The Minute After: Kansas State

• Ryan Corazza

• 6s ago

 

Thoughts on an 86-69 win against Kansas State:

After two games of ho-hum play, Indiana got back to business tonight.

The Hoosiers came out with a bang, igniting the crowd – one with far fewer students due to Thanksgiving break – and Darian DeVries, who applauded and cheered on Indiana’s early efforts. IU went up 20-4 to start, thanks to some sharpshooting from distance, buckets at the rim and a swarming defense, which turned over the Wildcats on several occasions and kept the nation’s leading scorer, PJ Haggerty, quiet. Conor Enright played great defense and hustled around like crazy, even chipping in on Indiana’s 3-point barrage with an early make.

It was also clear, after a lackluster performance on the boards, that Indiana emphasized rebounding in this game. There were tons of efforts from multiple Hoosiers. They snagged 35 percent of their misses to Kansas State’s 25 percent for the contest.

The Hoosiers did hit a first-half lull after the strong start, as the offense dragged and Kansas State finally started to see some shots go down. But IU still carried a 12-point lead into the half. The Wildcats never got any closer than 10 points the rest of the way, which was thanks to a mini-run by Haggerty. He scored eight points in just about 2.5 minutes of game action, cutting the lead to 67-57 with 8:51 to go. But Indiana was able to keep at it, eventually growing the lead to 23 points before settling on the 17-point victory.

On offense, the Hoosiers were a bit too trigger-happy from deep, taking a number from way beyond the 3-point line when a better shot could have been found – especially in the first half. They finished the night 10-of-33 (30.3 percent). Kansas State shot a better percentage on far fewer attempts (8-of-20, 40 percent). There were a lot of fouls called tonight and Indiana was opportunistic with the whistles. IU bested Kansas State in free-throw rate — 51 percent to 26 percent — and hit 22-of-29 from the line, good for 75.9 percent. Kansas State got to the line just 15 times, hitting 13 of its attempts (87 percent).

But it was really the 2-pointers that told the tale in this one. The Hoosiers took all their 2-point shots as either dunks or layups, hitting 70 percent of them (16-of-23). Meanwhile, Kansas State shot 51 percent on its dunk and lay-up attempts (11-of-21), but took 16 shots designated as “other 2s”, hitting just five of them for 31 percent for the game. Indiana’s defense continues to do a nice job of getting its opponents to take less efficient shots, while it lives at the rim and from 3-point range. (And for tonight, at the line, too.)

Kansas State mustered just .69 points per possession in the first half and .91 for the game, its lowest output of the season. Indiana is now up to 15th on KenPom in adjusted defensive efficiency after tonight’s win.

One of the players scoring well at the rim tonight, even through contact, which has been a struggle for him thus far this season? That would be IU’s starting center, Reed Bailey. Bailey led all scorers with 21 points. He went 4-of-7 from the field and hit 13-of-15 from the line, as he got fouled time and again.

“We’ve seen that from a lot from Reed in practice,” Coach DeVries said to FS1’s Steve Smith on the court after the game when asked about Bailey’s strong performance. “I thought this was his coming-out party in game action. I thought he was super assertive. Very aggressive, physical. I thought he had a really good game for us.”

This was a nice return to form for the Hoosiers. And it’s a performance that also shows, for all the talk of Indiana’s offense, its defense is starting to turn some heads, too.

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