What to Expect: IU basketball hosts Oregon
- Alex Bozich
- 2h ago
IU basketball is back in action tonight at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers will take on Oregon at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The Ducks are 8-15 and 1-11 in Big Ten play.
The Hoosiers are 16-8 overall, 7-6 in Big Ten games and have won four of their last five games.
Indiana gave up its lead late against Wisconsin, but the Hoosiers were able to pull out a narrow victory against the Badgers in overtime at Assembly Hall.
It’s now a quick turnaround for the Hoosiers, who will take on Oregon tonight before a five-day break. Oregon has been decimated by injuries this season, but got a key piece back over the weekend.
Senior big man Nate Bittle returned for the Ducks on Saturday afternoon at Purdue and Oregon kept things close all afternoon before falling 68-64 to the Boilermakers in Mackey Arena. The Ducks are without point guard Jackson Shelstad, who is out for the season with a hand injury.
MEET THE DUCKS
Oregon coach Dana Altman is very familiar with Darian DeVries, as the IU coach worked for Altman at Creighton at the start of his coaching career.
After reaching the NCAA tournament round of 32 last spring, expectations were high for the Ducks this season with the returns of Bittle and Shelstad. Unfortunately, both players have missed extended time and Oregon has fallen from No. 37 in KenPom at the start of the season to No. 99 as of early Monday morning.
The good news for the Ducks is that Bittle, one of the nation’s most versatile big men, is back in the lineup. The 7-foot senior scored 23 points, including a 10-for-14 mark from the free throw line, in Saturday’s narrow loss at Purdue. Bittle offers rim protection, can stretch the floor and his size could present problems for the Hoosiers in the post.
He’ll be joined in the starting frontcourt by 6-foot-10 junior Kwame Evans Jr. and 6-foot-9 junior Sean Stewart. Evans Jr., a five-star recruit in the class of 2023, is a long lefty who shoots nearly 58 percent on 2s and averages 13.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 30.4 minutes per game.
Stewart, who began his career at Duke before playing last season at Ohio State, was also a five-star recruit in 2023. He averages seven points, 5.7 rebounds and is shooting 49.2 percent from the field in 22.8 minutes per game.
The guard and wing rotation for the Ducks went five deep in their last game, with seniors Takai Simpkins and Drew Carter starting, and senior Dezdrick Lindsey and sophomores Wei Lin and Jamari Phillips coming off the bench.
The 6-foot-5 Simpkins, a teammate of Nick Dorn’s the past two seasons at Elon, has been the team’s most consistent backcourt player. He averages 12.6 points in 31.2 minutes per game and is shooting 36 percent on 3s. His 40 made 3-pointers lead the team.
Carter, who barely played at all last season, has started the previous two games. The 6-foot-3 guard is averaging just 1.5 points in 10.2 minutes per game this season.
The 6-foot-4 Lin, a native of Fujian, China, has made nine starts this season and averages 6.5 points on 32.4 percent shooting from the floor in 17.5 minutes per game.
Lindsay, a 6-foot-6 native of Louisville, Kentucky, missed last season with an injury and played at Florida Southwestern Junior College before arriving in Eugene last season. He’s made eight starts and averages 5.1 points in 20.4 minutes per game.
Phillips played sparingly as a freshman last season and has struggled this season from the perimeter. The 6-foot-4 guard is 13-for-43 on 3s and averages 3.1 points in 11.8 minutes per game.
TEMPO-FREE PREVIEW
Oregon has struggled to score in Big Ten play, with the Ducks ranking last in points per possession through their first 12 games. The return of Bittle should bring some life to the Ducks, who didn’t have a reliable go-to scorer with Bittle and Shelstad out of the lineup.
In league games, Oregon ranks 17th in 2-point, 3-point and free throw shooting percentage and is 16th in turnover percentage.
The Ducks have been the Big Ten’s worst defensive rebounding team and rank 14th in opponent free-throw rate at 35.3 percent.
To Oregon’s credit, however, this team hasn’t given up and the Ducks gave Purdue a scare over the weekend in West Lafayette and will be looking to play spoiler tonight in Bloomington.
WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO
The KenPom projection is Indiana by 11 with an 85 percent chance of a Hoosier victory. Bart Torvik’s ratings favor the Hoosiers by 13 with an 89 percent chance of a win.
The return of Bittle makes Oregon more formidable than when he was out, but this is a game the Hoosiers need to win at home. Indiana’s guard play is superior to Oregon’s, and the Hoosiers will need a strong shooting night to take care of business.
With four conference home games remaining, just taking care of business at home would put IU at 11 Big Ten wins, which would be enough to comfortably make the NCAA tournament in the first season of the DeVries era.
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