BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana men’s basketball is a third of the way through its season. Twelve games are in the books with a minimum of 19 to go, though it will likely be more assuming the Hoosiers make the Big Ten Tournament.

With the usual Christmas pause in games upon us, it’s a good time to look at Indiana’s most important contributors and how they’ve fared so far.

All players who have played 10 minutes per game will be considered except Anthony Leal. The senior has not played in enough games (Leal only reached 10 minutes in four of the six games he played) to have a workable sample size.

The series continues with center Oumar Ballo.

Oumar Ballo: Tale Of The Tape

Points, Rebounds, Assists: 12.4 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 2.5 apg.

Percentages: 70.1 FG%, 70.1 2P%, 58.1 FT%. No 3-point shots attempted.

Advanced stats: 19.6% usage rate, 1 offensive win share, 0.8 defensive win shares, 1.8 overall win shares.

Explanation: Points produced and points allowed are included in the advanced box score provided to the media via live stats from each game.

Points produced and points allowed are based on how many points a player is responsible for or allows while on the court based on a per 100 possessions standard. The formula, developed by basketball analyst Dr. Dean Oliver, is way too complicated to explain here, but that’s the basic premise.

Net points is merely the points produced with points allowed subtracted.

Foul trouble is a measure I did myself. Foul trouble is obviously important because it compromises the rotation, but if a player plays with fouls, it can also compromise their defense.

A player qualified as being in foul trouble if: a) they picked up two fouls in the first half; b) picked up a third foul before 15 minutes are left in the second half; or c) picked up a fourth foul before five minutes are left in the second half.

The reason for this standard is to eliminate accumulated fouls late in the game that are done purposely to put the opposition at the free throw line. Those are not fouls that are bad or that necessarily compromise the team in the way earlier fouls do.

What’s Been Good

Quite a bit – both when judged by traditional or advanced stats.

Ballo is Indiana’s leading rebounder and shot blocker (1.8 bpg). The rebounding was expected and needed, but his blocks average is a nice surprise. He’s well ahead of his previous seasons in that department.

Ballo has been instrumental in making the paint a no-go zone for opponents, at least as it relates to post-ups and straight drives to the basket. Ballo rates highly in metric measures of defense for that reason.

Ballo is basically automatic within five feet of the rim. According to barttorvik.com, Ballo is 54 of 66 on dunks and 2-point shots at the rim.

According to Kenpom.com, Ballo ranks 13th nationally in effective field goal percentage at 70.1% and 62nd nationally in defensive rebound percentage at 25.2%.

Ballo also almost never gets into foul trouble – a nice trait for a big man to have.

What Needs Work

Early in the season, Ballo received some deserved criticism for effort. He didn’t have the sense of urgency defensively at times. He’s largely shored most of that up, but it’s a criticism that lingers.

Ballo can be taken away from the rim by stretch post players, and it sometimes frees up the lane for back-door buckets he would otherwise be able to snuff out.

Free throws are another obvious issue. According to Kenpom, Ballo ranks 5th nationally in free throw rate (free throw attempts per field goal attempt) at 90.9%. That’s fantastic, but there are diminishing returns when you only make 58.1% of those freebies. Teams will inevitably hack-a-Ballo in close games. It’s never easy to improve free throw shooting, but Ballo has to keep trying to make himself even more valuable than he is.

Is The Scheme Helping?

Mike Woodson’s offensive scheme undoubtedly helps Ballo – as it did for big Kel’El Ware and Trayce Jackson-Davis before him. Ballo doesn’t take anywhere near the volume of shots that Ware and Jackson-Davis took in their final seasons (6.4 per game, less than half that of Jackson-Davis in 2023), but Ballo still gets his share of attention.

If anything, an argument could be made that Ballo deserves to take more shots. At 70.1%, he should be averaging more shots than some guards have taken. Analytical-minded fans want more threes, but analytics loves a 70.1% conversion rate at the rim, too.

Defensively, nail-slot-rim works for Ballo as the “rim” in that system. As mentioned, he can wander away from the basket at times, but that’s also a function of Indiana’s collectively poor help defense.

Notre Dame ramped up the production value for this history-making event

I’d like to take a moment to recognize and acknowledge all of the universities and campuses that hosted first round CFP games last weekend.

With very short notice and a lack of normal resources due to the holiday season, these schools did a wonderful job of preparing their campuses to entertain hundreds of thousands of fans at a time when campuses are normally largely vacant.

This sentiment applies especially to Notre Dame. The Irish production of this event was very well done. Notre Dame pulled out all the stops to create a unique, special one of a kind experience for those fortunate enough to have a ticket to the first-ever CFP game played in the house Rockne built.

College football is better on campuses

One of the very best things about college football and a big reason many people prefer it over the professional game is the pageantry. The nostalgia and mystique that comes with the feel of a big college football game on your team’s campus.

I always feel like it’s a shame when some major clashes in college football are moved to what I deem to be cold, professional venues that lack any collegiate feel and personality.

I realize it is a huge logistical undertaking to host this high-profile of an event under such short notice, but I wish there were a way to make this upcoming round of CFP games on campuses. There’s just nothing quite like it in sports.

For more Irish news & notes follow John on Twitter @alwaysirishINC, Always Irish on Youtube and or your preferred audio podcast provider.

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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Hoosiers of a certain age will never forget it, the winter weather phenomena that swept through central Indiana and brought life to a freeze.

The story was so memorable that tales have been passed down generations about the blizzard of 1978.

As WISH-TV continues to celebrate its 70th anniversary, this week’s WISH-story retells the tale of the 1978 storm.

People at the station recall over 72 hours of being stuck at work, and getting to know each other very well.

Video with this story aired Dec. 23 on News 8.