Three Things To Watch As No. 16 Indiana Hosts UNC Greensboro

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A stretch of marquee nonconference games await Indiana next week in the Bahamas, but first the Hoosiers have business to attend to at home.

No. 16 Indiana hosts UNC Greensboro Thursday at 6:30 p.m. ET at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The game will be broadcast on FS1, as the Hoosiers look to improve upon their 3-0 record. 

Despite a sluggish first half against Eastern Illinois and a few lapses against SIUE, Indiana has comfortably won each of its first three games. Its smallest margin of victory is an 87-71 win Saturday against South Carolina. Thursday’s game is predicted to play out similarly, as the analytics site barttorvik.com favors the Hoosiers by 18.9 points. 

UNC Greensboro comes to Assembly Hall with a 2-1 record, having defeated Florida Gulf Coast and North Carolina Wesleyan and losing 81-68 at SMU. In their fourth season under coach Mike Jones, the Panthers were picked to finish sixth in the preseason Southern Conference coaches poll after top-five conference finishes the last three seasons.

UNC Greensboro (177th, per Torvik) is considered a step up in competition compared to SIUE (283rd) and Eastern Illinois (294th). And although crucial matchups in the Battle 4 Atlantis loom, Indiana can’t look too far ahead.

Here are three things to watch in Thursday’s game.

Can Indiana limit UNC Greensboro’s 3-point shooting?

UNC Greensboro enters Saturday’s game shooting 39.7% as a team from 3-point range. A large chunk of that production has come from guards Kenyon Giles and Donovan Atwell. Giles has made 10-of-20 3-point attempts this season, and Atwell has made 7-of-18 attempts, accounting for 17 of the team’s 29 3-pointers made this season. The remaining 12 are spread across six players. 

Teams have not shot well from 3-point range against Indiana this season, just 26.7%, but they are getting plenty of shots up. Indiana’s defense ranks 245th out of 364 teams nationally after allowing 25 3-point attempts per game. UNC Greensboro has attempted 24.3 3-pointers per game through three contests this year, good for 162nd most in the country.

The Spartans will have to knock down outside shots to stay competitive in this game. Indiana guard Kanaan Carlyle said it’s a priority to pressure the ball and make their shots as difficult as possible. He thinks the new-look Hoosiers are still adjusting to Woodson’s defensive concepts, but they have made progress in the early stages of the season.

Defense has always been part of Carlyle’s game, and it’ll be important Thursday night.

“Since a young age, that’s been an emphasis of me and my family. My dad was my trainer growing up, so it was a big emphasis to play defense, be a two-way player, play both ends of the court,” Carlyle said Wednesday. “So me coming here, that’s something I wanted to emphasize and definitely focus on. On this team, we got a lot of scorers, a lot of people who can put the ball in the basket. And I wanted to be the one who they could depend on every single night to defend and pick up 94 feet.”

Will Luke Goode find his shooting stroke?

Indiana added Luke Goode out of the transfer portal to help solve its 3-point shooting woes from last season. The Hoosiers ranked 12th out of 14 Big Ten teams in 2023-24 with 32.4% 3-point shooting and attempted at least 97 fewer 3-pointers than every team in the conference. 

Meanwhile, Goode made 61-of-157 (38.9%) 3-point attempts last season at Illinois – more attempts and makes than any Hoosier. The 6-foot-7 Fort Wayne, Ind., native shot 38.8% from 3-point range across three seasons at Illinois. 

Since joining the Hoosiers, Goode has gotten off to a slow start from beyond the arc. He’s made 2-of-10 3-point attempts this season, both of which came in a 2-for-5 day against Eastern Illinois. They don’t count toward his season totals, but he also went 2-for-12 on 3-point attempts across both exhibition games, with both makes coming against Marian. 

Three games into the season, it’s too early to be concerned about Goode’s long-term 3-point shooting because of his strong track record in this area. Woodson also seems to have confidence in Goode’s shooting ability, as he’s drawn up plays to free him up for shots. It’s just a matter of time before shots start to fall for Goode, and Thursday would be a good time to get back on track, with three crucial games coming up in the Bahamas.

Can UNC Greensboro handle Indiana inside?

Indiana often has a size advantage over mid-major opponents, and that will be the case again Thursday. UNC Greensboro’s tallest starter is Jalen Breath, a 6-foot-8, 225-pound junior, and next is 6-foot-6 senior Miles Jones. Demetrius Davis, a 6-foot-8 senior, averages 15.3 minutes per game, but the remaining forwards on the roster have each logged single-digit minutes on average. 

That’s a significant dropoff from an Indiana front line that includes 7-foot Oumar Ballo and a pair of 6-foot-9 forwards in Malik Reneau and Mackenzie Mgbako. Indiana’s guard play is much improved this year, but the Hoosiers still won’t hesitate to look inside for easy baskets, especially with a height difference like this. Indiana has played Ballo and Reneau for just under 20 minutes per game across its first three games, and it could opt to play more small-ball lineups against UNC Greensboro. 

UNC Greensboro also lacks shot-blockers, as it has blocked just eight shots all season. The disparity in size could be seen from a rebounding standpoint, too. UNC Greensboro has rebounded well this year, ranking 34th nationally with 43.3 rebounds per game, even though it doesn’t have a big front line. Indiana has been a good defensive rebounding team, 35th in the country, but it rarely crashes the offensive glass, ranking 341st in that category.

Whether Indiana’s front court can establish position inside, generate a rebounding advantage and deter UNC Greensboro at the rim will be instrumental in Thursday’s game.