IU basketball improved to 4-0 with a 90-66 win against Tennessee Tech on Thursday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Here are five takeaways from the win against the Golden Eagles:
This was IU’s best defensive performance through four games
Tennessee Tech came to Bloomington as one of the nation’s top-scoring teams through its first three games.
The Golden Eagles put up 88 points in a road loss to Mississippi State to open the season and scored 97 points against Western Kentucky last Sunday.
Indiana held Tennessee Tech to 66 points and .87 points per possession in its 24-point win.
The Hoosiers led by only four points at halftime but did a solid job throughout the game, contesting the majority of Tennessee Tech’s high volume of 3-point attempts. The Golden Eagles shot just 9-for-31 from 3, a 29 percent mark.
Indiana also limited Tennessee Tech to 15-for-39 shooting on 2s (38.5 percent). Each of IU’s first three opponents this season had made 55 percent or more of their 2-point attempts.
IU still has plenty of defensive work to do, and its progress will be tested next week against Arkansas and Kentucky. Thursday showed the Hoosiers can be better on that end than in their first three games.
Markus Burton came alive in the second half
After struggling in the first half of Thursday’s win, Markus Burton was Indiana’s best offensive player in the second half against Tennessee Tech.
Burton went scoreless and committed two fouls in 10 minutes in the first half.
The 6-foot guard was one reason IU pulled away in the final 20 minutes. The 2023 Indiana Mr. Basketball scored 12 points, dished out five assists and had three rebounds in 14 minutes after halftime.
Burton was one of six IU players to score in double figures and finished with seven assists, a game-high. He was also 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.
“He distributed, he scored, he put a lot of pressure on the defense,” Darian DeVries said of Burton. “He’s really bought into what we’re trying to ask, and then he’s trying to go execute it.”
Bryce Lindsay continues to make an impact off the bench
With Burton struggling in the first half, Bryce Lindsay again flashed his value to the Hoosiers by coming off the bench and providing valuable minutes in the backcourt.
Lindsay scored seven points in 15 first-half minutes and IU was +5 with him on the floor.
While he tallied only one assist, Lindsay relentlessly pressures opposing defenses. He is constantly looking for openings to shoot from the perimeter or drive to the basket.
He finished the game with 15 points in 25 minutes, including a 4-for-4 mark from the line.
“I thought offensively, again, he opened it up,” DeVries said. “We didn’t shoot really well. We didn’t get a ton of 3s up for the game, 20 for us, which isn’t a ton. I thought he got some pretty good ones there in the second half and kind of broke it open.”
Through IU’s first four games, he’s the team’s leading scorer at 13.8 points per game.
A parade to the free-throw line
Tennessee Tech was relentless with its pressure, deploying a full-court press throughout the 40-minute contest.
Indiana struggled with the pressure at times, committing a turnover on 18.5 percent ot its possessions.
As the game progressed, Tennessee Tech’s pressure became less effective. The Golden Eagles wore down in the second half and Indiana did a better job of breaking the press to score rather than just survive.
More importantly, Tennessee Tech was reckless at times in going after the ball, creating a huge foul discrepancy.
Indiana finished the game with a free-throw rate (FTA/FGA) of 66.7 percent. The Hoosiers shot 26-for-36 from the line (72.2 percent) and outscored the Golden Eagles by 17 points from the stripe.
Tennessee Tech had no answer for Samet Yigitoglu
Indiana had a huge size advantage in the frontcourt with 7-foot-2 Samet Yigitoglu in the post.
The Hoosiers found him early and he capitalized, scoring the team’s first six points.
Yigitoglu’s early dominance, however, was short-lived. After he was hit just above the eye, he was forced to leave the game and needed stitches above his eye.
He returned later in the half and scored two more buckets, giving him 10 points to lead the Hoosiers at the break. Yigitoglu finished with 18 points on 9-for-10 shooting.
With Tennessee Tech’s lack of size and soft interior defense, most of Yigitoglu’s looks were uncontested dunks or layups.
Long-term, Yigitoglu should create gravity in the post and force double teams, freeing up IU’s guards for open looks on the perimeter.
“I can bring double-teams on the post,” Yigitoglu said. “So when they double the post, somebody will be open on the perimeter. So our shooters like Markus, like DH, Bryce, I’m just creating space for them in the low post.”
