Three Things We Learned: Indiana Wins Big in B1G/ACC Challenge

Emmit Holt can contribute. After watching Emmit Holt play very very well while playing up a year in AAU ball this summer, many thought he was just more mature than his competition. He had some huge games against the nation's best 2015 prospects. Tonight we learned that wasn't just a physical and emotional extra year of growth, he's got some real skills. After serving a two game suspension to star the year, Holt was eased into the college game. Today though with Perea in early foul trouble he was forced into service. Holt rose to the occasion with 15 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. You can't ask for more than that. He was calm, cool, collected and a killer out there. He's not necessarily the immediate answer to our post problems, but he assured us he will have a say in it.

No lead is safe. Even with a 21 point lead late in the second half Pitt was able to make a late run at making this game competitive. The Hoosiers are still prone to getting sped up when in crunch time. Yogi Ferrell seems to be one of the biggest offenders in this issue. Look for Tom Crean to mention it in the coming days. Yogi is this team's leader, he needs to do a better job of not getting out of control in crunch time. You can't expect the freshmen to answer that call. If this game were five minutes longer we could have been in trouble.

Rebounding is still an issue. The Hoosiers put together a complete game on both offense and defense, outside of rebounding. Pittsburgh is a top 20 team in size this year and IU is in the bottom 150, so the rebounding disparity is going to be a given. But, 27 offensive rebounds is not good. The Hoosiers had a strong game of hounding the rebounder when he did get the ball, but the number of rebounds should not happen. The Hoosiers still have a ton of work to do, but you can't help but feel that this team has more of a spark than last year's much more balanced team.