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Indiana 65, Rutger 43: Hoosiers’ defense suffocates the Scarlet Knights

Here are three things from tonight’s dismantling in Piscataway.

By Kyle Swick
Indiana v Rutgers Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images

Indiana continues to dominate Rutgers on the hardwood— they’re now 5-0 against the Scarlet Knights since the Scarlet Knights [sighs heavily] joined the Big Ten, with an average margin of victory just a shade over 17 points.

  • Devonte Green ... hello: I wrote last week that it was time to give Devonte Green some extended minutes during the season’s run-in and it’s obvious Archie Miller was inspired by my argument. Devonte drew the start tonight and did not disappoint, chipping in 9 points on 4-7 shooting, 3 rebounds and 4 assists against 2 turnovers. In a game that was pretty ragged throughout, Green was a reliable source of positivity on the offensive end, giving Juwan Morgan (24 points) and Robert Johnson (19 points) some much-needed support on that end.
  • This was a statistical beatdown: Indiana shoved Rutger in a trash can so hard that their stat profiles went nuts despite this being the 25th data point of the season. Indiana rose TWELVE spots on KenPom overall (to #80) with their defense going up 18 spots (to #76). Rutger dropped EIGHTEEN spots (to #154), with their offense falling 22 spots to #305. That’s an incredible amount of movement for a stat profile this late in the season, and it serves to illustrate how much better Indiana was than their opponent tonight.
  • This team is very clearly improving as the season goes on, particularly defensively. No Scarlet Knight had an offensive rating over 100— which is partially credited to their offense that devolved into charging into a crowded lane and flinging the ball at the rim, but the Hoosiers executed Archie Miller’s pack line defense to perfection. Rutger was harassed and hurried into bad decisions all night and it eventually took its toll. Sure, it’s just Rutger, but this team couldn’t guard anyone at the beginning of the year and this same Scarlet Knights team just put up 1.17 PPP on Purdue (they had 0.67 tonight). With an injection of offensive talent on the way, it’s not hard to envision a quick turnaround in Bloomington.

Hoosiers are off until Friday (what!) when a reeling Minnesota squad comes to Assembly Hall for a rematch.

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