Conor Enright began talking about Indiana men’s basketball’s looming task last Saturday — two days after the Hoosiers notched their fifth victory of the season and three days before welcoming Kansas State University to Bloomington.
Entering Tuesday’s matchup, Wildcats junior guard P.J. Haggerty led the country in scoring, with 28 points per game.
Enright, the senior guard who leaves his mark on the defensive end, was ready for the challenge. And he met it.
In Indiana’s 86-69 victory over Kansas State on Tuesday inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Enright frustrated Haggerty with his tenacious defensive abilities.
“I said from the beginning he's so valuable to a team and that's all he cares about,” Indiana head coach Darian DeVries said. “Like, he loves that challenge. He's been that way his whole life.”
DeVries deployed a familiar strategy to Enright from their time at Drake University. Whenever the Kansas State guard shot the ball, Enright sprinted to Haggerty to jam him. The Hoosiers weren’t going to allow him to start the Wildcats’ transition game.
Enright made his presence felt throughout the first half — whether it was knocking down a pair of 3-pointers, grabbing four rebounds, notching a steal or holding Haggerty to just 6 first-half points.
It appeared Haggerty was beginning to heat up as the second half wore on, making a jumper to cut the Wildcats’ deficit to 10 points with just under nine minutes left. But that bucket — his fourth of the second half — proved to be his last.
In all, Haggerty finished the contest with a season-low 16 points, as he missed his lone attempt beyond the arc and went 7 for 17 from the field. DeVries said it takes discipline to execute the strategy he put in place, and said Enright was “terrific” in doing so.
All Enright wanted was to guard Haggerty. And to dive on the floor for loose balls. And to take charges. And to make the scrappy plays that win games.
“He doesn't care about scoring,” DeVries said. “He can score but he doesn't care. He just wants to win. That's why he's the ultimate team guy. I love having him out there.”
After knocking down the two 3-pointers in the first half, Enright missed his lone shot attempt in the second half. He went 1 for 2 at the free-throw line to finish the contest with 7 points, which tied his season-high.
Indiana has players who can light it up from beyond the arc in redshirt senior forward Tucker DeVries and fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson. It has a crafty point guard in sixth-year senior guard Tayton Conerway and a versatile big in senior forward Reed Bailey, who led all scorers with 21 points.
The Cream and Crimson have a player in Enright who, though he doesn’t light up the points department on a stat sheet, fills every other category. He brings undeniable energy.
Whether it was hitting the scorer’s table with both hands in celebration after Kansas State called a timeout early in the second half or getting the Hoosier faithful out of their seats by drawing offensive fouls, Enright galvanizes the crowd. And his teammates, too.
“I told him on the bench, like, ‘Man, you're one of my favorite players to play with,’” Conerway said. “’You make basketball so much easier.’” Just putting him on somebody like PJ, and then he didn't back down, man. He wanted all the smoke.”
In the nine minutes Enright spent on the bench, the Hoosiers continued to do their best in slowing the nation’s most prolific scorer so far this season.
“We wanted to do it as a team,” sixth-year senior guard Tayton Conerway said. “We wanted to build walls, make sure we got back. We knew they played good in transition, so if we could slow them down and make them have to run their sets and make somebody else beat us, we knew we would have a good chance.”
The Hoosiers slowed Haggerty as a team — just like everything else in basketball. But they did so Tuesday in large part because of Enright’s energy.
“Just a guy like that, a lot of people just see it during the games and stuff, but he's like that in practice,” Conerway said. “He's like that everywhere. That's just Conor.”
Now, Enright can talk about how he limited the nation’s top scorer to just 16 points. Or he’ll set his sights on his assignment Saturday: Bethune-Cookman University.
No matter which he chooses, one thing is certain — Enright won’t back down from a challenge. In all, they won’t change throughout the season. And for Enright, he surely hopes the answers won’t either.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Nathan Shriberg (@NShriberg and naashri@iu.edu) and columnist Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki8773 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
