The Hoosiers won a tighter than expected matchup in their last game before the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Indiana welcomed UNC Greensboro to Assembly Hall for its final game ahead of a trip to The Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis.
It was… interesting. It felt like three different games with three different versions of Indiana taking the floor at various times. One was great! The other was fine. But that third version is why this was a close game.
That first version of Indiana, the great one, jumped out to a massive lead in the first few minutes that looked to have the Hoosiers on pace to blow the Spartans right off the floor in the first half.
The second version showed up when the third one blew said lead. Sure, it was enough to win and stay ahead, but it didn’t offer the tenacity of the first.
And that third one? Man. Just… not good. That version of Indiana cannot, under any circumstances, leave on the plane to The Bahamas.
Here’s three things.
Indiana needs to play a full 40 minute game
Indiana has played four different all-around games through its first four matchups on the season.
The first, against SIUE, it was a weird one that ended in a 10-point win that in all honesty should’ve been a wider margin. Indiana firmly let Eastern Illinois hang around for a half before detonating them off the court in the second for a 25-point win.
Then there was South Carolina, the closest Indiana has come to an all-around 40 minute effort in a ballgame. It wasn’t a blowout and it wasn’t a pretty game, but Indiana did enough to take a lead and keep the Gamecocks at a pretty firm distance.
This game was almost an inverse of the Eastern Illinois one. A scoring burst in the first that cooled off and let UNC Greensboro hang around for all forty minutes.
It’s a roster still coming together and learning. It’s far, far from the end of the world. But Indiana’s nonconference slate being this light means it’s gotta win these buy game matchups by blowout margins to do itself favors in the metrics world.
Rebounding
It’s just been a consistent issue for Indiana these past few years.
The Hoosiers are massive, starting a 7-footer and two 6’9” forwards. There is pretty much no world in which that group should allow any amount of offensive rebounds and yet it just keeps happening time and again.
Be it a whiffed box out or not being quick enough to the ball, Indiana just keeps letting its typically smaller opponents haul in offensive rebounds to extend a possession. UNC Greensboro, a very small team, just about matched Indiana in second-chance points with 10 to the Hoosiers’ 11.
That just should not happen. Whatever it was, the rebounding just hasn’t been there. Louisville is the kind of team that will take that opportunity and run with it. This trend can’t show up at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Bryson Tucker is good at basketball
Indiana’s bench had some issues scoring the basketball tonight, but was saved multiple times by the efforts of Bryson Tucker.
The Hoosiers’ lone freshman finished with 14 points in 25 minutes, more than enough to make him the team’s second leading scorer on the game. That’s an element this program just hasn’t had for a few seasons.
If Tucker can keep this up, it just makes Indiana more dangerous. If one of Myles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle, Mackenzie Mgbako or even Malik Reneau has an off night (which happened!) it’s reliable to have Tucker on the bench as another option.