Indiana begins a five-game home stretch against Milwaukee tonight at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers are 2-0 with wins against Alabama A&M and Marquette.
Milwaukee is 2-1 with home wins against Hampton and Little Rock and a loss at Wofford. Tipoff is set for 7:00 PM ET on FS1:
Indiana exploded for 100 points in Sunday’s win against Marquette at the United Center, with a 27-point performance from Tucker DeVries and 23 from Lamar Wilkerson.
The Hoosiers shot 14-for-28 on 3s, 20-for-24 on free throws and committed just eight turnovers. The win earned national respect as IU is the third-ranked team in the latest Associated Press top 25 poll.
Tonight, the Hoosiers begin a series of five in a row in Bloomington, with only one of those games coming against a power conference opponent.
Milwaukee was picked to win the Horizon League in the preseason and is currently ranked No. 191 in KenPom after starting the season at No. 212. The Panthers have won 20 or more games in three consecutive seasons under head coach Bart Lundy, who plays an up-tempo style.
It will be the first ever meeting between the two programs.
MEET THE PANTHERS
The Panthers have three of the 10 players who received preseason honors in the Horizon League. Fresno State transfer Amar Augillard was a first-team All-Horizon League selection in the preseason, while returner Faizon Fields and Toledo transfer Seth Hubbard landed on the second team.
After finishing 14-6 in the Horizon League last season, Milwaukee’s top two scorers – Themus Fulks and Jamichael Stillwell – transferred to UCF.
Augillard, a redshirt senior guard, headlines the roster. A former NJCAA Division I Player of the Year, he played just 11 games at Fresno State last season before leaving the team at the end of December. In the 2023-2024 season at Triton College, Augillard averaged 22.7 points per game and led his team to the national championship game.
After seven points in the season opener against Hampton and five points in a road loss at Wofford, Augillard made six 3-pointers and scored 25 points in a 92-72 win against Little Rock on Monday night in Milwaukee. Augillard has excellent size at 6-foot-1 and 225 pounds, but he has plenty to prove at the Division I level after wrestling at Fresno State last season.
Hubbard is a 6-foot-1 senior guard who played two seasons at Western Michigan and one season at Toledo before choosing to end his career with the Panthers. He is the team’s leading scorer through three games – 19.3 points per game – and is 8-for-15 on 3s after shooting just 31 percent from last season on 203 attempts.
Fields is the only returning starter, but has excellent size for a post player at the mid-major level. The 6-foot-2 graduate student from Memphis began his career at Chipola College before signing with Old Dominion for his sophomore season. Fields transferred to Milwaukee before his junior season. Last season, he missed 11 games as a senior due to injury. Before that injury-shortened season, he was an elite offensive rebounder in each of the previous three seasons. In 90 Division I games, Fields averaged 7.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 0.9 blocked shots while shooting 57.7 percent from the floor.
Senior forward Danilo Jovanovich, who played at Miami (FL) and Louisville before moving to Milwaukee for the 2024-25 season, has started the first three games of the four. Jovanovich, a Milwaukee native, barely saw the floor in Miami or Louisville but averaged 5.3 points in 14.5 minutes per game for the Panthers last season. Through three games, he averaged 8.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals in 27.7 minutes while shooting 52.6 percent. Jovanovich is not a three-point threat.
JUCO transfer guard Isiah Dorceus came off the bench in the first two games but started in Monday’s win over Little Rock. The 6-foot-1 guard, an NJCAA Division I All-American last season at Dayton State Junior College, is a solid playmaker and has 15 assists in three games.
Milwaukee plays a deep rotation, as all five guys who came off the bench in the last game are averaging double-digit minutes.
Freshman guard Stevie Elam started the first two games and had 28 points, shooting 6-for-12 on 3s in those games. The 6-foot-1 Michigan native came off the bench against Little Rock and scored just three points on 1-of-5 shooting in 12 minutes.
Esyah Pippa-White, a 6-foot-4 junior guard, had a strong game against Little Rock with 13 points and 3-of-5 3-point shooting in 22 minutes off the bench.
Another freshman guard, Charlotte native Josh Dixon, scored 11 points and made three 3-pointers in 18 minutes during Milwaukee’s 10-point loss to Wofford on Nov. 8.
Aaron Franklin, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, will provide additional depth but is very limited offensively and is not a three-point threat.
Another name to know is Redshirt native Sekou Konneh, who was at DePaul last season but didn’t participate in any games. Through three games, the 6-foot-1 forward is averaging six points and 4.3 rebounds in 11.7 minutes.
KEYS FOR INDIANA
• Limit second chance opportunities: Darian DeVries has made no secret of the fact that improving IU’s defensive rebounding is a priority. In each of the last two seasons, Milwaukee has ranked in the top 16 nationally in offensive rebounding percentage. Last season, the Panthers made 41.6 percent of their missed shots in Horizon League play.
• Defend without mistakes: Through three games, Milwaukee has a free throw percentage (FTA/FGA) of 44.4 percent and the Panthers ranked 41st nationally in getting to the line last season. The Hoosiers were plagued by foul trouble in Sunday’s win against Marquette, but were able to overcome them thanks to their elite offense. Milwaukee likes to play fast and attack fast. IU needs to move his feet better and stop picking up unnecessary mistakes.
• Unselfishness and ball movement will lead to open three-pointers: The Hoosiers put on a clinic offensively against Marquette. It’s not realistic for IU to make three-pointers at such a high percentage, but IU can be a dangerous offensive team every night if it sticks to its principles of sharing the ball and being unselfish. There aren’t many mid-level teams that can match IU’s offensive firepower.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The KenPom projection has Indiana winning by 22 points with a 98 percent chance of a Hoosier win. Bart Torvik also projects an IU win by 22 points with a 95 percent chance of victory.
Milwaukee is a solid mid-major team that will compete for an NCAA tournament bid from the Horizon League. The Panthers have a pair of guards in Augillard and Hubbard capable of big scoring nights and a post player in Fields capable of causing problems on the offensive glass.
However, the Hoosiers should win this game convincingly in front of a home crowd that will now likely be more engaged after Sunday’s impressive win against Marquette.
(Photo credit: Milwaukee Athletics)
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