CHICAGO — Just 42 seconds into the match against Marquette University, Indiana picked up its first foul of the game. Less than one minute later, with 18:35 remaining on the clock, the whistle blew again. Starting senior forward Reed Bailey committed the team’s second foul, forcing head coach Darian DeVries to pull senior forward Sam Alexis from the bench less than two minutes into action.
The fouls didn’t stop there though. Another Indiana foul with 17:03 remaining. And again with 16:51 remaining. And again with 16:43 remaining. Midway through the first half, Indiana had already accumulated 10 team fouls to put Marquette in the double bonus.
The foul troubles throughout the night were masked by the Hoosiers' overall performance in their dominant 100- 77 victory over the Golden Eagles on Sunday inside the United Center in Chicago. However, the inability to play clean defense should raise concerns if not addressed.
With the Hoosiers already lacking depth due to a plague of preseason injuries, losing more players to foul trouble limited the team to an even smaller rotation. While the effects of this weren’t evident against Marquette, it typically would be a critical factor in most games and against most opponents.
In the first half alone, the Indiana starting five tallied nine personal fouls. Sixth-year senior guard Tayton Conerway picked up his third foul with 7:46 remaining in the first half, limiting him to just eight minutes on the court in the half. Bailey picked up two early fouls while redshirt senior guard Conor Enright, redshirt senior forward Tucker DeVries and fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson added four more fouls combined.
Bailey, who was limited to just three minutes in the first half, picked up his third foul 52 seconds into the second half, which sent him right back to bench.
By the end of the game, Indiana had numerous players in foul trouble as Enright fouled out, Conerway and Tucker DeVries both had four fouls and Bailey and Alexis each had three.
Postgame, Darian DeVries said he wanted the team to continue to play with physicality while reducing its number of fouls.
“We need to do a better job.” Darian DeVries said. “You know, we got a little handsy at times, and we got to clean that up.”
He wants his team to continue being aggressive and to continue challenging the ball handlers with “a little less hand activity.”
Due to the accumulating fouls, Indiana was forced to continue making lineup changes. Luckily for the Hoosiers, the team adjusted to just about every lineup thrown at them and had many players step into new roles.
“I thought the guys just did a good job.” Darian DeVries said. “Their number got called, they got put in a position, and they were able to go in there and execute it.”
Indiana did plenty of good in its victory over the Golden Eagles, putting 100 points on a Shaka Smart coached team that prides itself on defense. However, the Hoosiers will need to work on becoming “physical but disciplined”—a key Darian DeVries stressed post-game—moving forward into the season.
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.
