The Hoosiers cruise to 4-1 in the Big Ten.
Indiana men’s basketball got a key win over USC at home to move to 4-1 in Big Ten play.
All of a sudden this season looks a lot more interesting than it did to end 2024. The Hoosiers have had their issues including nonconference losses and trouble with buy games, but 4-1 in the conference is nothing to take lightly.
This comes as Indiana approaches a crucial stretch in its schedule. Indiana has to have a decent record these next few weeks in order to reach its ceiling. But for now, let’s focus on this game.
Here’s three things:
The Response
Nothing was going right for Indiana out of the gate.
Missed shots, turnovers and overall sloppy play plagued the Hoosiers in the first few minutes of the game. USC, a team that isn’t having a particularly good season wholistically, took advantage and jumped out to a 19-9 lead in just eight minutes.
So a double digit first half deficit on a Wednesday in Assembly Hall. Sounds like a nightmare.
We’ve seen different versions of Indiana in this spot before, getting punched in the mouth. Enough of those teams haven’t recovered, rolling over as the opposition extends the lead and puts the game out of reach.
But these Hoosiers, like they proved against Rutgers and Penn State, feel a bit different as of late. I wouldn’t say they “stormed back” but the sides traded blows and Indiana won out enough to make it a tie game at the half.
From there it was just about all Indiana. They didn’t really get any sort of dominant lead at any point but did enough, especially down the stretch, to secure a pretty comfortable win.
That tells you enough about this team’s character and how it’s changed. They’re gonna keep swinging and won’t just lie down.
Myles Rice’s ongoing stretch
Indiana’s lead guard just about disappeared in The Bahamas in a way that just didn’t happen all that much, if ever, at Washington State.
Lately it’s been the opposite. Rice has risen to the occasion and been exactly what the team has needed as a scorer and playmaker for the past four games now, starting with the sleepy one against Winthrop.
Rice has scored 18, 21, 9 and 19 points in the Hoosiers’ last four games and has done well distributing the ball. He also brought down 9 rebounds against USC, which is the most he’s had since a matchup with Oregon last February.
That Penn State line, 9 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, may not look spectacular but he was pretty firmly in control of the game in a way that called for it. He wasn’t really flying at the rim looking for points and kept the Hoosiers in it throughout the matchup.
There’s absolutely room for improvement, but it’s a tremendous sign for Indiana that Rice has been playing this well entering the coming stretch.
Where in the world is Mackenzie Mgbako
Mackenzie Mgbako was absolutely on fire against Penn State, scoring 20 points on 4/8 shooting from deep.
Tonight he… didn’t do much of anything. Mgbako scored 0 points for the first time in his career at Indiana and hauled in just a single rebound. Two assists make his statline look a tiny bit better.
But if Indiana wants to compete with the big dogs in the Big Ten it’s gonna need Mgbako. He really can’t have nights like this where he couldn’t shoot a ball into the ocean.
But the worst part? His shot wasn’t going in, yeah, but he was doing pretty much nothing else to affect winning when he was on the court. One rebound in 14 minutes at his size is just about unacceptable.
Mgbako has to show development as a rebounder and on defense if he wants to get on the NBA. Tonight should tell him, rather definitively, that he cannot just rely on his shot to get to the next level.
If it doesn’t, what will?