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BLOOMINGTON — Darian DeVries’ team entered a holiday break as needed as it was earned with a win Monday night that comfortably encapsulated the Indiana basketball season so far.
For 20 minutes, against MAAC-contending Siena, the Hoosiers looked little short of outstanding. Even allowing for the gap in competitive quality. IU’s complementary basketball — defensive effort leading to easy offense, offensive confidence boosting defensive effort, in a virtuous circle — was easy to spot.
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The Hoosiers looked equal parts dominant and ruthless on their way to a 26-point halftime lead.
And then, as has been the case often enough through two months to be of meaningful concern, that effort waned, and Indiana got the expected result the other side of it.
“The good part is, if that’s what we’ve got to work on, that’s a good thing,” DeVries said. “I thought the second half we just lost a little bit of our edge both ends of the floor.
“First half, when we were getting stops, it allowed us to get out in transition, allowed us to get our shooters free. Second half, we weren’t quite as stingy defensively, and we’re taking the ball out of the net a lot more, and the game really just slowed down.”
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There was never a moment of any significance Monday night, in what eventually ended as an 81-60 Indiana win, when DeVries’ team felt genuinely stressed. Underscoring that comfort, Ken Pomeroy’s in-game win probability graph for the Hoosiers never dipped under 95.4%.
That was at tipoff.
And yet — as was the case with Incarnate Word, and Lindenwood, and Chicago State, and Kentucky, and Minnesota in an upset defeat — fans drifted out of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and into the brisk pre-Christmas night still stuck with the feeling that this team remains perhaps three-quarters complete.
That IU has all the right ideas, shows all the necessary effort and commitment, and in moments, looks capable of putting itself together as a force to be reckoned with in the Big…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/iu-shows-ncaa-tournament-promise-094044835.html
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Publish date : 2025-12-23 09:40:00
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