Indiana men’s basketball advanced to 2-0 on the season Thursday night with a 92-69 home win over Bellarmine. It was another impressive showing from the Hoosiers, who controlled the game mostly from the opening tip, led by Darren Harris’ career-high 23 points.
With such a commanding lead, Darian DeVries was able to turn to his bench early, somewhat inflating stats, but it was another standout night from Trevor Manhertz, who could be in the rotation early as a freshman. Indiana also got good bench minutes
from Byrce Lindsey, but more on that later.
Overall, Indiana has done everything its needed to do through two buy games and will head into the neutral site matchup with Syracuse on a high note.
Here were three key stats from the win:
20 3-point attempts
Just a few years ago, it felt like a good sign when a Mike Woodson or Archie Miller team reached 20 attempts from deep in any given night. Tonight under DeVries, two Indiana players alone – Darren Harris and Bryce Lindsey – combined for 20 3-pointers, going 8-20 on those shots.
Harris appeared destined for a big night early, as the Indiana offense seemed to make a concerted effort to get him looks. He took what was given early, but once the interior players started crashing the glass, he got better looks from deep and really started heating up.
Lindsey, on the other hand, has been a bit of a surprise in that he’s come off the bench so far, but when the backup point guard has the green light to take 10 shots from deep, it’s easy to see that he’s earned the coach’s trust.
Without as many proven shooters as last year’s team, it looked like this team might be more interior-oriented offensively, but through two games, this is clearly a team that likes to shoot from the perimeter.
19 Minutes
It’s hard to evaluate where people are in the rotation this early in the season, when the level of competition doesn’t always require your best five guys on the floor for 40 minutes to win a game. That said, the initial rotations have been interesting, with Manhertz clocking 19 minutes tonight, third most of any bench player.
As discussed above, Lindsey appears to be this team’s sixth man and I expect to see him with the top group. The same goes for Sam Alexis, who had a team-high 27 minutes off the bench.
A freshman getting more minutes than anyone besides those two – both fifth year players – is definitely an attention grabber. Manhertz may not truly be ahead of Trent Sisley on the depth chart this year, but he saw more minutes than him tonight.
Again, all of this has to be taken with the biggest grain of salt, as freshmen will have their minutes curtailed the most as the season goes on. Manhertz clearly has a lot of upside though, so as long as he keeps producing, look for him to see a good number of this team’s minutes at the power forward spot.
11 Scorers
DeVries was really able to empty the bench tonight, with 13 players checking into the game, 11 of whom scored points. There aren’t stats that can back this up, but the most impressive thing about the bench performance was how comfortable everyone, up and down the lineup, looked playing with each other tonight.
Sisley and Manhertz may compete for minutes down the stretch this year, but tonight, they were able to share the floor, allowing DeVries to tinker with different lineups that could prove useful as the year goes on. As opposed to last season, when it didn’t feel like there were enough guys to finish the game out, Indiana may not have enough minutes to go around this year.
Also significant is that both guys who have run point guard so far, Lindsey and Markus Burton, each finished with four assists tonight. They might bring different strengths as scorers and drivers, but Indiana has distributors on its first and second units who can get the most out of the guys around them, no matter the level of competition.
