11/10/2022 basketball Edit

Indiana's Explosive Shooting Brings a new Light to the Hoosiers Offense

Kevin Vera • TheHoosier

Staff Writer

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Questions about Indiana’s ability to shoot the three have lingered over the team the whole off season, but the Hoosiers sure made their case on Thursday night against Bethune-Cookman. Indiana won in dominant fashion 101-49, but the Hoosiers shot lights out from the entire floor. The highlight for the Hoosiers was how well they shot from the deep ball especially in the first half. Indiana finished the game 10-24 from three thanks to Miller Kopp who lead the pack with four made threes.

Last year, Indiana ranked towards the bottom of the Big Ten when it came to 3-point shooting. The Hoosiers were 11th in the Big Ten in 3-point field goal percentage, shooting 33 percent on the year. Indiana finished second to last in total made threes with just 206, seven more than the bottom ranked Rutgers. Indiana also would finish with just under six 3-pointers made a game averaging 5.9 on the season, the worst in the Big Ten. An emphasis on shooting was pushed by Mike Woodson and his staff this offseason and for Woodson, it was good to see a switch take place early in the season.

“Well, this team is competitive, man,” said Woodson. “I'm just telling you. If you'd been able to sit in practice and watch the journey from when we started 4 1/2 months ago, they just, they're competitive. They go at each other in practice, which is kind of nice, man.” Woodson said.

Nov 10, 2022; Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Indiana Hoosiers guard Jalen Hood-Schifino (1) shoots the ball over Bethune-Cookman Wildcats guard Joe French (30) in the first half at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports (Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports)

Kopp played a big role in the Hoosiers performance. The senior forwad ended his night with 12 points, all of which came by way of his long range game. Kopp was running all over the floor mainly getting his shots in transition, something that struggled in his game last year. This new free flowing offense from the Hoosiers has created chances to shoot the three from every part of the floor and so far it has worked for this team. Changes over the summer helped Kopp get things back on track and find his shot.

“I think, for me, this summer was a big focus,” Kopp said. “Obviously you always want to shoot better, you can always dribble better, You can always just be better. Going into the off-season was big for me just focusing on getting reps and mentally being cognitive of how big shooting is mentally, I guess.”

In pretty much every category, the Hoosiers shot extremely well in the win over Bethune-Cookman. Indiana finished shooting 42 percent from three, their highest single game 3-point shooting percentage since March 10, 2021 when the Hoosiers defeated the Michigan Wolverines. Indiana also worked efficiently from the field shooting near 60 percent, finishing 58 percent from the field.

The Hoosiers struggled from the free throw line in the first game of the season against Morehead State, but Indiana was able to clean things up against the Wildcats. The Hoosiers shot a near perfect 100 percent from the line going 21-22. Woodson was glad to see his guys knock down all types of shots in the victory.

“I think just shooting the ball with confidence is a big thing for us because we know we've got guys that can make shots,” Woodson said. So just continuous repetition of that and having guys be ready to step up and knock it down.”

Overall, Indiana looked like completely new offensive team on Thursday and put up an impressive all-around performance. The Hoosiers broke 100 points while also shooting exceptionally well from the field, the 3-point arc, and the free throw line. As the Hoosiers earn their second win of the season, things are trending in the right direction for Woodson’s offense.