The Hoosiers beat the Scarlet Knights to open the new year.
Indiana advanced to 2-1 in conference play today with a home win over a Rutgers team missing its leading scorer. After Malik Reneau suffered a first half injury, Indiana was suddenly without its own leading scorer and the Real Big Ten contest ensued.
The win didn’t do much for Indiana’s statistical profile, but it was instructive nonetheless. The team shot like I’ve believed it could and found an offensive groove without two centers on the floor.
There will be plenty of discussion as to who started and finished the last two games, but so long as the wins keep coming. Injury situation or not, this is a group that needs to string wins together. It now has three straight.
Here are three things we learned:
Injuries
Indiana lost its leading scorer in Malik Reneau to a leg injury early in the first half. As of writing, it’s not clear whether this is a long or short term injury.
Rutgers was also without its leading scorer, as Dylan Harper sat out with an illness tonight. As a freshman averaging over 22 points per game, it’s safe to assume he would’ve been an impact.
Does this matter come Selection Sunday? Assuming Rutgers plays up to its potential with Harper and Ace Bailey, this could be a good win for Indiana despite Harper’s absence. Style of play aside, each team missing its leading scorer will have a huge impact.
Because I’m not an SEC football pundit, I’m not going to ruminate in hypotheticals, but this game certainly lacked the juice that it may have had preseason. Neither team looked like an outfit set for the top spots in the conference.
Myles Rice
After the last game, I wrote that Myles Rice appeared to have benefited from the space created by having just one true center on the floor in Reneau. Tonight, with just Ballo in the paint, Rice turned in another dominant performance.
Rice got most of his points inside the 3-point arc, going just one of four from distance while hitting all eight of his free throw attempts. He’s clearly a player that benefits from good court spacing, and Indiana would do well to keep setting that up for him.
The stat that really stands out for Rice tonight is his three assists versus just one turnover. Three assists may not seem impressive for a starting point guard, but given his aggressive approach in transition and ability to score on his own, a positive assist/TO ratio stands out.
What does a game mean?
There’s some cathartic quality to beating a program that’s haunted Indiana so much over the last 6-7 years, but not all wins are created equal. I didn’t come away from tonight thinking I had watched a top team in the country.
With the portal and NIL, parity is seemingly higher than ever, so every win matters. At the same time, Rutgers missing a potential lottery pick makes the win over the Scarlet Knights feel hollow.
Ultimately, this is a game that won’t mean much until the dust has settled for the season and the two teams establish their tournament resumes. It’s not the surefire achievement that a win over Gonzaga or even Louisville could have been, but it’s still a win.
It was nice, however, to see Indiana respond to getting punched by swinging back even harder.