Kansas State entered Assembly Hall with one of the highest-scoring offenses in the country.
The Wildcats were among the very best 3-point shooting teams nationally and had P.J. Haggerty, men’s college basketball’s leading scorer with 28 points per game, regularly catching defenders out of position and finishing at the rim or firing from deep.
They left Assembly Hall with a loss and just 69 points to their names.
Indiana seemed to be built for offense in year one under Darian DeVries. The Hoosiers’ new
coach added plenty of shooting in the transfer portal and the starting lineup is pretty small with three guards sharing the court with a power forward who plays like a small forward and a center who’s more than a hair under 7-feet tall.
The Hoosiers definitely score, 86 is nothing to slouch about and we’ve seen what they can do in their first three games. But this matchup presented the first real test for the defense after several buy game opponents and a lackluster Marquette team that just couldn’t hang.
That hot shooting team? Run almost completely off the 3-point line, just 20 attempts on the night to the Hoosiers’ 33. Kansas State made enough of those to shoot 40%, sure, but there were countless times they couldn’t get a shot off and had to settle for a contested look that didn’t go.
Indiana kept Kansas State from getting in any extra possessions as well, outrebounding the Wildcats 35-28 on the game. The Hoosiers don’t have a ton of size, as mentioned above, and have struggled on the boards at times. That seven rebound advantage is a pretty notable number against high-major competition.
As for Haggerty? Indiana kept him uncomfortable all night. Conor Enright stuck to him with some occasional help from the Hoosiers’ bigs in the paint and Lamar Wilkerson on the perimeter. Haggerty finished with just 16 points on 7/17 shooting, taking and missing one attempt from distance.
If Indiana can keep up this defense, it can stay in games throughout the season. Off shooting nights can spell trouble, but that can be mitigated if the defense holds firm as it did on Tuesday night.
