A "true frontcourt game"
Archie Miller said Wednesday that his team would need to play a "true frontcourt game" against Michigan State to have a chance at upsetting another ranked team in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. For the most part, that's what Indiana got from its bigs.
Trayce Jackson-Davis, at times, seemed unguardable with his length and strength inside, and Joey Brunk continued his success inside six points and four rebounds in the first half. Jackson-Davis had seven points and two rebounds.
The Hoosiers were able to work the ball through the post early and often, carrying over the ball movement success found at Nebraska.
But Jackson-Davis and Brunk both recorded two early fouls, so the Hoosiers needed to lean on their depth up front in the first half. Race Thompson stepped up. The sophomore brought physicality and effort inside to bring down four crucial rebounds in the first half. He was able to move around so freely inside that he also became part of the ball movement on the offensive end. He eventually scored both buckets he attempted.
Late in the first half, though, Thompson took a hard fall when going up for a lob near the rim and needed to be helped off the floor.
Justin Smith was also able to contribute to the frontcourt efforts, bringing down multiple offensive rebounds and turning them into scores, particularly early in the game.
The Hoosiers would eventually out-rebound Michigan State, 17-15, in the first half and score 20 of its 37 points in the paint.
When Indiana is able to work inside-out, as Miller noted it liked to do offensively, Indiana becomes an offense that is tough to stop in the Big Ten, which seemed so far from reality when Indiana was struggling to hit shots before its game against Ohio State – the game that sparked Indiana's recent success offensively.
Throughout the second half, Indiana didn't get too far away from its first-half strategy of getting into the paint, even when Michigan State was hitting threes and eventually took the lead. Joey Brunk and Trayce Jackson-Davis commanded the defense, and Michigan State couldn't get much going inside. Once the threes stopped falling, the Spartans had a hard time scoring, while Indiana found good opportunities on nearly every post touch.
When Indiana was at its best Wednesday, it was winning the post play.
Michigan State finds success from three
It around 15 minutes for Michigan State to find the game's first three, and once it got started, it didn't stop. There was a point between the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half where the Spartans hit seven consecutive three-point attempts, and that challenged Indiana's lead for a large part of the second half.
It was two straight threes from Aaron Henry that pulled Michigan State with three when the Hoosiers built their initial lead. But Cassius Winston connected on three threes in the matter of 2:16, and eventually, Rocket Watts knocked down a three to give Michigan State its first lead of the game, 51-48, just before the midway point of the second half.
Those threes quit falling, though, an in scenarios when the Spartans needed them most. Whie going into the paint became more available as the game went along, the three-point shot, which could have sank Indiana if its success carried on, was not there.
Limiting empty possessions
For the most part, there weren't many empty possessions from either team, but Indiana found a way to play outside of itself in some ways, and one of those ways was the number of turnovers it committed.
The Hoosiers had just five turnovers at halftime and then turned the ball over just once throughout the first half of the second half. That lack of empty possessions saved Indiana when Michigan State was raining threes, as it prevented the Spartans from compounding too many successful possessions consecutively, so when Michigan State took the lead at 51-48, the lead didn't expand like it has on Indiana throughout the course of the season.
The few empty possessions that plagued Indiana were possessions that ended with free throws. The Hoosiers hovered around 50 percent for most of the night, and it cost them.
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