tears. He was exasperated by his team’s horrible play in an 18-point blowout loss to Wisconsin.
On Thursday in the first round of the Big Ten tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse, Moye shimmied his shoulders in delight after hitting a three-pointer as time ran out in the first half and Indiana went up six in its 83-69 victory over Ohio State (14-16). The Hoosiers will play top-seeded and 12th-ranked Illinois in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Moye’s resolve–along with his 19 points and eight rebounds–carried Indiana (14-14) emotionally. Three reserves, including two who made the team as walk-ons, collectively and individually gave the performance of their lives to electrify the Hoosiers.
Mark Johnson, a 6-foot-2-inch guard from Oregon, Wis., who had played all of 10 minutes and scored eight points this season, buried three three-pointers and scored 13 points.
Ryan Tapak, a 6-2 guard from Indianapolis who also joined the team as a walk-on his freshman year, had a career-high 11 assists and sank two three-pointers in Indiana’s rally from an 11-point deficit in the first half.
Mike Roberts, averaging 8.1 minutes a game, made three clutch shots for the Hoosiers.
“These guys, all year long, they’ve been winning scrimmages,” Indiana coach Mike Davis said. “What they did today is what they do in practice all the time.”
After the loss to Wisconsin, Davis watched tape of the game and liked what he saw from Johnson in the one minute he played. Johnson hit a three-pointer and impressed his coach with his offensive diligence.
“That’s the way I’ve been trying to get our guys to play,” Davis said. “I said to myself, `Why not play him?'”
The three reserves lifted some of the burden off Moye and Bracey Wright, who scored 20 points, and they gave new life to Indiana, which needs to win this tournament to advance to the NCAA tournament for the 19th straight time.
“Coming in as a walk-on, you know it’s not really your place to come in and start or play a lot of minutes,” Tapak said. “It’s up to the scholarship athletes who have earned their way. . . . We have enough pride to know that we can make practices like our games.”
They had Davis and Moye recalling the grit of the 2002 Indiana team that advanced to the NCAA championship game.
“I didn’t see that much emotion out of the group all year,” Moye said of the team’s spirit in the locker room at halftime. “I just love the intensity the guys brought today. That’s what it felt like in 2002.”
Indiana shot 51.9 percent for the game. The Hoosiers had not shot 50 percent all season.
“It’s the first time this year that we looked like a basketball team,” Davis said.
Davis was uncertain whether his reserves could duplicate their performances against Illinois on Friday.
They may not need to, especially if Moye and Wright stay on course.
“The one guy that I really want to single out is A.J. Moye,” said Ohio State coach Jim O’Brien, whose team was led by Terence Dials’ 22 points. “He seems to be the type of kid that just embodies everything that’s supposed to be good about having guys on your team. He has a maturity about him, he has toughness.
“He was willing his guys to keep going.”
