Thoughts on one 86-69 victory against the state of Kansas:
After two games of ho-hum play, Indiana got back to work tonight.
The Hoosiers came out with a bang, igniting the crowd — one with far fewer students due to the Thanksgiving break — and Darian DeVries, who clapped and cheered for Indiana’s early efforts. IU went up 20-4 to start, thanks to some sharp shooting from distance, buckets at the rim and a swarming defense, which turned the Wildcats over several times and kept the nation’s leading scorer, P.J. Haggerty, quiet. Conor Enright played great defense and ran around like crazy, even cutting into Indiana’s three-point barrage with an early goal.
It was also clear, after a lackluster performance on the boards, that Indiana emphasized rebounding in this game. There were numerous efforts from multiple Hoosiers. They made 35 percent of their misses compared to Kansas State’s 25 percent before the game.
The Hoosiers came to a lull after the strong start in the first half, as the offense continued and Kansas State finally started to see some shots go. But IU still had a twelve-point lead at halftime. The Wildcats never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way, which was thanks to a mini-run from Haggerty. He scored eight points in just about 2.5 minutes of game action, cutting the lead to 67-57 with 8:51 remaining. But Indiana was able to hold on and eventually grew the lead to 23 points before settling for the 17-point win.
On offense, the Hoosiers were a little too trigger-happy from deep, taking a number from well beyond the three-point line when a better shot could have been found – especially in the first half. They finished the evening 10 out of 33 (30.3 percent). Kansas State scored a better percentage on far fewer attempts (8 of 20, 40 percent). There were a lot of fouls called tonight and Indiana was opportunistic with the whistles. IU outscored Kansas State in free throws – 51 percent to 26 percent – and hit 22-of-29 from the line, good for 75.9 percent. Kansas State reached the line just 15 times and scored on 13 of its attempts (87 percent).
But it was really the two points that told the story in this one. The Hoosiers took all their two-point shots as dunks or layups and hit 70 percent of them (16 of 23). Meanwhile, Kansas State shot 51 percent on its dunk and layup attempts (11-of-21), but made 16 shots designated as “other 2s,” hitting just five, good for 31 percent for the game. Indiana’s defense continues to do a good job of making its opponents take less efficient shots while at the rim and from three-point range. (And also on the phone for tonight.)
Kansas State mustered just 0.69 points per possession in the first half and 0.91 for the game, its lowest mark of the season. Indiana now ranks 15th behind KenPom in adjusted defensive efficiency after tonight’s win.
One of the players tonight who is scoring well at the rim, even through contact, what has been a struggle for him so far this season? That would be IU’s starting center Reed Bailey. Bailey led all scorers with 21 points. He went 4-for-7 from the field and was 13-for-15 from the line as he was fouled time and time again.
“We’ve seen that a lot from Reed in practice,” coach DeVries told FS1’s Steve Smith on the field after the game when asked about Bailey’s strong performance. “I thought this was his coming out party in game action. I thought he was super assertive. Very aggressive, physical. I thought he had a really good game for us.”
This was a nice return to form for the Hoosiers. And it’s a performance that also shows that for all the talk about Indiana’s offense, Indiana’s defense is starting to turn heads, too.
See more: The minute after, Kansas State Wildcats
#minute #Kansas #State