What to Expect: Indiana vs. Sam Houston State
Indiana returns to action Tuesday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall against Sam Houston State. The game will tip at 7:30 p.m. ET on BTN.
The Bearkats are 4-4 and are coming off an 82-78 win against Colgate on Saturday.
Indiana’s disappointing trip to the Bahamas is over. The Hoosiers have a pair of non-conference games this week in Bloomington before Big Ten play begins next week.
Up first is Sam Houston State, which was picked to finish third in Conference USA in the preseason. The Bearkats own wins against Tarleton State, Lamar, Trinity (D3) and Colgate with losses to Nevada, Baylor, Appalachian State and UNC Wilmington.
The two programs have met just once, a 99-45 win for the Hoosiers on November 15, 2012, in Bloomington.
MEET THE BEARKATS
Sam Houston State is led by 6-foot-5 senior guard Lamar Wilkerson, who is averaging a team-high 19.6 points in 31.3 minutes per game.
Wilkerson is shooting 47.5 percent from the field and 45.3 percent on 3s in 64 attempts. Wilkerson is 29-for-64 on 3s and is a career 37 percent 3-point shooter.
Joining Wilkerson in double figures are 6-foot-5 junior guard Dorian Finister and 6-foot-8 senior forward Cameron Huefner.
Finister is also a capable 3-point shooter but at a lower volume. He’s 10-for-23 (43.5 percent) on triples, averages 11.4 points and has a team-best seven rebounds in 29.9 minutes per game.
Huefner missed the Baylor and Lamar games and is 9-for-22 on 3s, with five of those makes coming against Division III Trinity on Nov. 21. He averages 10.5 points in 22.7 minutes per game.
Another name to know is 6-foot-1 senior Marcus Boykin, who has missed the last two games with an arm injury. Boykin suffered the injury in the loss to Appalachian State and has been wearing a sling on his arm at the previous two Sam Houston games. Boykin has an assist rate of 40.9 percent, which ranks 12th in the country. If he’s unable to play, the Bearkats will be without one of their primary facilitators.
Brennen Burns, a 5-foot-10 senior, has started at point guard the last two games with Boykin out. In the team’s most recent game, Burns played 30 minutes and scored 15 points, had four assists, two steals and no turnovers.
Up front, expect 6-foot-11 senior Kalifa Sakho and 6-foot-7 senior Kian Scroggins to split time at the five. Sakho averages eight points and 4.6 rebounds in under 20 minutes per game and has a team-high 12 blocked shots.
Scroggins has appeared off the bench in all six games he’s played. He averages a solid 8.8 points and five rebounds in 20.7 minutes.
Another backcourt rotation piece is 6-foot-2 senior Josiah Hammonds, a Chicago native who previously played at Incarnate Word. Hammonds made 77 3s last season at Incarnate Word and is 13-for-41 (31.7 percent) in six games.
TEMPO-FREE PREVIEW
Sam Houston State is an excellent 3-point shooting team. The Bearkats are 73-for-181 (40.3 percent) on 3s overall and 39.9 percent against Division I teams, which ranks 15th nationally as of Monday morning. They’re currently scoring 35 percent of their points on 3s.
The Bearkats are also excellent on the offensive glass and are rebounding 34.6 percent of their missed shots. Indiana’s opponents are currently grabbing 33.5 percent of their misses, which ranks just 292nd in the country.
Defensively is where Sam Houston struggles and could run into significant problems against a much more talented Indiana roster. The Bearkats are one of the 20 worst defensive rebounding teams in the country themselves. And their opponents are shooting 36.8 percent on 3s and 55.5 percent on 2s.
WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO
The KenPom projection is Indiana by 12 with an 85 percent chance of a Hoosier victory.
Indiana has yet to put together anything close to a 40-minute game this season and Sam Houston is going to come into Bloomington with an upset on its mind. The Bearkats can cause problems by hitting 3-point shots, which will likely be available, and crashing the offensive glass hard.
After a 5-0 start, the Hoosiers have been humbled after their trip to Battle 4 Atlantis. The coaching staff has a lot of work to do to shore up major issues defensively. The staff has also failed to live up to its preseason objective to run a more modern offense with more 3-point attempts.
With just two games this week before Big Ten play begins, Indiana has a lot of improvement to do in a short period of time to stop the bleeding from an underwhelming start.
Filed to: Sam Houston State Bearkats