Five takeaways from Indiana’s win over Minnesota

Indiana opened Big Ten play with an 82-67 victory over Minnesota Monday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

It was Indiana’s fourth straight victory and improved the Hoosiers to 8-2. Here are five takeaways from the win against the Golden Gophers:

Bryson Tucker shines in 20 minutes coming off the bench

Freshman wing Bryson Tucker had his ups and downs through Indiana’s first ten games, but played arguably his best minutes of the season against Minnesota.

Tucker scored a career-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and a 4-of-6 performance from the free throw line.

The McDonald’s All-American has an affinity for the mid-range game, but launched his offense against Minnesota at the rim. Tucker’s first two baskets came on a second-chance layup and another layup less than two minutes later. Four of his six baskets were layups.

The 16-point performance against Minnesota came after Tucker had arguably his worst game of the season against Miami (OH) on Friday.

“After that game, I just had to keep a clear head and know that there were a lot of games coming up,” Tucker said after the game. “So if I have a bad game in a match, I know I can change it. I know everything can change the next match. So I just have to stay focused, keep a clear mind and keep going.

Kanaan Carlyle returns and makes an instant impact

Sophomore guard Kanaan Carlyle returned from his three-game absence with his best overall game of the season.

The 6-foot-3 guard came off the bench and scored 14 points, dished out five assists and grabbed three rebounds in 21 minutes.

Carlyle was 5 of 8 from the field, including 3 of 6 on 3-pointers. The offense has been tough early in the season for Carlyle, who has shot just 30 percent from 3 and 40 percent from 2 in seven games.

But he’s been Indiana’s most consistent guard on the defensive end. He constantly puts pressure on the ball, fights through screens and doesn’t hesitate to dive on the floor for choppy plays.

“I just picked it up 94 feet,” Carlyle said after the game when asked what he did well defensively. “I feel like it pushes my whole game forward, just my defense, my energy, so I feel like that’s what I have to bring every night because that’s also what pushes forward my attack.”

Turnovers remain a problem

Indiana’s comfortable 15-point victory wasn’t perfect and the most glaring problem offensively was taking care of the ball.

The Hoosiers continue to attempt passes that have no chance of reaching their recipient. Indiana had several errant passes that hit the rim or backboard.

On another occasion, Myles Rice lost his shoe, tried to save the ball by falling out of bounds, and threw it to Minnesota for a layup.

Indiana had 14 turnovers for a turnover percentage of 20.6 percent. After 10 games, the Hoosiers rank 287th in turnover percentage at 19.7.

Repeated mistakes haven’t stopped Indiana from winning games against inferior competition. But that won’t be the case once Big Ten play heats up and the Hoosiers face teams capable of capitalizing on their mistakes.

Struggles from the 3-point and free-throw lines

Indiana dominated the game inside the 3-point line, scoring 42 points in the paint and shooting 66.7 percent on 2s.

The Hoosiers scored 1.21 points per possession despite a rough shooting night from the free throw line and a tough night from the perimeter.

Indiana was just 18 of 29 (62.1%) from the free throw line. This is an unusual performance for a team that is now shooting 75.2 percent from the line. This percentage ranks 80th in the country.

3-point volume was once again low as Indiana attempted just 14 3s in the win and connected on four for 28.6 percent.

The Hoosiers continue to advance to the bottom of Division I in 3-point volume. As of Tuesday morning, Indiana was attempting 29.7 percent of its field goals from behind the 3-point line. This ranks 351st out of 364 teams.

Improved energy and urgency

Indiana’s first half against Minnesota was one of its best 20-minute stretches of the season.

Despite a hot shooting start for the Gophers, the Hoosiers took control of the game at the 4:41 mark of the first half.

After Minnesota led 22-20 on a Brennan Rigsby jumper in the lane with 11:42 left in the half, the Hoosiers went on a 16-1 run in seven minutes.

The Gophers missed eight straight shots during the run and had just one offensive rebound.

For the most part, Indiana played with energy and the urgency it only showed for brief periods early this season. Yet as pleased as Mike Woodson was with the first half, he wasn’t thrilled with a second-half performance in which the Hoosiers outscored Minnesota by two.

“I thought we played well in the first half,” Woodson said. “The ball moved. Then in the second half we started really well, I thought, but we also had to fix some things because I thought we had a few mistakes where we just didn’t play good offense. I thought there was a selfish play here and there and we threw the ball away. We didn’t make any free throws.

“We have to build on this game, but these are areas that we can correct and when you lose a team by 15, 20 points, you have to remember how you made them lose and continue to do the same things that you gave the lead and I don’t think we did that down the stretch.

Filed to: Bryson Tucker, Kanaan Carlyle, Minnesota Golden Gophers