INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana men’s basketball junior guard Jaeden Mustaf drove into the lane, looking for a bucket against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mustaf’s layup attempt was unsuccessful, but his teammate, junior forward Aidan Sherrell, was there to clean it up.
The Hoosiers’ next layup attempt, this time tried by freshman forward Trevor Manhertz, was unsuccessful too. Once again, Sherrell was there to grab the rebound, and this time able to convert the board into two points.
The basket gave the Hoosiers a then-game high 11-point lead and forced the Tar Heels into a timeout. It was one of many moments in Indiana’s 76-58 victory over North Carolina on Sunday that showed where the Hoosiers’ identity lies — in its rebounding.
Against the Tar Heels, Indiana won the rebounding battle 53-31. The Hoosiers grabbed 20 offensive rebounds and scored 17 second chance points.
“Anytime you get outrebounded 53-31, that’s a crazy number,” North Carolina head coach Michael Malone said postgame. “And to give up 20 offensive rebounds for 17 points. And that was a point of emphasis all week long in preparation for this team.”
Malone continued conveying disappointment in his team’s ability to stop the Hoosiers’ rebounding efforts. He said the Tar Heels were “man-handled” and “outworked” on the glass.
Indiana’s ability to rebound created several second chance opportunities and was an outlet for success when other areas of the game weren’t up to par.
Throughout the contest, Indiana was held to 36% shooting from the field and 33% from the arc. The Hoosiers committed 15 turnovers yet still came away with an 18-point victory.
“We didn’t look very clean on the offensive end, but we were still able to overcome it with some offensive rebounding,” Indiana head coach Darian DeVries said. “And like I told them before the game, we’ve been talking about it all summer, fall, this is our identity, this is who we’re gonna be.”
Last season, Indiana’s major weakness was its inability to rebound. The Hoosiers lacked true size, and as a result, were often dominated on the glass. The Cream and Crimson were outrebounded in 10 of the Hoosiers’ 11 conference losses last season.
But since, DeVries has transformed his roster in his second year at the helm. He brought in players with length and size who can dominate inside. Some of the additions include 7-foot, 250-pound Sherrell, 7-foot-2 junior center Samet Yigitoglu and 7-foot freshman center Clemens Sokolov.
And so far, the results have followed.
In the Cream and Crimson’s first exhibition game of the season, Indiana outrebounded Butler University 53-33. The Hoosiers grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and tallied 25 second chance points en route to a 96-68 victory.
Across its two exhibition games, Indiana has outrebounded its opponents 106-64.
“Yeah, that makes me smile,” DeVries said about that rebounding margin postgame. “That’s a good number, I like that. I think the guys have done a great job. We put the roster together to be good at it, and then we’ve really emphasized it.”
DeVries assembled a new team with a new identity. So far, his players have embodied that.
“The buy-in has been at a high level by a lot of guys, and they’ve done a great job with it,” DeVries said.
Indiana will close exhibition play when it faces Western Kentucky University at 4 p.m. Oct. 25, in Evansville, Indiana.
Follow reporters Elakai Anela (@elakai_anela and eanela@iu.edu) and Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki87731 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) and columnist Nathan Shriberg (@NShriberg and naashri@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
