IU struggled immensely with turnovers and rebounds in their first bout of the season against Northwestern State. Tonight against the Jaguars, there was great improvement. The Hoosiers committed 13 turnovers — five of those came from Nick Williams — and snatched 32 board to IUPUI’s 29.

Daniel Moore asserted himself as the floor leader again tonight. The kid has confidence, handles the ball well and looks incredibly comfortable out there. And IU as a whole has proven to be a great passing team so far. For the night, they tallied 17 assists in a low-scoring affair.

Matt Roth had a coming out of sorts this evening, and displayed some of that range we heard so much about. (Dude was popping threes from way beyond the arc.) He tallied 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point land.

Tom Pritchard put up a pretty beastly performance. Sure, he missed a bunny or two early on, but Pritchard is fast proving he’s a threat for a double-double every night, as he scored 19 and grabbed 10 boards for the game.

Also, we won. So that was nice.

The Bad:

Devan Dumes went cold tonight, going 3-of-12 from the floor and finishing with 10 points. What happens when Pritchard gets in foul trouble? Where do we turn then?

Verdell Jones twisted an ankle early in the second half, but was able to walk to the bench under his own control. Hopefully it doesn’t keep him out for Maui; We need all the bodies we can get. Best of luck on a speedy recovery, Mr. Jones.

The Ugly:

Our second half defense was awful. At times, it looked like IUPUI was just doing a layup line drill. I shudder to think how quickly things could have gotten out of hand if this was a Big Ten game, or Notre Dame, or Gonzaga.

And going along with that: let’s all remember we barely scraped by a Summit League team that is young and in the midst of a rebuild.

Lastly, I’m watching this North Carolina-Kentucky game right now and um, North Carolina would absolutely murder us. (We’d have our hands very full with Kentucky, too.)

The Jaguars (1-2) had a chance to win just their second game in program history against a Big Ten opponent. However, an ill-advised 3-point attempt by Alex Young and two free throws by walk-on Daniel Moore sealed the win for the Hoosiers (2-0).

“We had to find a way to win the game, and the guys were listening and found a way to do that,” IU coach Tom Crean said. “Any win is just a monstrous achievement for us right now.”

Tom Pritchard followed up his stellar debut with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Fellow freshman Matt Roth hit four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points.

IU led 31-20 at halftime, but the Jaguars opened the second half on a 18-7 run to tie the game at 38-38. Kyle Taber’s three with 13:26 remaining gave IU a 43-40 lead and the Hoosiers never trailed the rest of the way.

Alex Young and John Ashworth scored 15 points each for IUPUI.

• Box score
• Postgame press conference video
• Tom Crean press conference audio
• Players press conference audio

The Jaguars split their first two games in the 2K Sports Classic, falling 73-60 in the opener to Northeastern while beating Michigan Tech 65-51 in the consolation game. They’re also one of the most inexperienced teams in the country. Sound familiar?

Ron Hunter’s club, picked to finish fourth in the Summit League, will be without its lone senior and top returning scorer, 5-10 Gary Patterson (broken left hand). Patterson had surgery on October 30 and is expected to return by the end of the month.

Without Patterson, just three IUPUI players are upperclassmen. Through the first two games, freshman Alex Young is leading the way with 16.5 ppg and 5.0 rpg.

Beyond Young, Hunter will look to sophomore guard LeRoy Nobles, junior forward Robert Glenn and junior forward Jon Avery to help get through a season that will surely have its ups and downs.

“I think everyone expects us to fall off with George (Hill) being in the NBA,” Hunter said at media day for the Summit League. “We think we’ve got a pretty good team here.”