BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana men's basketball returns to action on Friday night, re-entering the friendly confines of Assembly Hall and welcoming the Minnesota Golden Gophers for a Friday night clash in conference.
Last time out just three nights ago, IU (11-5, 3-2) suffered a frustrating road loss at the hands of Rutgers in a building the Hoosiers have seldom had success in. A staunch Rutger defense held Indiana to just 57 points as the Hoosiers turned the ball over 18 times, lost a starting point guard to a silly ejection-worthy play and never established any sort of established rhythm beyond the game's first few minutes.
With a quick turnaround now to try and erase the sour taste that game still leaves, Indiana has one last contest before the nation's current top team and the Hoosiers' biggest rival meet for the first time. Before IU meets with Purdue next week, however, it must deal with Minnesota to begin the weekend.
The Golden Gophers (12-3, 3-1) enter the contest with wins over Michigan, Maryland and Nebraska in their last three conference matchups. The three triumphs already eclipse the two total wins in Big Ten play Minnesota managed last season, and Minnesota enters Bloomington on a seven-game winning streak.
Every contest is crucial from here on out as the second half of the season gets into full swing. 16 games down, 15 to go for IU. Before the Gophers and Hoosiers tip off on an early Friday night in Bloomington, preview the contest and take an in-depth look at Minnesota:
Opponent Preview
Head Coach: Ben Johnson
:Career Record: 34-42, same at Minnesota
Third year as head coach, all with the Golden Gophers
Johnson's third season at the helm in Minneapolis has been his best so far – already overachieving from last season's total wins in the conference. With one more win, he would equal his best of the two previous seasons manning the Golden Gopher sidelines as their best season under Johnson, at least so far, finished the year with 13 total victories.
The former Gopher alum and basketball player has held graduate assistant or assistant coaching roles with Dayton, Xavier, Nebraska, Northern Iowa and University of Texas-Pan American.
Johnson's current contract with UM goes until 2027.
This Season
KenPom: 78 (IU 92)
Torvik: 84 (96)
EvanMiya; 86 (84)
NET Ranking: 86 (101)
We start with the Minnesota offense, which scored 79.8 points a game for a +12.6 nightly scoring margin and checks in as KenPom's 77th-best offense by adjusted efficiency on Friday morning. A team mark of 56% effective FG% is 22nd in the nation, and the Golden Gophers' 34.4% offensive rebound rate could cause even more problems for Indiana – the Big Ten's second-worst team by rebounding percentages despite being America's third-tallest team by average height (only Northwestern ranks lower in rebounding percentages).
The ball is constantly moving with the Gopher offense and it leads to a ton of assists, with 69.1% of made field goals coming with the help of an assist. That mark is the second-best in all of college basketball this season.
On the defensive end, the Gophers are a generally solid team as well. They hold opponents, on average, to just a 46% effective FG% and typically limit the amount of times a team goes to the free throw line. Minnesota's defense against two-pointers is 33rd-best in all of college basketball, an interesting matchup to watch as IU's offensive engine looks to establish itself on the low block throughout the night as perimeter struggles continue.
- It starts with junior forward Dawson Garcia for the Gophers, a 6-foot-11 big who sees the lion's share of possessions and shots in the offense when he's on the floor. One of four double-digit per-game scorers for Minnesota so far this season, Garcia averages 16.7 points a game and 7.6 rebounds a night – leading the Gophers in both categories.
- Junior guard Mike Mitchell Jr. helps lead the Gopher backcourt rotation with 11.1 points, despite only having started five of the 15 contests he's appeared in this season. Mitchell JR. is a 41% three-point shooter on 83 attempts this year and owns team-highs in effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage among qualified players.
- Junior guard and former Howard transfer Elijah Hawkins is the lead facilitator for the UM offense, averaging 7.8 assists a night through 15 starts in the UM backcourt. Unsurprisingly, his 40.5% assist rate is a team-best, and it's good for 6th-best in the entire country among all qualified players. Hawkins sees the most of floor time of any Gopher.
