Analysis: After two B1G games, some new faces are emerging for the Hoosiers

Here is what I like about Indiana University basketball through the first two games of Big Ten play.

The IU bench is emerging and the Hoosiers are proving to be deeper than I think any of us really realized.

You expect Yogi to get his points every night. He had 24 Saturday in Indiana’s 79-69 victory at Nebraska as the Hoosiers won for the seventh game in a row. In two Big Ten games, Ferrell has 44 points and should have a decent shot at being in the running this week for Big Ten player of the week.

But the thing there is you expect Yogi to get his points.

The same is true with Thomas Bryant. Sure, there’s no doubt that the freshman big man needed a bounce back game in the worst way after only playing 6 minutes against Rutgers because of foul trouble. And Saturday he was unstoppable. He made 8 of 10 shots on the way to 19 points. He was aggressive on both ends and blocked three shots.

But again, I think IU fans will come to expect big things out its freshman big man.

When James Blackmon Jr. get s back in the lineup, the same kinds of expectations are there. The same should be true for Troy Williams although of late he just simply been too much in a hurry with the ball to be productive. Williams has 11 turnovers in the first two Big Ten games. For Williams to rise and be a more consistent player, he needs to take care of the ball.

But this is more about those that you weren’t expecting the same level of greatness from.

You knew that Max Bielfeldt was going to contribute. As a fifth year senior transfer you knew he was going to have his share of solid games. Now, I’m not sure I was expecting 18 and 14 like he posted against Rutgers, but I wasn’t surprised that he would emerge.

Having watched Collin Hartman for two years at IU, nothing really surprises me there either. When he signed with IU I wondered just how big of a role he could ultimately play. But he has been really good and deserves his starting spot in place of the injured Blackmon. The job he did defensively Saturday against Shavon Shields in particular deserves a mention for certain.

But a few other guys are surprising me even more.

Ryan Burton and his two 3-pointer performance against Rutgers came out of nowhere. And after he didn’t play Saturday against Nebraska, you might look at it and say that he’ll continue to be a situational player who is called on here and there. And that’s fine. But what he showed against Rutgers is that he’s capable of answering that bell. At the very least that should help his confidence moving forward.

Juwan Morgan is beginning to show some good signs off the bench. Morgan has been slowed by a foot injury but is starting to look as if he could give you 8-10 solid minutes per game. He played 6 against Nebraska and had two points, two rebounds and a steal. His points came at the free throw line where he knocked down a pair of foul shots with 4:09 to play in the first half which at the time broke a 28-all tie.

But the buildup in this analysis, however, is reserved for O.G. Anunoby. The freshman forward looks better and better with each passing game. Saturday, in Indiana’s 79-69 victory at Nebraska, Anunoby scored 11 points in 11 minutes off the bench. He hit all four of his shots from the field, including a 3-pointer, hit 2-of-3 from the line, had three rebounds and two steals without a turnover.

The most impressive thing is how you can just see him getting more and more confident with each game. It’s as if he is growing up before our eyes. If he continues to improve at this rate throughout the Big Ten season it’s going to be difficult to keep him off the floor.

The first time I ever saw Anunoby play was in the Derby Festival Classic last spring in Louisville.

I remember thinking at the time that I believed he could come in and help Indiana right away.

But after the non-conference portion of the schedule, I figured he was more of a project than I had initially believed. He simply didn’t look comfortable in the flow of the game. He looked like he was thinking too much and afraid to make a mistake.

And that’s what is different about Anunoby after a pair of Big Ten games. He looks confident, he’s always around the ball and he just has great anticipation skills. That sequence he had midway through the first half Saturday showed those things. He scored on a drive to put IU up 60-51 with 10:11 to play and then on the other end he stepped in front of a pass to the wing and went the other way for a steal and a layup to make it 62-51.

I’m not surprised that IU has opened the Big Ten at 2-0 given that it started with two winnable games in Rutgers and Nebraska, despite the fact they were both on the road.

I’m not surprised that players like Yogi Ferrell and Thomas Bryant are doing some good things for the Hoosiers early in the Big Ten season.

But I am surprised that other bench players, most notably Anunoby of late, are progressing at the rate that they are.

Keep that up and it won’t be long before Indiana basketball is back in the top 25.