Indiana men’s basketball completed its non-conference slate with another commanding victory on Monday night inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to notch its 10th victory of the season. The Hoosiers’ win marked its eighth 20-or-more-point victory this season.
However, despite the dominant performance that resulted in an 81-60 victory over Siena University on Monday, the Cream and Crimson still showed they have some areas on the court to clean up as they head into a strong conference schedule.
The Hoosiers have given Indiana fans a lot to cheer for this season: A 10-3 start, an 113-72 victory over a conference opponent in Penn State and an offense that can shoot at a high level from beyond the arc. However, at other times, the Hoosiers have been plagued by foul issues, rebounding struggles, inconsistencies on the offensive end and turnovers.
In Indiana’s final tune-up game of the season, some of those concerns were apparent for head coach Darian DeVries.
“I think the biggest thing, we've talked about the several key areas, the turnovers and the defensive rebounding. That's always going to be something we're going to prioritize,” DeVries said postgame. “I believe that you have to win those two battles every night if you're going to give yourself a chance. We have to turn the ball over less, defensive rebound better. Those will be the top two.”
Against the Saints, the Hoosiers committed 13 turnovers, which resulted in 13 points for Siena. While Indiana had the advantage in total rebounds, the Cream and Crimson still gave up 10 offensive rebounds to the Saints, which they in turn converted into 11 second-chance points.
All season long, Indiana’s offense has been built on generating good shots through ball movement. Yet against Siena, the Hoosiers only tallied 11 assists, meaning their assist-to-turnover ratio was not one to boast.
In Indiana’s last contest Dec. 20 against Chicago State University, the Hoosiers struggled in the second half. And once again on Monday night, Indiana’s second-half woes returned.
In the first 20 minutes of the contest against the Saints, the Hoosiers tallied nine assists, shot 54% from the field, turned the ball over just five times and got out to a 26-point lead. However, in the second half, Indiana tallied just two assists, shot 38% from the field and turned the ball over eight times.
Following the game, Darian DeVries said the first half was “exactly” what he wanted. Yet the second half was a different story.
“I thought the second half we just lost a little bit of our edge on both ends of the floor,” DeVries said. “First half, when we were getting stops, it allowed us to get out in transition, allowed us to get our shooters free. Second half we weren't quite as stingy defensively and we're taking the ball out of the net a lot more, and the game really just slowed down at that point.”
And while those statistics didn’t prove to be costly against Siena, they could be against the Big Ten opponents the Hoosiers will soon face each week.
In the Associated Press Top 25 poll released Monday, seven Big Ten teams were ranked in the top 25, with two more schools — including Indiana — receiving votes. In January alone, the Hoosiers are set to face five of those top 25 teams.
As the level of competition in Indiana’s schedule increases and becomes more consistent, the Cream and Crimson will need to clean up some areas of play to stay afloat with the top programs in the conference.
Indiana will now get a 13-day break to rest, recover and prepare for conference play to resume against Washington. It’s a break that will give the players an opportunity to clean up turnovers and work on crashing the glass for rebounds before they are faced with physically demanding opponents in the conference that don’t allow for many in game mistakes.
“It's a nice, clean break, not only physically, but mentally,” DeVries said. “Just take a couple days and clear your head and come back and really be locked in to get ready for a long stretch run.”
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.
