Indiana was going to need transfer forward Joey Brunk at some point after he had begun to fade with the rise fo redshirt sophomore forward Race Thompson recently. That point was Wednesday, when Daniel Oturu and Minnesota gave the Hoosiers a fight in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
When Indiana was wading its way through its first sense of adversity and into arguably its best stretch of basketball to date – from Connecticut on Dec. 10 to Michigan State on Jan. 23 – transfer forward Joey Brunk was an active contributor to Indiana’s efforts.
During that entire stretch, Brunk recorded double-digit points and/or rebounds in seven of 10 games, and the narrative following the team along seemed to include a frontcourt locked down by Brunk and freshman forward Trayce Jackson-Davis.
Then, simultaneously, Race Thompson began to step up while Brunk waned into a six-game stretch averaging 10 points per game. Brunk remained in the starting lineup, though. Indiana was going to need him again at some point, and Wednesday evening against Daniel Oturu was that night.
“The minute you change, you lose guys. There's no reason to do that,” Indiana head coach Archie Miller said after the game. “Part of it is I think what Joey did tonight, you hang in there, hang in there. It's not easy to play well every night, but it's easy to play hard every night. Joe played extremely hard tonight.”
During many Brunk’s short stints on the floor in the last handful of games, he’s appeared a step too slow on either end of the floor, but against Purdue, he showed signs of finding reform, bringing down several offensive rebounds. But Wednesday, he scored Indiana’s first bucket, which sparked a new confidence, Miller said.
Brunk frequently posted up Minnesota defenders, particularly projected NBA first round draft pick Daniel Oturu, and proved to be effective. At one point, Oturu appeared to have Brunk stymied on the baseline, but Brunk spun his way around the 6-foot-10 defender to score. In those situations, as Brunk began to find some success, he passed on kickouts to find higher-percentage layups.
Later in the game, when Indiana and Minnesota were locked at 54-54, Brunk received a pass at the three-point lane with a lane open to the basket. He put the ball on the floor and drove, a rare occasion since Brunk has arrived in Bloomington, and he put the ball up for a score and drew the foul.
He finished the game with 12 points – 10 coming in the second half – and eight rebounds, his best game since Indiana’s win over Michigan State on Jan. 23.
“His energy,” sophomore guard Rob Phinisee said about Brunk’s most significant contribution Wednesday. “I mean, we needed it in the second half. Just him bringing the energy, getting those big buckets when we needed it.”
Brunk said, throughout the stretch when he found himself on the bench more than on the court, he wanted to “stick with what got (him) here,” meaning, Miller said, having good touch around the rim and playing good post defense.
Too many times during February, Brunk was concerned about making the shots he was taking before being concerned about finding the good shots, Miller said, which fed Brunk’s tendency to overthink on the floor. That wasn’t the case Wednesday, which proved to be necessary with Jackson-Davis playing at less than 100-percent with a sprained ankle.
Where it was primarily Jackson-Davis and Thompson, on Feb. 19, disturbing Oturu on the defensive end, it was Brunk all game Wednesday, and Oturu finished 11-of-27 with 24 points and 16 rebounds. Indiana out-rebounded Minnesota, 35-34, and at multiple points of the game, particularly in the second half, there were crucial stretches when Jackson-Davis was not available and the only two players in the frontcourt were Brunk and Thompson.
When games late in the season boil down to key playmakers and teams digging deep to find sources of energy and production, Brunk was there Wednesday for Indiana in a game the Hoosiers could not afford to lose and after it appeared so many following the program were ready to move on from him.
“In general, if we would change, it would be out of a movement of strength, not out of a movement of weakness,” Miller said about changing lineups. “We've been doing it all year by committee. It's not like our starters always play well or this guy and that guy play well.”
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