That’s more like it for IU men’s basketball.
Friday’s version of the Hoosiers looked more like the ideal vision for this team. They thoroughly dismantled Rutgers on the road for an 82-59 win, at a building the program hadn’t won in since 2018.
And for a team coming off a four-game losing streak, with three by double digits, any win — particularly away from home — is valuable.
“Road wins are hard,” IU head coach Darian DeVries said after the game. “To be able to come in and pretty much lead from start to finish, I think it says a lot, that the guys had a great performance tonight.”
IU (13-7, 4-5 Big Ten) has suffered from some inconsistency since the start of December, and the team has displayed self-destructive trends in its biggest games so far.
Rutgers (9-11, 2-7) is far from a big game this season, however. The Scarlet Knights are ranked No. 156 in KenPom, the worst in the Big Ten. They needed overtime for both of their two conference wins over Oregon and Northwestern, lost to a bad Central Connecticut State team in November, and barely escaped another upset against Penn in December.
In other words, this was an ideal get-right game for the Hoosiers. And they took advantage, shooting 50 percent from the field as a team, 43 percent (15 for 35) from 3-point range, and 100 percent at the foul line. With another big game on deck against No. 4 Purdue, Indiana will hope this performance builds momentum.
“It feels good to get back in the right column,” Tucker DeVries said. “But we know this league’s tough. Every game is going to be a grind. you look forward to the next game, and you got another tough one that’s coming up. So we’ll enjoy it, but we got a lot of work to do going forward to get where we need to be.”
Indiana’s production on Friday came largely from three players: DeVries, Lamar Wilkerson, and Nick Dorn. That trio combined for 72 of Indiana’s 82 points in the game.
Wilkerson has been IU’s most consistent scorer this season. The team needs DeVries at this level, but he’d been in a slump. The sixth-year had gone 10 straight games without reaching 20 points before getting back there against Rutgers. He seems to be finding his shooting touch again, with four 3-pointers in back-to-back games.
But Dorn was a potential revelation on Friday. This was his best game in an IU uniform, with 23 points on 6-for-11 shooting, including a 6-for-10 mark from 3-point range. The six 3-pointers tied his career-high, which he hit in two other games at Elon.
Dorn drew his first start at Indiana with Tayton Conerway limited. This was his first game at IU playing more than 30 minutes. If he can play like this on a regular basis, he’ll continue making a case for more minutes.
“Nick’s a really good shooter, and he’s very confident. Doesn’t need a lot of time and space to get it off,” Darian DeVries said. “But you still gotta find him. And I thought the guys did a really good job of finding him a lot of times in those corners. And Nick was able to get them off and convert on a good high percentage of it.”
Indeed, IU moved the ball well, even without its starting point guard playing his usual role. The Hoosiers also did a good job avoiding turnovers, finishing with only five, their second-fewest in a game all year. They also controlled the glass, out-rebounding Rutgers 40-27.
All of those things will come harder for Indiana against the Boilermakers on Tuesday night, and against many other better Big Ten opponents. Such is this team’s biggest challenge going forward. These Hoosiers have shown they’re capable of playing like this against inferior opponents, but to truly get things back on track, they’ll need to put together performances like this against stronger teams.
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