[Postgame 3-2-1] What We Learned From Indiana's victory against Providence
We break down three key stats, two observations, and one lingering question from Indiana's 89-73 win against Providence.
PARADISE ISLAND, THE BAHAMAS . — In its final game in paradise, No. 14 Indiana played Providence in the 7th place game on the final day of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Indiana led most of the way en route to an 89-73 victory, thus leaving The Bahamas with at least one win under its belt.
Sophomore Mackenzie Mgbako led the Hoosiers with a 25-point performance on 9-of-14 shooting, including 4-of-7 from deep.
“I think when you get your butt beat like we did for two games, you better be connected,” Indiana head coach Mike Woodson said postgame. “I thought we were connected tonight, but I still think defensively we need to clean up some things.”
Here are three stats, two observations, and one lingering question from Indiana's 89-73 victory against Providence.
Did you miss yesterday's edition of the postgame show?
3 Meaningful Stats
1. Indiana led for 37 minutes
Entering Friday’s contest, Indiana had led for a combined 33 seconds in its first two games in The Bahamas.
There was much angst about the flow of the Indiana offense in the first two games of the tournament. However, Friday proved to be different as the Hoosiers got shots to fall early and took an immediate lead.
The lead vanished in the first half when Providence’s Jayden Pierre hit a three for Providence to tie the game at 13, but the Hoosiers responded with an 11-1 run to retake the lead, one they ceased to relinquish.
As a team, Indiana went 31-for-59 from the field, including 8-of-15 from beyond the arc. Additionally, the Hoosiers went a strong 16-of-19 from the charity stripe, making all ten of their attempts in the first half.
With this impressive offensive performance, Indiana can leave The Bahamas with a little less bitter taste in their mouths on that end of the court.
2. Three Hoosiers amass double figures
In the season’s early going, Indiana has struggled to show balance in its scoring. Nearly every game has been guided by one or two standout players, while the rest of the team struggles.
Friday’s all-around effort saw three different Hoosiers reaching double figures. Mackenzie Mgbako led all scorers with 25 points, Malik Reneau had 21, and Trey Galloway had a season-high 18 points in the victory. Luke Goode and Oumar Ballo were just a bucket shy of reaching double-figures themselves.
An even more impressive stat is that all eight Hoosiers that attempted a shot made at least one in Friday’s victory.
This was the first time this week that the Indiana starters and bench have molded together for a 40-minute performance, which impressed the Hoosiers’ frontman.
“Everything looks good when you’re making shots,” Woodson said. “I thought the ball moved, and our pick and roll play was good … it all went hand in hand.”
3. Indiana dominated the paint
Following two uninspiring performances in the painted area, the Hoosiers dominated on Friday, out-scoring the Friars 38-22 down low en route to the victory.
Although the cream and crimson will always play through the paint with Mike Woodson as head coach, IU still needs to find a way to take and make more three-pointers (8-15 yesterday).
The Hoosiers must avoid falling into the into a trap of living and dying in the paint. It can work against physically overmatched (and exhausted) teams like Providence, but we know it’s not a reliable to path to succees against the top teams in college basketball.
To be a well-balanced attack, Indiana needs to be firing away 25 threes a game, which Woodson seems open to even if we haven’t seen evidence of it on the court (Indiana remains 348th nationally in 3-point attempt rate).
“I don’t think we’ve told anybody not to shoot the basket. At this stage, guys know when there’s a good shot and what’s a bad shot,” Woodson said. “I’m just trying to get players to understand team.”
2 Important Observations
1. Indiana used Providence’s quick turnaround to its advantage.
Usually, by the time the third game in as many days comes around, it is met with a severe drop off in energy; however, Indiana had a slight advantage due to scheduling.
Providence was at a disadvantage on Friday morning as they played and lost in the nightcap against Davidson on Thursday. The game wrapped up at 10 p.m. last night, which only allotted the Friars about 13 hours to prepare for Indiana.
The Hoosiers used the rest to their advantage and had much more energy than Providence from the jump.
As a result, the cream and crimson were pushing the pace on Friday, outscoring Providence 16-5 in fast break points. Indiana was able to wear out the Friars in the early going and never looked back.
Providence ran out of gas in the latter stages of the second half, allowing Indiana to extend its lead even further.
“That was big emphasis coming into the game,” Woodson said of Providence’s late game. “They didn’t finish up until about 10:30-11 last night and we knew that, so I had to capitalize on that in terms of pushing the pace.”
2. Indiana’s second half performance was impressive
Despite building a 10-point lead heading into the halftime break, the Hoosiers got right back to work with a 13-4 run to open the second half, putting themselves in the driver’s seat the rest of the way.
Indiana ballooned its advantage out to as many as 19 points and never let it shrink below nine.
As a team, Indiana shot at a rocking 64% clip in the second half, outscoring Providence 45-39 in the game's final 20 minutes.
Indiana's 89-point outburst on Friday matches the most points the Hoosiers have scored in a game against a power conference opponent in nearly two years (89 points in a loss at Iowa).
Every half cannot be as smooth sailing as the second half of Friday’s game, but it gives fans hope as the team heads back to the mainland for a few more non-conference tune-ups.
1 Lingering Question
What did we learn about Indiana this week?
It was a tumultuous week for Indiana basketball, but just how bad was it? The metrics aren’t as concerned as fans on social media are.
Indiana entered feast week sitting at 38th in KenPom, and following a 1-2 effort at Battle 4 Atlantis, the Hoosiers dropped 15 spots to 53rd in the metrics after falling as far as 60th after Thursday’s loss to Gonzaga.
Luckily for Indiana, none of those metrics matter in November, and there is still a lot of basketball to play this season. There are 20 conference games to be played and an abundance of opportunities to avenge the two losses in the Bahamas.
That said, a trip to The Bahamas has come and gone, and Indiana has yet to find an identity. It is imperative that it finds its identity before Big Ten play opens on December 9th against Minnesota.
“We gotta play harder and get better,” Woodson said of the lessons learned this week. “I got to keep pushing them.”
I think the whole team played better against Providence - now, Providence wasn’t nearly as good as Louisville and Gonzaga and they were playing on about 10 hours of rest. But, MgBako played very well and Galloway was a real spark. Rice had a tough tournament; but, I think he’s going to be a great player for us - the kid’s tough and has character- I like him!!
What we learned is that our ceiling is lower than we had hoped. Holiday tournaments often produce quirky results and we can play better but, having said that, it's hard to believe we can magically transform into a team that can live up to its preseason rankings.