BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Eastern Illinois’ Devin Davenport hit a pull-up jumper to cut Indiana men’s basketball’s first-half lead to 24-21 with 9:45 left in the half. Indiana’s offense has been struggling from the field in its season opener, and the defense wasn’t doing enough.
Indiana made a change to its defensive strategy at this moment and became more aggressive, and it paid off in the final 9:45 of the first half.
“I thought midway through the first half, our defense really turned it up,” Indiana head coach Darian DeVries said postgame. “We weren’t aggressive enough earlier in the game. I thought our ball pressure and activity really picked up in the second part of the first half”.
Indiana forced the first of many Eastern Illinois turnovers in the final 10 minutes, with a shot clock violation that forced the under-eight timeout.
After that timeout, DeVries’ squad was vicious on the defensive end.
“We know what it looks like when we’re fully locked in being a lead on defense,” Jaeden Mustaf said. “He (DeVries) challenges us to be at that standard at all times”.
Eastern Illinois was allowed two total points in the last 9:45. It came with 30 seconds left in the half, and it was from the free-throw line. During this stretch, Indiana forced 10 turnovers. The defense was swarming and relentless, which allowed them to increase their lead from four to 21 at the half.
A large amount of the credit for this dominance is attributed to the length of this Indiana roster. In just the starting lineup, Indiana puts out a 7’2″ Samet Yigitoglu and a 6’11” Aiden Sherrell. They tend to leave at least one of them on the court at all times, but they also get to mix in a returnee, Sam Alexis, who is a very capable big man as well.
The depth and length for IU put its future opponents on full alert today, as they were able to force 22 turnovers, 14 of which were in the first half. The team only had three total blocked shots in the game, but they were able to alter shots consistently as well.
The turnovers IU was able to force were huge, as Indiana shot a worse percentage from the field than Eastern Illinois did, but the Hoosiers shot eight more total shots and nine more free throws, creating more opportunities to score.
One of the key separators from this year’s Indiana team compared to last season’s is their ability to find different ways to create more shots than their opponents. In this game, it was with turnovers that Indiana scored 29 of its 91 points.
The aggressive instincts of Mustaf were present as he ended up with a team-high three steals, swarming to the ball all game long.
In the second half, Indiana let up a bit on the defensive end.
“They lived in our paint way too much in the second half,” DeVries said. “We got messed up on some switches… Overall it was good, but you can’t allow a team to just parade right to the rim”.
A 91-57 win, and DeVries is still getting nitpicky with the defense in that second half. It shows the faith he has in what this team can accomplish throughout the rest of the season.
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