Three Takeaways From IUWBB's 66-56 Victory Over Rutgers

The Indiana Women's Basketball Team Improved To 8-1 With A Victory On The Road Over The Scarlet Knights In Big Ten Opener

Assembly Hall Where Indiana Plays Their Home Games

Mackenzie Holmes Can Dominate A Game When All Else Fails

Mackenzie Holmes again showed why she is one of the top players in the country. With the offense bogged down at times, Holmes was still able to use her footwork in the post and dominate. She went 12-15 from the floor and finished with 25 points despite seeing multiple double and triple teams.

Holmes was helped out by Sydney Parrish’s (who confirmed in the postgame presser she will be back in 2024-2025 and use her COVID year) strong 14-point effort. However, Holmes faced a lot more traffic in the paint from the opposition as Rutgers dared IU to shoot from the perimeter.

Shooting On The Road Is Still An Issue

Speaking of outside shooting, the opposing team’s home-court advantage has caused issues there. While Assembly Hall (outside of one game) and neutral sites have seen solid shooting from behind the arc for the Cream and Crimson, the three road contests have not. The Hoosiers shot just 3 of 16 from 3 and that bled to the free throw line where it was an 11-18 struggle. This was after a 5-32 performance at Stanford and a 6-19 clip against Maine.

This game was never in danger like the one against the Black Bears was. However, Indiana’s inability to hit wide-open shots kept it much closer than it needed to be. The Scarlet Knights are picked to finish towards the very bottom of the league and while they never actually threatened to come out on top, the lack of shooting from IU kept this far tighter than expected.

What Is This Team’s Ceiling Away From Home?

Regardless of what happened today, this was the Hoosiers’ toughest challenge until the end of the month. After two more matchups with mid-majors at home, it is back to conference play for good. The next two against league opposition after that are in Assembly Hall as well. However, they are against tougher competition.

Given Indiana’s ability to play well at home and knock down shots, a long winning streak should continue. The question becomes what will happen on the road after that when IU discontinuously faces five straight teams projected to go to the postseason? The Hoosiers will need to make their outside attempts to come out on top in at least some of these or the losses will start to pile up.

Indiana should compete for another Big Ten Championship and a top-four seed in March Madness to host NCAA Tournament games again. However, to accomplish these goals and reach their proverbial ceiling, the ability to knock down shots away from home is vital.

Our Doing The Work crew of

Jeff Marlow

and

Kathy Amos

will host the postgame show for this contest on Sunday at 6 pm Eastern time.