Three Things: Indiana Men’s Basketball beats Maryland 70-60

Indiana avenged its late January loss to Maryland with a ten-point victory within the United Heart final evening, advancing to the semifinals of the Huge Ten Match for the second consecutive 12 months. The win ought to assist Indiana lock in a 4 seed within the nationwide match, bringing Indiana to 22-10 on the 12 months.

After trailing within the first half, Indiana’s protection clamped down for the second 20 minutes, permitting simply 26 factors within the second half to erase the two-point halftime deficit. The Hoosiers restricted Jahmir Younger to 12 factors on simply 2-10 from the sphere, locking down the paint with a season-high eight blocks as a crew.

The win earned Indiana a rematch with a red-hot Nittany Lions crew who held off Northwestern in extra time for its 4 straight win on the bubble. Penn State might be solidly in, however in all probability wants the win greater than Indiana to really feel good forward of Choice Sunday.

Right here’s Three Issues:

Trayce did all of it for Indiana once more final evening, recording 24 factors, 9 rebounds, seven assists, 4 blocks and three steals. All however the rebounds had been team-highs.

Maybe motivated by Zach Edey profitable convention participant of the 12 months earlier this week, Trayce went out and performed like the very best participant within the Huge Ten, persevering with to spotlight his versatility, at the same time as the point of interest of opposing defenses. Final evening marked the fourth straight convention sport the place Trayce has scored 20 or extra factors.

Not like different video games when it takes him a minute to regulate to regardless of the protection is giving him, Trayce got here out prepared for the additional consideration and recorded two assists within the opening ten minutes. He was additionally extraordinarily environment friendly in his scoring, going 8-13 from the sphere and serving to the Hoosiers shoot over 50% from the ground on the evening.

Trayce doesn’t actually have something left to show in his Indiana profession, but it surely’s apparent that he’s attempting to convey his crew to heights it hasn’t seen in years, possibly since Mike Woodson was a participant. His dominant streak arguably began with Indiana’s season on the road in final 12 months’s Huge Ten match and is a giant a part of the explanation Indiana followers gained’t be sweating it out on the bubble this 12 months.

Indiana will go so far as Trayce can take them, and proper now he appears to be like decided to maintain taking part in properly into the nationwide match.

Mike Woodson obtained some essential minutes from the bench final evening, led by Malik Reneau, who had eight factors and a game-high 11 rebounds in his 21 minutes final evening. In that point, he additionally managed to commit only one foul.

Tamar Bates’ 5 factors could not soar off the web page, however his 3-point subject purpose was his first make from deep since January 11 at Penn State. Bates additionally dedicated 0 turnovers, a big stat in 18 minutes on the guard spot.

Indiana obtained 13 factors from its bench whereas the Terrapins obtained simply six, serving to to offset quiet offensive performances from Trey Galloway and Race Thompson. We additionally noticed Jordan Geronimo for a quick stint, which needs to be an excellent signal about his well being going ahead.

On the finish of the day, Indiana continues to be going to reside and die by Trayce and Jalen Hood-Schifino, particularly with Xavier Johnson performed for the 12 months. Nonetheless, the extra guys like Reneau and Bates warmth up, the much less groups will be capable to key on Indiana’s stars defensively.

We’ve stated it on the weblog one million instances in one million alternative ways, however Mike Woodson’s match success marks a definitive shift in program id over the prior two teaching staffs. Earlier than final evening, Indiana had misplaced three straight video games because the three seed within the convention match.

As talked about above, that is additionally the second straight season when Indiana will probably be taking part in within the Huge Ten semifinals. The final time it obtained a double-bye in 2016, it promptly misplaced the Friday matchup to Michigan.

Indiana has extra expertise from high to backside, extra psychological toughness, and an edge that it has largely missed during the last ten years or so. Whether or not it might probably beat Penn State tonight or not, that is now not this system that’s an easy-out within the Huge Ten Match.