Indiana wrapped up non-conference play with a 77-68 win against Winthrop on Sunday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

Here are five takeaways from the win against the Eagles:

Langdon Hatton delivers for a short-handed IU frontcourt

Langdon Hatton’s minutes had been limited through Indiana’s first 12 games. But with Oumar Ballo unavailable to play and Malik Reneau battling foul issues, it was Hatton’s turn to make an impact against Winthrop.

And the senior from Georgetown, Indiana, delivered his best performance this season.

Hatton logged a season-high 26 minutes in Sunday’s win and finished with seven points, 11 rebounds, three blocked shots, an assist and a steal.

He was 1-for-3 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free-throw line.

“Being from Indiana, it’s just a dream to even be on the team,” Hatton said postgame. “So when your number gets called, it’s like a dream come true. So it’s pretty awesome. Just excited to be able to help the team out.”

Whether Hatton’s play leads to a bigger role moving forward remains to be seen, but his fundamentally sound play and hustle were a welcome addition to Sunday’s win.

With only one big, the floor opened up for Myles Rice

With Ballo unavailable and the Hoosiers playing a one-big lineup all afternoon, Myles Rice had more space in the lane to operate.

Rice took advantage early and often on his way to a game-high 18 points.

The redshirt sophomore did most of his damage at the rim as he shot 7-for-10 on 2s. Rice also dished out three assists and had three steals in 32 minutes.

“I saw them pressuring me pretty much 75 percent of the length of the court,” Rice said postgame. “They were trying to pressure me at halfcourt, and to me, I found that like a little bit disrespectful just because of my speed and my quickness.

“And I just saw my opportunities to attack whether they were trying to like stop me from going one way and I would just go other way. But any time anybody tries to pressure me full court, I feel like I have the advantage just because of my speed and my quickness.”

Through 13 games, Rice is shooting close to 57 percent on 2s and has six games of 17 or more points.

A dismal perimeter shooting performance

Luke Goode made Indiana’s first 3-point attempt of the game at the 17:04 mark of the first half.

It would be the only time the Hoosiers connected from deep throughout the game.

Indiana shot a dismal 1-for-20 (five percent) from distance and is now shooting 30.6 percent on 3s this season. That ranks 278th in the country.

“You’re always concerned about them,” Mike Woodson said postgame when asked if he was concerned about the outside shooting. “We’re shooting them. And again, if they were bad threes, then I would really sit here and complain. But they were good threes, and I feel good about the guys that are shooting them.

“So again, eventually, they are going to make them. That’s how I think.”

With non-conference play complete, Indiana ranks 353rd in the country in point distribution from 3-pointers. The Hoosiers are scoring just 22 percent of their points off of 3s. Among high-major teams, only Michigan State and Syracuse rank lower.

Indiana finishes non-conference play with no wins of significance

Non-conference play is complete,and Indiana has 18 games remaining, all of which will come against Big Ten opponents.

The Hoosiers have significant work to do after not recording a single significant win in non-conference play.

Indiana bet big on the Battle 4 Atlantis as an opportunity for resume worthy wins and lost that gamble. The Hoosiers were blown out by Louisville and Gonzaga and then beat Providence, ranked just 78th in KenPom.

The best win on IU’s resume is currently South Carolina. The Gamecocks are the lowest-ranked KenPom team at No. 63 in the Southeastern Conference.

With the program outside the NCAA tournament field in most projections and with just a 20.8 percent chance to return to March Madness according to Bart Torvik’s TourneyCast, the Hoosiers will need to finish several games over .500 in league play to build a tournament-worthy resume.

“Every game is important moving forward,” Woodson said postgame. “Can’t look back. Every game is important. We’ve got Rutgers coming in. That’s my only focus right now.”

Woodson doesn’t address the absence of Oumar Ballo

Despite being in his warm-up shirt and candy stripe pants, Oumar Ballo never warmed up for Sunday’s game.

Ballo also seemed to be walking around just fine after being listed as questionable on the Big Ten’s availability report earlier in the day.

In his postgame press conference, Woodson was asked about the nature of Ballo’s absence and how long he had to prepare for it.

“I’m not going to address that,” Woodson said. “But didn’t have a lot of lead time. But that doesn’t matter. You know, guys that are in uniform have got to play, and he didn’t play tonight, and you know, we’ll sit down tomorrow and address his situation and get ready for Rutgers.”

With Ballo out, Reneau started at the five and finished with 14 points and seven rebounds in just 14 minutes due to foul trouble.

Filed to: Winthrop Eagles