You’ve probably seen the stat by now, but I’ll share it again here anyway. Of Indiana’s 103 made field goals on the season, 73 have come off of assists.
Darian DeVries has completely flipped the style of play most have been accustomed to watching when the Hoosier have taken the floor for the past eight seasons and two coaching tenures. His Indiana scores, being just one bucket away from three straight 100-point outings to open the season.
Let’s talk about how the Hoosiers have done it:
Roster and lineup construction
When DeVries
set out to assemble his first roster, largely through the transfer portal, he did so with the stated goals of playing an up-tempo system that generates looks before a defense has a chance to get set and shooting plenty of 3s. He built a roster that appeared built just for that, with emphasis on the backcourt and a versatile frontcourt.
The one thing missing from this group was pure talent, the kinds of players NBA scouts monitor long before they sign with a college basketball program. It made up for that in experience, Indiana’s starting lineup is made up entirely of seniors. The lone possible exception to this note on talent is Tucker DeVries, Darian’s son and a former Player of the Year in the Missouri Valley Conference. If Indiana was going to find success this season it was going to have to play as a unit, better than the sum of its parts.
DeVries starts two true point guards in Tayton Conerway and Conor Enright. The two lead the Hoosiers in assists with 6.4 and 4 per game, respectively. Having two capable ballhandlers and passers on the floor naturally opens the offense up a bit more and allows for more scoring opportunities in transition and halfcourt.
The Indiana Pacers, just up the road in Indianapolis, went all the way to the NBA Finals thanks to a high-octane offensive attack led by a backcourt duo of Tyrese Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard. That’s an extreme example, yes, but it’s a pertinent one. The Pacers, like the Hoosiers, play fast and get plenty of 3s up. If Haliburton faces pressure he has a go-to release valve in Nembhard, making it difficult for opposing defenses to shut the offense down. The same base-level principles are present with these Hoosiers.
As for the rest of Indiana’s starters? Lamar Wilkerson is in at small forward, Tucker DeVries is at power forward and Reed Bailey is at center. That makes for a pretty small lineup. Wilkerson has the build of a shooting guard, DeVries plays more like a wing and Bailey stands at 6’10”.
Indiana has turned that into a pretty fluid stream of points.
Style of play
With the lack of size, Indiana can’t rely on raw power in the paint to get looks, instead running off ball actions to get guys open under the rim or running the floor in transition. That leads to plenty of passing from around the lineup.
Wilkerson, starting at small forward, is up to 4 assists per game as well as he’s looked to be a versatile part of the Hoosiers’ offense rather than just a shooter. None of the Hoosier starters are averaging less than 2.7 assists per game, with DeVries and Reed Bailey both there right now.
All that passing shows up in individual players’ usage as well. Four starters (Wilkerson, DeVries, Conerway and Bailey) are above 20% in possessions used on the court. The Hoosiers haven’t developed a go-to guy, keeping the ball moving.
Sure, the individual numbers are good, but the team stats are kind of staggering. A different way of phrasing that stat way at the top of this piece is breaking it into a percentage. Right now, 70.9% of the Hoosiers field goals are being generated by assists. That’s good for seventh nationally and second in the Big Ten behind Iowa (76.4%). The Hoosiers have the highest-ranked offensive efficiency of the top-10 teams in Assist%, ranking in at 12th. Indiana has managed to take care of the basketball with all of that passing, turning it over on just 12% of its possessions, the 24th best mark nationally.
A fair amount of looks the Hoosiers have generated are from 3-point range. That’s understandable with two outstanding shooters, Wilkerson and DeVries, in the lineup. Almost half of Indiana’s field goal attempts, 43.5%, have come from deep with 38.1% of their scoring being 3s. Those figures are good for 120th and 63rd nationally. The Hoosiers are converting on a blistering 47.5% of their attempts from deep, good for 7th nationally.
Indiana is making so many 3s because so many of the 3s it takes are good shots. They’re good shots because they were assisted. Keeping the ball moving naturally opens up the offense, defenses can’t cover everyone all the time and get tired out.
The Hoosiers are there to capitalize.
