Published Nov 21, 2021
Know Your Opponent: Louisiana
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Trevor Gersmehl  •  Hoosier Huddle
Staff Writer
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Indiana retakes the court Sunday against the Sun Belt's own Louisiana. The Hoosiers are coming off a huge win versus a very good St. John's team and will look to refine some of their techniques and strategy against three mid-majors in a row.

Louisiana comes into the game at a perfect 3-0, albeit against mostly sub-Division I competition. Longtime coach Bob Marlin coached the team to a 17-9 record last season and a 4th-place finish in the Sun Belt.

The Rajun' Cajuns have something almost no other mid-major has -- a former McDonald's All-American. Jordan Brown was the No. 12 player on the Rivals150 for the class of 2018. He committed to play at Nevada before transferring to Arizona and again transferring to Louisiana before this season.

Brown hasn't had much success at the college level, but he is off to a good start this year. The 6-foot-11-inch forward is averaging a team-high 14.3 points along with 7.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks.

Greg Williams is a home-grown junior guard who transferred from St. John's after three seasons in New York. Williams has good size at 6-foot-3-inches and can fill the stat sheet. He averages 11.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, and a team-high 3.7 assists per game.

The Rajun' Cajuns run a twin-towers approach with 6-foot-11-inch Theo Akwuba next to Brown. Akwuba is one of two returning starters from last season, the other being forward Dou Gueye. Akwuba averages a team-high 8.0 rebounds and 10.3 points per game, while Gueye has struggled to get much playing time.

Rounding out the starting lineup is freshman forward Kobe Julien and junior guard Jalen Dalcourt. The two combine to score 19.0 points per game.

St. John's Projected Starters:

G - Greg Willians (Jr; 6-3; 200)

Season Stats: 11.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 3.7 apg

G - Jalen Dalcourt (Sr; 6-2; 170)

Season Stats: 9.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg

F - Kobe Julien (Fr; 6-6, 215)

Season Stats: 10.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1.3 apg

F - Jordan Brown (So; 6-11; 235)

Season Stats: 14.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 2.0 bpg

C- Theo Akwuba (Jr 6-11; 225)

Season Stats: 10.3 ppg, 8.0 rpg

Things To Watch For Indiana:

Indiana's use of pick and roll. Against Eastern Michigan and Northern Illinois, 30% of their shots came out of the pick and roll, but just 9.6% against St. John's. This may be due to St. John's running more zone almost a quarter of the game, but it doesn't account for all the dropoff.

Indiana's transition attempts were way up against St. John's instead of pick and roll, and they did pretty well from an efficiency standpoint. It will be interesting to see if Indiana will try to play more in transition after their success last game or try to hone the pick and roll game.

Game Information:

Who: Indiana (3-0) vs. Louisiana (3-0)

When: Sunday, Nov. 20th, 7:30 p.m. ET

Where Bloomington, IN

TV: BTN

Radio: IU Radio Network with Don Fischer, Errek Suhr and Joe Smith

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QUICK HITTERS

This will be the first time in school history these two teams play each other

Louisiana forward Jordan Brown is a former McDonald's All-American

Lousiana is 22nd in the country in rebounding at 33.7 per game

Lousiana is 16th in the country in blocks at 6.7 per game

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