With a week in between games, Indiana head men’s basketball coach Darian DeVries zeroed in on one of his team’s weaknesses.
Going into Saturday’s game against Chicago State, Indiana was averaging 18.9 fouls per game, which would be the program’s worst mark since 2016-17. Opponents were attempting 22.7 free throws per game entering Saturday, which would be IU’s low point since 2010-11.
The fouling created multiple clear problems. In Indiana’s three losses, Minnesota attempted 20 free-throws, Louisville got 19, and Kentucky had 29. The Hoosiers were just giving away too many points at the foul line. And, along with that, they dealt with foul trouble regularly, putting strain on the team’s depth and sometimes forcing important players to the bench.
Improvement with fouling became a point of emphasis for DeVries coming out of the Kentucky game.
“I think people can see it’s those reach-in fouls. That goes for me, too. I got those two early ones last game. It’s something we emphasize, but we also still want to be playing physical, playing with aggression so you don’t want to take that away,” forward Reed Bailey said after the game. “But I think it’s definitely been talked about.”
Indiana made progress in the fouls department Saturday against Chicago State. The Hoosiers committed only 10 fouls, as a team, and the Cougars attempted just six foul shots. That was a helpful factor in IU’s 78-58 victory at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Only one IU player, Jasai Miles, finished with three fouls on Saturday. Two Hoosiers — Lamar Wilkerson and Tayton Conerway — committed two fouls. Bailey, Nick Dorn, and Trent Sisley played significant minutes without fouling at all.
During his pregame radio interview, DeVries said he spent time during the week reviewing film of every foul IU has committed so far this season. That helped him identify the root causes of the problems and address those points with the players.
“We broke down some of those fouls and where they came from and showed them the difference between, ‘Hey, here’s an aggressive one that we’re willing to accept a foul every now and then, and here’s the ones we got to stop.’ Maybe it’s reaching in from behind or whatever when you don’t need to,” DeVries said. “That’s something that, A, we can’t let them B at the free-throw line and, B, we don’t need you sitting over or not bench. So that’s something we put our priority on this week or talked about a lot.”
DeVries attributed some of the fouls to his team’s size issues. He also saw some fouls come in transition after turnovers, when players might become prone to reaching in.
The Hoosiers were much better about limiting those sorts of mistakes on Saturday. Granted, Chicago State is ranked No. 348 in KenPom — the Cougars actually moved up two spots after the loss — so this isn’t the best game to use as a measuring stick. Indiana will need to continue reducing its fouling, starting on Monday against Siena.
But this was a start.
“I don’t want us losing our edge either from a defensive standpoint. Our two-point field goal percentage defense is one of the better ones in the country and we don’t have shot blocking, so there’s a reason for that too,” DeVries said. “We got to make sure there’s just a nice balance of we don’t want to foul but we also maintain our physicality.”
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