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Indiana Basketball: Top 10 games of the decade, #1

By Adam Childs

BLOOMINGTON, IN - DECEMBER 10: Christian Watford #2 of the Indiana Hoosiers and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist #14 of the Kentucky Wildcats reach for a rebound during the Indiana 73-72 victory at Assembly Hall on December 10, 2011 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
BLOOMINGTON, IN - DECEMBER 10: Christian Watford #2 of the Indiana Hoosiers and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist #14 of the Kentucky Wildcats reach for a rebound during the Indiana 73-72 victory at Assembly Hall on December 10, 2011 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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As the Indiana basketball team rolls into the new decade its time to take a look back over the past ten years. We rank the top ten games of the decade and today we look at number one.

We wrap up the top ten basketball games of the decade with the top moment of the last ten years. If you ask any Hoosier basketball fan where they were at when this game happened they could probably tell you. It is the game that put the Hoosiers back on the map and was against a hated rival. It ended with one of the most iconic shots in Hoosier history and it is why it is the top game of the decade.

Today we finish our list with none other than their upset win over Kentucky in 2011.

Indiana 73 Kentucky 72

Assembly Hall –  December 11, 2011

Everyone probably knows the situation of this game without us telling you, but just to recap the Wildcats came to Bloomington the undisputed number one team in the country. They were coming off a win against North Carolina and had already beaten Kansas earlier in the year.

The Hoosiers did come into the game 8-0 but didn’t have the marquee wins that Kentucky had, at least not yet. Indiana did have Cody Zeller, Christian Watford, and Victor Oladipo, but they hadn’t been introduced to the national stage but it would happen soon.

Indiana actually looked like the better team for a lot of the game. They lead by ten twice which was the largest deficit the Wildcats had so far that year. The second time the Hoosiers went up by ten was with 9:09 left to go in the game.

The Wildcats would then take back control as they would hold the Hoosiers to just five points over the next seven minutes as they regained a one-point lead.

The first 39 minutes were great, but the last minute and especially the lost shot is all anybody will remember. Watford hit a layup to put the Hoosiers up 70-69 only for the Wildcats to answer right back with a layup to go up 71-70.

Kentucky had chances to win the game from the line but missed three of four for the stripe to give Indiana one last chance.

And that is when this happened:

Christian Watford hit the biggest shot of the decade for the Hoosiers as Assembly Hall went crazy as Indiana upset the number one ranked Wildcats.

Next. Hoosiers All-Decade team. dark

It was the start of a great two year stretch for the Hoosiers that included winning their first outright Big Ten championship in two decades and the Hoosiers climbing all the way up to number one in the rankings. It is a moment that will go down in history and is by far the best game of the decade for the Hoosiers basketball team.

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