[Discussion] 3 Things I'm Focused On for Thursday Night's Game v Wright State

Indiana's final pre-Empire Classic tuneup game is Thursday night against Wright State. What are you most hoping to see from the Hoosiers?

Indiana hosts Wright State on Thursday night. It’s the Hoosiers’ final game before heading to New York City for the Empire Classic, where #4 UConn awaits.

Wright State is currently ranked #169 in KenPom. They were blown out by #54 Colorado State and lost a one-point game to #108 Toledo on Tuesday night.

KenPom projects an 80-69 victory for your Indiana Hoosiers, currently ranked #60.

While many IU fans were able to walk away from the closer-than-hoped win over FGCU in the opener with plenty of positive feelings, the same cannot be said of the Hoosiers’ struggles against #325 Army.

The offense was disjointed and Indiana’s defensive miscommunications led to a conveyer belt of open 3-point looks for the Black Knights. This has many of us feeling even higher levels of concern than we anticipated with this mix of returnees and newcomers who are trying to settle into new roles in the wake of Trayce, Jalen, Race, and Miller departing.

So … beyond winning the game (which is the obvious top priority), what are you hoping to see on Thursday night that will give you confidence in Indiana’s ability to compete with the defending champs on Sunday?

For me, there are a few obvious ones:

1. The starting unit getting off on the right foot.

Indiana’s starting 5 has struggled to find any semblance of an offensive rhythm, which may be a contributing factor in its defensive ups and downs.

Last season’s high-profile games against Arizona and Kansas became massive uphill climbs within the game’s first ten minutes due to slow starts by IU. We need to avoid a repeat of that scenario.

Whether it requires Mike Woodson exercising more control over the offense by calling more set plays, or is simply a function of the group needing time to gel and gain a more intuitive understanding of the offense and each other’s games, the starting group needs to be more efficient and productive if it is going to continue opening halves for the Hoosiers.

On that note …

2. When will the real Mackenzie Mgbako show up?

I suppose it’s possible that the guy we’ve seen through two games is the real Mgbako, at least here in his freshman season. If so, expectations will have to be drastically tempered.

I’m certainly not buying that. For all of his struggles on and off the court here early in the season, there are legitimate reasons why Mgbako was a 5-star prospect, why he is still showing up on NBA mock drafts, and why so many people who watched practice raved about his offense.

Mike Woodson is rightly demanding more effort and focus from Mgbako on the defensive end of the floor, and he seems unlikely to play much in second halves if he doesn’t start delivering it. You’ll get no arguments from me on that. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t see a more locked-in defender against Wright State.

But I will also be curious to see if Indiana does anything early on the offensive end to get him touches, perhaps as a way to unlock the offensive potential of the starting unit and as a way to get the wired-to-score youngster engaged in the game early.

He’s such an important piece to this year’s puzzle that this is going to be a major storyline for at least the next few weeks until we gain more clarity on his role and how much he can actually impact games as a freshman.

3. Will we see any signs of light bulbs going off for CJ Gunn and Kaleb Banks?

CJ and Kaleb remain huge X-factors for this year’s roster. Unfortunately, neither sophomore has been able to produce much in Indiana’s two regular season games.

Each guy has theoretical skills and abilities — in their long, athletic physical packages — that could really help with the uptempo way Mike Woodson wants to play this season. But CJ still hasn’t found a comfort level with his shot and Kaleb seems a bit stuck between being the hustle/energy guy he was last season and the more versatile offensive threat everyone hopes he can be this season.

There is nothing wrong with two freshmen who didn’t play much last season struggling a bit here early in their sophomore seasons. Any reasonable projection for them included a fair bit of inconsistency, especially early, with the hope that they can become more consistent contributors by January, February, and beyond. But most of us probably expected to see just a bit more from each so far than we’ve seen.

I have a feeling that when Indiana scores unexpected victories this season, we’ll look at the box score and see that at least one of these two produced more than usual. Thursday night at home will be a good opportunity for CJ and Kaleb to show that they are more ready for the brighter lights of New York City — and the difficult matchup that awaits Indiana in the opener on Sunday — than they’ve looked through two regular season games.

Okay, now over to you.

Certainly there are many other options for areas of focus for Thursday. I’m focused on the starters and a few key individuals who I think have to get going for Indiana to have a chance against UConn, but you could fairly list rebounding, defensive communication, 3-point attempts (on both ends), and valuing possessions as other important team-wide elements to focus on.

So what are you focusing in on for Thursday night?

To be more specific: what do you need to see on Thursday night to give you some confidence in Indiana’s ability to compete with the defending champs on Sunday?

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