That's the Game: Mississippi Valley State

As expected, the Hoosiers annihilated the Delta Devils of Mississippi Valley State 116-65.  And as I thought, UIndy probably would have blown this team out of the water as well.  The Hoosiers dominated just about every aspect of this game, as you would expect looking at the score, and it’s going to be difficult to find much to nitpick on offense when every single one of your eligible players (including walk-ons) score.

Some of these first games are a bit difficult to analyze, what with the youth of the team, the quality of the opponent, and, right now, the missing of some key players.  But here’s what we saw in the first serving of cupcake last night.

The Good:

The Indiana offense.  It may not have always been pretty, but this team got it done on this end of the court.  They shot lights out, connecting on 11 out of 23 three-point attempts.  One game in, the Hoosiers are leading the country in effective field goal percentage (which gives weight to three pointers) with 75.4%.  As previously mentioned, every single Hoosier scored, including 6’11” freshman Jeremiah April, who was only cleared to play by the team physicians that night.  Freshman phenom James Blackmon Jr. led all scorers with 25 points (second only to Eric Gordon Jr. for number of points in the first game for a Hoosier), hitting 7-10 from the floor, including 3-4 from deep, and 8-9 from free throw.  Fellow freshmen Robert Johnson and Max Hoetzel contributed 15 and 19 points respectively, while also grabbing seven and nine rebounds each.  Juniors Yogi Ferrell and Nick Zeisloft rounded out the double-digit scoring with 15 and 16 points.  Like I said, it’s difficult to find many flaws when a team scores this many points (almost 1.5 per possession), and it’s also difficult to analyze it much, based on the quality of the opponent.

The start, the middle, and the end.  After two exhibition games in which Indiana found itself in an early hole, the Hoosiers put the petal to the metal early and never really let off the gas.  IU trailed for a grand total of 21 seconds early in the game, but held a nine-point lead halfway through the first half before seeing that lead jump to 23 points at the half.  Just as impressively, the Hoosiers came out just as strong to start the second half, pushing the lead to 36 points in the first five minutes.  By the end of the game, when the final lineup consisted of four freshmen (including a walk-on) and a redshirt junior walk-on, the score stood at 100-54 with five minutes remaining.  Not only did this lineup not let MVSU gain any ground, they actually pushed the lead from 48 to 51 points.  Oddly enough, this lineup, while being perhaps the least experienced lineup possible, was easily the tallest, with every single player being 6’7” or taller and Hoetzel as the point guard.

The Not-so-good:

Turnovers upon turnovers upon turnovers.  Of course, when a team plays as fast as this Hoosier team does, turnovers are going to happen.  Add the youth of the team to the equation and this team will likely turn the ball over a lot.  In this game, they turned it over 19 times, 13 of those coming in the first half.  These turnovers tended to come in fits, including five within a span of about a minute and a half.  The miscues were also predominately committed by freshman, with the youngsters accounting for 12 of the total 19.  Six out of the seven remaining turnovers were committed by the combo of Ferrell and Zeisloft, each having three.  Many of the turnovers were of the really dumb unforced variety, mostly the byproduct of young players playing really fast.  These numbers could go down as these players gain more experience and learn their own pace limitations, but the numbers are likely to remain higher than IU fans are going to enjoy.  There was, however, a positive side to the turnover saga, with the Hoosiers committing only two turnovers in the first 13:50 of the second half.  If Indiana can play more like that, this could be a dangerous team.

The Final Word:

The Hoosiers ran and scored and ran and scored and ran some more.  Fans are mostly going to find this team to be a fun one to watch, even if there is some frustration and face-palming at times.  Indiana scored the most points in a game in almost 21 years, falling only two points shy of the Assembly Hall record of 118.  Every Hoosier scored, they outrebounded the Delta Devils by 27 (lead by Hanner Mosquera-Perea with a career-high 12), and they were deadly shooting from just about everywhere on the court.  This is exactly what this team needs to do game in and game out, even though their first true test doesn’t come until Thursday, Nov. 20, against SMU.

Up Next:

Former Hoosier coach Mike Davis brings his Texas Southern Tigers to the Assembly Hall on Monday, Nov. 17, in his first return trip since he walked the sidelines for Indiana.  In their game yesterday, the Tigers lost to Eastern Washington (a team the Hoosiers will host on Nov. 24) by a score of 86-62.  Per kenpom.com, the Tigers are ranked 279^th out of 351 teams, and he has the Hoosiers winning 88-67 with a 96% chance of victory.  I’d venture to say that Indiana will put up more points than that, but overall this should be another helping of cupcake in the early season.