By Matt St. Charles
Darian DeVries was apparently a bit nervous ahead of Monday night’s game against Siena. The end of the semester, Christmas break, and a 12-day hiatus for his team all loomed in what some may call a trap game.
And despite the fast start–getting out to a 26-point lead at the half–for an extended spurt in the second half, he may have thought his fears were being realized.
“The first half was exactly what we wanted,” DeVries said. “You get a lead, and you’re up 26. The good part is, that’s what we’ve got to work on, that’s a good thing if we’ve got to figure that problem out.”
As in any 21-point victory, there was a lot of good for Indiana in the 81-60 win.
Lamar Wilkerson continues to play incredibly well, shouldering a lot of the scoring load. With 23 points on 7-15 shooting, along with seven rebounds and four assists, he’s become much more efficient following his 44-point explosion against Penn State.
Tayton Conerway is still proving to be one of the Hoosier’s only prolific downhill drivers, scoring 16 points, all coming off layups, and dishing out four assists in beating the press effectively.
And, of course, Tucker DeVries had a good performance despite not shooting the lights out. With 16 points on 38%/33% splits, 11 total rebounds, and just one turnover, it’s still clear he’s the offensive initiator in the half court.
But when that 26-point lead shrunk to 15 during a 16-8 Siena run to start the second half, Indiana’s ugly habits reared their head once again.
“I thought the second half we just lost a bit of our edge on both ends of the floor,” Darian DeVries said. “We weren’t as stingy defensively and we’re taking the ball out of the net a lot more, and the game really just slowed down at that point.”
The Hoosiers finished the night with 20 fouls, 14 of which came in the second half. DeVries and Wilkerson each ended with four, and while the former’s last one came with 3:24 to go, the latter’s fourth came at the 9:44 mark.
That issue led to 28 total free throws for Siena and 19 in the second half, giving life to an offense which shot 24% from the field and didn’t make a 3 before the break.
The Saints were the third consecutive team to grab double-digit offensive rebounds against the Hoosiers, finishing with 10. Granted, they only netted 11 second-chance points off those, but more talented Big Ten teams will take better advantage of those opportunities.
Along that same vein, Indiana reached double-digit turnovers for the fifth straight game, giving the ball away 13 times. Turning the ball over this frequently is defendable against the Louisville’s of the world, but not the Siena’s and Chicago State’s.
Siena only turned it into 13 points, but the same sentiment remains. Possessions will have to be valued when conference play gets into full swing on January 4th.
“These last maybe two weeks we’ve become a little more turnover prone,” DeVries said. “Getting back to making sure we have some ball security and ball toughness with those things. Then really as physicality ramps up, you have to put more of an emphasis on your screens and more of an emphasis on winning the war, as we like to say, whether you’re the cutter or the ball handler.
“Those are things we have to get better at,” he added. “I know from an offensive standpoint at times when we struggled, we haven’t been as good in those areas. We need to do a much better job of that as we get back from Christmas here and get ready for the new year.”
While DeVries came into Monday night nervous about the game itself, the way this extended break is handled could be huge for Indiana’s season. The balance of giving the players a rest and bringing them back to learn from these mistakes is a delicate one he’ll need to balance.
“They’ll come back and we’ll start practice again on the 27th,” DeVries said. “They’ll get a good four days…I think the biggest thing, we’ve talked about the several key areas, the turnovers and the defensive rebounding, that’s always going to be something we’re going to prioritize.”
There’s no more tune-ups for the Hoosiers–no more MAAC, NEC, or SWAC opponents. When Washington comes to Assembly Hall at the beginning of the new year, IU will have to be in premier form from here on out.