Indiana men’s basketball beats Bethune-Cookman 100-56: 3 takeaways

Indiana put together a strong 40-minute performance against Bethune-Cookman Saturday afternoon in a bit of a tune-up game before Big Ten play starts this coming week. Head coach Darian DeVries got strong performances from just about everyone who checked into the game, a good sign of a team that’s hitting its stride early in the season.

Before the end of November, Indiana now has three 100-point performances. It reached 100 points twice in the Mike Woodson era, once against a Bethune-Cookman team that was about 100 spots lower in KenPom’s national rankings than the team Indiana beat today.

Through just seven games of the DeVries era, it’s clear that there’s been a major shift for Indiana basketball. This group will be challenged more in Big Ten play, but it’s playing a winning, modern style of basketball that Indiana’s last two coaches never embraced.

Here are Three Takeaways from today’s game:

The Bench

While the starters were not struggling by any means, Indiana was able to really bury Bethune-Cookman because of how well the first three players off the bench played today. Sam Alexis, Trent Sisley, and Nick Dorn had 14 points each, while holding the Wildcat bench to a total of 12 points.

Sisley brought his usual, high-energy cutting and crashing the glass to finish a couple of transition opportunities, also leading Indiana with 9 rebounds in just 14 minutes off the bench. Alexis grabbed eight boards himself and was super efficient scoring, going 6-9 from the field and 2-4 from 3-point range.

After missing a few games with a lingering foot injury, Dorn had his strongest game at Indiana, showing why he can be such a valuable piece going forward. He went 4-5 from 3-point range, taking zero shots inside the arc aside from a pair of free throws he hit.

All three bring different things to the game, but it’s clear that Indiana has some depth on its bench that will make this team more versatile as a whole and better suited to the rigors of conference play.

Lamar Wilkerson

Besides going 4-7 against Kansas Sate, Lamar Wilkerson has been struggling from 3-point range over the last few weeks. Today against Bethune-Cookman though, he demonstrated that there’s more to his game when the shots aren’t falling.

Wilkerson finished with 18-points despite going just 1-8 from 3-point range, making it the first time this season that he’s eclipsed 15 points without hitting multiple threes. He also added three assists, the second-most he’s had this season, behind a whopping eight against Marquette.

Indiana is obviously better when Wilkerson is hitting his threes, but Wilkerson finding other ways to score the ball helps relieve the pressure on Tucker DeVries and the rest of Indiana’s starters.

The Shot Chart

Under Darian DeVries, Indiana has been exceptionally efficient on both ends of the floor, coming in at 34th nationally on offense and 15th in defense, per KenPom. Today’s shot chart is a great illustration of why Indiana has been so efficient.

The Hoosiers attempted practically zero mid-range shots while forcing a high-volume of them from the Wildcats. Most of those inefficient shots did not fall, while Indiana hit a good number of its threes and shots in the paint.

Teams will try to knock Indiana off this game plan, but there is a clear blueprint to victory with this team. Ball-movement, taking good shots (with the exception of the occasional heat check), and keeping opponents out of the high-efficiency areas on defense has been the key to Indiana’s 7-0 start.