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Indiana second-year guard Tamar Bates came into this season as someone who was expected to take a huge step forward in his production. Despite it taking a few games longer than originally thought, his scoring ability off of the bench for Indiana has now been on full display.

The 6-foot-5 guard has always had the ability to be a shot creator, but recently he has turned into a true shot maker.

Friday night was just another example of his recent success as he scored 19 points on 7-of-12 from the field and 3-of-7 from three in a career-high 31 minutes off of the bench.

"Well guys are going to have to step up. We are shorthanded. Tamar has starting to step up and he's done some good things for us in the 13 games we've played," IU head coach Mike Woodson said. "It's just that his minutes are now going to increase because we are going to need him to step up and make plays for us."

"Honestly I was really confident on the first three that went in and out. Then the pull up went in and out," Bates added. "So I knew it was going to be a pretty solid shooting night. But yeah, you see one fall, two fall, especially consecutively, you're itching to get the next one up."

Bates had a slow start to the season. He was averaging just 5.8 points on 47.6 percent shooting overall and 25 percent from three in the first five games of the season.

In the last eight games, Bates is now averaging 11.4 points on 53.8 percent from the field and 47.2 percent from three. He is averaging 2.1 made 3s per game.

"It's not a secret recipe or any mystery of why things are going my way on the offensive end," Bates said. "It's just putting the work in by myself and with the team. Also knowing my teammates and the coaches have the confidence in me to play my game."

Play his game is what he's doing -- and that is scoring the ball. In the last eight games, he has scored in double-figures four times and has had a 22-point game, two 19-point games and a 13-point game.

His recent play has not only put extra confidence in himself, but Indiana is now relying on him heavily to carry a large part of the scoring role. In the second half in Indiana's win, a change in the offensive gameplan opened things up for not only him, but the entire backcourt of IU.

"We opened the floor up a little bit and gave (Jalen Hood) Schifino some room to move with the basketball as well as Gallo (Trey Galloway). And Tamar was on the backend of a lot of it and getting shot," Woodson said. "I ran a few things for Tamar to get shots and he delivered for us... it was a total team effort and we just tried to open things up offensively.

"He's (Bates) put in the time. He's getting more minutes now. He's knocking shots down for us. It's what he's capable of doing and when I run plays for him, I expect him to deliver. "

In the second half alone, Bates and Jalen Hood-Schifino combined for 27 of the 42 points for Indiana and made nine of the 13 made field goals.

Overall, Bates and Hood Schifino combined for 37 points on 13-of-20 from the field and 4-of-8 from three. The rest of the team had 32 points on 10-of-26 from the field and 3-of-10 from three. Jalen Hood-Schifino has now set a new career-high in five of the last seven games.

With the injury to starting guard Xavier Johnson, that will keep him out indefinitely, Bates' scoring and playmaking ability has now emerged at the right time for Indiana and will be even more critical moving forward.

The success for Bates isn't something unexpected. Despite the ups and the downs in his young career, he remained confident in himself and in his skills.

"I wouldn't say I changed my shot mechanics. Just more so calming down and shooting the ball," Bates said. "Having that mentality of shooting the ball the same way in the games as I do when I'm in there working out and it's empty. Just calming down and not being so tense and just taking all the pressure off myself."

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