- Sophomore forward Joshua Ola-Joesph is one of three everyday players with a field goal percentage more than 60% on the season. Averaging 10.7 points a night, the 6-foot-7 frontcourt hybrid has the highest individual offensive rating (126.2, or 1.26 points per possession) on the Gophers this year.
- Freshman guard Cam Christie is the younger brother of former Michigan State guard and now-Los Angeles Laker Mac Christie, but the 6-foot-6 guard is trying to make a name for himself with the Gophers this season. Having made seven starts and appearing in 14 games this year, he averages 10.6 points a game this season and is a 39.7% three-point shooter.
- Pharrel Payne, a sophomore 6-foot-9 forward, played in 30 games last season as a part of a freshman grouping of four that featured for the Gophers a season ago. Back in Minneapolis for his second Big Ten campaign, Payne is averaging 9.7 points and 5.4 rebounds a game for Johnson's squad. He sees just 47% of the minutes for the Gophers, but he's the best rebounder percentage-wise on the Minnesota roster – he has an 11.6% offensive rebound rate and 18.8% defensive rebound rate when he's on the floor.
- Redshirt junior forward Isaiah Ihnen, sophomore guard Braeden Carrington and redshirt senior forward Parker Fox round out the typical nine-man rotation the Gophers play with on a nightly basis – averaging 5.7, 5.7 and 3.7 points per game respectively.
Storylines to monitor…
Can Hoosiers put together a better effort on the glass?
Minnesota is a team adept at capitalizing on the very things Indiana has struggled to do as of late: rebound on the defensive glass. One of the best representations of effort a stat sheet can offer, Indiana surrenders offensive rebounds to opponents off of misses 30.6% of the time. Instead of getting out in transition off of misses and emphasizing the athleticism advantage this team was originally constructed around, IU has made too much of a habit of giving up second and third looks at the bucket, which teams are more than happy to take advantage of on the gifted extra possessions.
Opponents have brought in 189 offensive rebounds this year opposed to IU's 143. On average, Indiana's opponents get 11.8 extra chances just by crashing the offensive glass. Counting both offensive and defensive rebounding numbers, the Hoosiers rebounding margin sits at a minuscule +0.1 per night – 571 rebounds grabbed total, 569 given up.
Indiana's small margin for error the rest of the way in terms of results means the Hoosiers' must be much more sound in multiple areas of the game in order to start stacking victories. The first place those efforts should start is the glass.
IU's seniors must pull together, and so too must its coaching staff
The situation regarding saving a season in the midst of a spiral is nearing dire status, and the onus to turn things around and make positive change has to be split equally from the coaching staff and the seniors entrusted to lead a group that is still so fresh from a standpoint of continuity together on the floor.
After Indiana's loss to Rutgers Tuesday, head coach Mike Woodson told reporters that he would need more from Xavier Johnson, Trey Galloway and Anthony Walker. The one senior omitted from the criticism was Anthony Leal, who Woodson said has been playing "great" and not provided any reason for complaint.
But, the same standards must be held to the coaching staff, who must pull the correct strings to get things going in the correct direction as well. Indiana's lacked a sense of general leadership in the absence of Trayce Jackson-Davis, Race Thompson and Miller Kopp – voices that permeated a locker room and into the media as the proud torch-bearers of Indiana's program. That sense of leadership must return, both on and off the floor, in order to pick the Hoosiers up off the ground and get their feet settled once again.
If not, it could be a long, frustrating finish to the season. But it must come one night at a time. Back on its home floor and facing mounting adversity, Indiana has no choice but to pull together as one. That's what leadership-filled teams would do in this situation.
Quick Hitters
Who?: Indiana (11-5, 3-2 in Big Ten play) vs. Minnesota (12-3, 3-1 in Big Ten play)
Series History: Indiana leads, 107-69. (Last Meeting: IU 61, MINN 57 on 1/25/23 in Minneapolis)
When?: Friday, January 12, 6:30 p.m. ET
Where?: Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana
TV: FS1: Lisa Byington (play-by-play), Stephen Bardo (color)
Radio: IU Radio Network, Don Fischer (play-by-play), Errek Suhr (analyst), John Herrick
Vegas: Indiana -4.5, o/u 144.5
KenPom: Indiana 74-72, 58% chance of an Indiana victory
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