The Minute After: South Carolina

Thoughts on an 87-71 win against the Gamecocks:

Three games in the books for the Hoosiers. Three double-digit victories recorded.

Yet, it’s clear this team has a lot of room to grow. The consistency from possession to possession isn’t there yet, and the unfamiliarity of all the new faces despite the talent bump shows. The defense turns up in spurts. So does the offense. You waited for Indiana to go up 20-plus in this game and its bench to get playing time to close it out. But the Hoosiers couldn’t throw the knockout blow. The Gamecocks hung around and pulled within single digits at nine with 5:32 to go, their first time that close since the 2:39 mark of the first half.

But Indiana never let them get any closer. As South Carolina fouled — sometimes intentionally, sometimes not — Indiana was masterful at the line to shut the door. The Hoosiers went 14-of-14 on free throws over the final 5:18 of the contest. That included four makes from Oumar Ballo, a career 56.5 percent free-throw shooter entering today’s game. In a foul-heavy contest, Indiana hit 27-of-33 (81.8 percent) from the charity stripe.

Despite 87 points (a scoring output it bested just twice all of last season) and a double-digit victory, Mike Woodson voiced plenty of displeasure after the game.

On his offense: “We scored 87 points and I don’t know how we got there because I just didn’t think we played good offense tonight even though we made shots from the 3-point line.”

Woodson offered this when pressed to go deeper on his assessment: “Just better movement offensively. We did it in spurts and when we did it in spurts it looked pretty good, the ball movement from side to side, getting easy looks. But then we got stagnant. We went up 15 points. From that point on we didn’t play very well from an offensive standpoint.”

On his defense against the drive: “I said this in the locker room after the game. We got to get better at defending off the bounce.”

On his defense against the 3-point shot: “When guys are making 3s you can sit and shake your head. My thing is you’re not close enough if [the opponent is] able to just catch and shoot the basketball. We gotta get better in that area.”

Still, there was plenty to like in this one. Myles Rice played more in control and added a scoring punch. The Washington State transfer made South Carolina pay for its drop coverage against him in high ball-screen action in the first half, as he dropped in jumpers with the Gamecocks’ big sagging. Rice also got hot from deep, hitting 3-of-4 in the first 20 minutes. He had 17 at half and 23 for the game, leading all scorers. His backcourt mate, Kanaan Carlyle, had his best offensive outing as a Hoosier and continues to show doggedness on defense. Carlyle went 5-of-9 from the field and 2-of-5 from deep for 12 points.

The Stanford transfer threw down an impressive alley-oop from Rice in transition and had an unconventional 3-pointer from halfcourt that was intended as a lob to Mackenzie Mgbako. Mgbako continues to fill it up (17 points, 5-of-8 from the field, 1-of-2 from 3-point range, 6-of-7 from the line). Ballo pulled down 13 boards, including three on the offensive end to help keep possessions alive. Trey Galloway again provided a spark off the bench (11 points, two assists). The Hoosiers also shot 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) from deep and completely neutralized Collin Murray-Boyles (two points, fouled out), who had been on a tear to start the season.

The fact that there’s this much to pick apart in a 16-point victory against a solid high-major opponent ranked No. 60 on KenPom entering the game shows just how high Indiana’s ceiling is this season.

And with the Battle 4 Atlantis on deck, the Hoosiers could get a shot at showing what they can do against even better competition.

Filed to: South Carolina Gamecocks