Key Takeaways From Indiana’s Exhibition Victory over the Tar Heels

Indiana Basketball soared to a 76-58 victory in an exhibition game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was Indiana’s second exhibition game of the year, as Darian DeVries’ squad beat Butler on the road last week. This game exemplified the main things that separate this team from what DeVries built in his first season as Indiana’s head coach.

Defensive Physicality

The Hoosiers flexed their newfound level of physicality that they didn’t have last season. It is only an exhibition, but you wouldn’t have thought that with the effort and physicality that Indiana brought. Indiana’s defense was relentless for much of the game, holding North Carolina to 58 points on 34.9 percent from the field.

A large reason IU’s defense was able to play this was was the length on the roster. When Samet Yigitoglu and Aiden Sherrell are on the court together, the Hoosiers have two premier rim protectors in the league playing side-by-side. It makes it incredibly difficult for opposing offenses to get buckets in the paint, and that was shown today as North Carolina really struggled from the field. It felt like every shot they took, a larger player was in their face ready to alter the shots trajectory.

“I thought the bigs did a nice job of complimenting our guards,” DeVries said postgame. “As they were getting downhill and making them have to finish at the rim over some size”.

This length that Indiana has will be a primary reason they are able to contend with the higher tier opponents.

Rebounding

Rebounding was a point of emphasis for DeVries this offseason, and through two exhibition games it appears that IU has answered that call. Indiana had 20 offensive rebounds in this game, absolutely vacuuming up any ball that they could. They had 53 total rebounds to North Carolina’s 31.

When asked about the rebounding differential in the first two games for Indiana, DeVries said “That does put a smile on face”.

The offensive glass specifically is an aspect that will help out Indiana, as they do like to shoot a high volume of threes. These three pointers are lower percentage shots than layups, but if Indiana can clean it up off the glass, then they will also be able to get a layup after a three point attempt.

“I thought the offensive rebounding was great,” DeVries said. “A night where we didn’t have it going… but we were still able to overcome it with some offensive rebounding”.

It just provides this IU team with more ways to win basketball games, when at points last year it felt like they only had one formula to win a basketball game.

Bryce Lindsay

Bryce Lindsay had a heater today. He had 26 points on 8-for-14 shooting. He went 4-for-9 from deep, and was the main engine for the Indiana offense. He played a lot more point guard in this game, especially since Marcus Burton got taken off the court early due to two fouls in the first two minutes of play. Indiana relied on Lindsay off of the bench today, and he came through.

“I thought Bryce did a great job, he had to play a lot of point, have the ball in his hands a lot, and I though he made a lot of really good plays,” DeVries said. “I thought he also did a good job of getting downhill and getting to the free throw line, and making them have to respect his ability to get to the paint”.

Lindsay was stellar for most of the game, and when he was hitting his shots, it made IU’s offense a whole lot more dynamic. Indiana didn’t have the best shooting night, but Lindsay was able to come through on the scoring end. IU has many capable scorers, and Lindsay is certainly one of those guys. he can step up when the team needs him to.

Indiana will play its third and final exhibition next Sunday, in Evansville, Indiana against Western Kentucky.