Analysis: A good season-opening effort over Eastern Illinois

[IndyHutch]

The one thing that impressed me the most about Indiana's performance Friday night was that it did what it was supposed to do against an over-matched opponent: Win Big.

Indiana passed the first test Friday night against Eastern Illinois.

 

Well, maybe not a test. More like a pop quiz but the reality is that the No. 15 ranked team in the nation did exactly what it was supposed to do against an overmatched opponent like it faced in Eastern Illinois.

 

Spin the Panthers any way you want but Eastern Illinois is a team that is picked to finished somewhere in the middle of the Ohio Valley Conference. Eight of its players are freshmen or sophomores. They are young, undersized and looked the part Friday night.

 

But the mark of a good basketball team is to be able to face an opponent like that one, step on their throats early and never let them feel as if they were in the game. Yes, Eastern Illinois led by three, 5-2, with 18:18 to play.

 

By halftime though, the Indiana lead was 32 at 49-17. The Hoosiers never let Eastern Illinois back in the game and led by as many as 42 in the second half. The point is Indiana did exactly what it was expected to do.

 

It brought the hammer down on an opponent that it shouldn’t have had a great amount of trouble with.

 

There were plenty of good things that happened in this one. A few of those are as follows:

 

1. IU WAS DOMINANT INSIDE: How many times did we say that last year? Not many. Maybe not any. But in this one, Thomas Bryant and Max Bielfeldt got big inside and wanted the ball. And when they got it they knew what to do with it. They combined to make all seven of their shots from the field and combined for 22 points and 17 rebounds. That’s the kind of production that IU will need out of its two bigs.
2. INDIANA SHOT THE BALL WELL: The Hoosiers hit 52.5 percent from the field for the game and that included 57.1 percent in the first half when IU opened by making 16 of 28 shots.
3. TWO-DEEP IS A REALITY: Tom Crean talked after the game about wanting his team to be two-deep and when you look at this squad you could make a case that you’ll have 10 players in the rotation. Those include Troy Williams, Thomas Bryant, Max Bielfeldt, James Blackmon Jr., Robert Johnson, Yogi Ferrell, Collin Hartman, Nick Zeisloft, O.G. Anunoby and Juwan Morgan. Nine of those 10 played between 15 and 28 minutes Friday night. Morgan was the exception with seven minutes.
4. THE DEFENSE LOOKED GOOD: The Hoosiers had their hands on a lot of balls and made a lot of defensive stops. They held Eastern Illinois under 50 points. How many times last year did Indiana hold an opponent under 50 points? The answer: Once. That was in a 95-49 victory over Savannah State on Dec. 6 at Assembly Hall.

 

Were there things that were concerning? Sure. Free throws jump out. Indiana was 15 of 25. Williams, normally a good free throw shooter, missed his first four. Anunoby missed all three. IU turned it over 16 times which is too many and that led to 18 points. Fifteen assists on 32 baskets sounds low but IU scored a lot of points off second chance opportunities. The Hoosiers hit nine 3-pointers but only shoot 33 percent from distance. That means the Hoosiers missed 18 from distance.

 

But it needs to be remembered that this was a first game, too, and some of those things happen on opening night.

 

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good first pop quiz for the Hoosiers. The tests will be coming up before you know it. Creighton comes to mind next week, then Maui, then Duke.

 

Still, this was a good first effort for the 2015-16 Hoosiers.

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[JaybobHoosier]

Great job Terry! However, the best thing tonight was Priller's basket! He dominated!

[KelleyHoosh]

I am particularly encouraged by the big men playing how they did inside. It was front court play I haven't seen from Indiana in a while. If Bryant can consistently get 10/10 and once Big 10 starts Bielfeldt could get 8/8, that would be fantastic. I'm interested to see how they do when the competition stiffens. We should find out soon, as you said with Creighton coming up. 

 

Defense also looked impressive. Very active hands.

 

I liked seeing some growth in Blackmon's game.

 

They seemed to have a much more passionate demeanor this year. 

 

You said it perfectly though, they did what they were supposed to do against a much weaker team

[Alford Bailey]

100% Agree! If we are as good as many say we are we should dominate a team like Eastern Illinois. And we did!

[Brass Cannon]

Being 2 deep is very important.  We have seen the team fade going deep into the season, most of that is from too much practice but being able to rest them in game will be helpful as well.