The Minute After: Alabama A&M

Thoughts on a 98-51 win against the Bulldogs:

It was a night of history and milestones for Darian and Tucker DeVries.

Tucker, the active leading scorer in Division I basketball, surpassed 2,000 career points. His father, Darian, won his first regular-season game by 47 points, the largest margin of victory for an Indiana men’s basketball coach in a debut.

Oh, and this team continues to delight. The ball movement, cutting, screening, spacing, passing, 3-pointers, free-throw shooting and heady plays continue to define this new era of IU basketball. It is a new day, a new dawn, as modernity has finally entered Assembly Hall, sending to the darkness a nearly decade-long period of stuck-in-the-mud basketball.

It’s fun.

“We got a group that’s got a really good IQ and feel,” DeVries said post-game. “For a group that hasn’t been together very long, they really play well off of each other.”

According to the Big Ten Network broadcast, Indiana’s 36-point halftime lead was its largest since a 37-point advantage against Howard on December 19, 2011 — a game in which Tom Crean roamed the sidelines and Cody Zeller, Jordan Hulls, Victor Oladipo, Christian Watford and Verdell Jones III graced the starting lineup.

It’s been a minute.

Five Hoosiers scored in double figures. Reed Bailey (21 points) led the way with Lamar Wilkerson (19 points), DeVries (18 points) and Sam Alexis (17 points) not far behind. Tayton Conerway (14 points) rounded out the group. It was a strong night for Indiana’s big men, Bailey and Alexis. Due to how the Bulldogs defended ball screens, often putting two on the ball, Alexis and Bailey were able to feast on quick rolls for easy looks at the rim. Alexis was a perfect 6-for-6 until he misfired on a 3-pointer in the second half, his only miss of the night. He added eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Bailey went 7-of-9 from the field, 7-of-7 from the free-throw line and had a nice sequence of back-to-back dunks, the second of which came via an off-the-backboard pass from Conerway.

Indiana’s offensive stats were gaudy. The Hoosiers scored 1.40 points per possession, a better number than they mustered all of last season, with 1.35 being the high-water mark against Providence in the Battle 4 Atlantis. IU shot a perfect 16-of-16 from the line. The Hoosiers had 13 dunks. They hit 41.7 percent (10-of-24) from distance, as Wilkerson and DeVries both led the way with four makes.

On defense, Indiana’s on-ball pressure forced the Bulldogs into some tough mid-range shots. Its drop coverage out of high-ball screens also had Alabama A&M settling in the mid-range, too. But it wasn’t all good. During a 6-0 run for the Bulldogs early in the second half, when Indiana’s defense had some lapses — and appeared to be working on some post doubling — DeVries called a timeout at the 14:08 mark and could be seen on camera chewing his players out a bit.

“Human nature kicks in sometimes there,” DeVries said of Indiana’s defense during that stretch and of the second half in general as it nursed a large lead. “It’s also great for us to have something to talk about tomorrow.”

But other than that? It was a sensational start to the season for these new-look Hoosiers.

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