Cork’s corner: Six games in thoughts

     After today’s contest against North Alabama the Hoosiers have played six games in the messed up year that has been 2020.  A lot of people have their opinions of how good, or bad, they are going to be going forward into to 2021, so I thought I’d add my unprofessional opinion as well.

    Game #1 on the slate was against Tennessee Tech and went about how you would expect it to go.  IU won going away against the vastly outmanned Golden Eagles.  Anything less would have been cause for concern for the coaches and team themselves, and for the fans?  WOW…I don’t even want to think about how they would have reacted.  But with the way the Hoosiers took care of business the only question that came about was how they would fare against better competition, and that question would be answered very soon.  As in the next game soon.

     Game #2 pitted the Hoosiers against the Providence Friars of the Big East conference in the first game of the Maui Classic that was being played in Asheville, North Carolina.  IU was impressive in their first real test of the season and came away with a 21 point victory.  As one would expect, the message boards and Twitter were abuzz with optimism, and rightfully so.  The COVID-19 pandemic that had ended last season early, had also all but wiped out summer programs for all teams, had threatened this season, and had also taken away the pay games that most teams have early on to prep themselves for conference play.  So a pretty decisive win with a jump in competition so early was reason for excitement.

     Game #3 saw the Hoosiers face Texas ion the Big 12 conference in n their second game of the Maui Classic.  The length and aggressiveness of the Longhorns put IU on their heels right from the get go and the Hoosiers never recovered.  They had a deer in the headlights look and it could even be said that they looked a little disinterested at times.  Not something the coaches, or the fans want to see out of a team that appears to have promise.  So, following a 30pt. win in the opener, and a 21pt. win in their second game, the Hoosiers fell by 22pts. and some could argue that it wasn’t that close.

     Game #4 on the young season would be against Stanford and for 3rd place in the Maui Classic.  The Cardinal were coming of a hard fought loss to North Carolina, so how IU would respond to getting their butts handed to them by Texas was the question of the day heading into the game.  Which IU team that we had seen thus far would show up.  The one that battled and competed in the first two games of the year, or the one that seemed to shy away from a very talented Texas team that would go on to win the Maui Classic.  Indiana bounced back and played well.  They grabbed the lead early and slowly built on that lead throughout the game to win by 16pts. and leave Asheville with a 3rd place finish in the Maui Classic.

     Game #5 would be another tough test for Indiana as they headed to Tallahassee, Florida to take on the #20 ranked Seminoles of Florida State as part of the ACC/BIG10 Challenge.  This was a repeat matchup of last years ACC/BIG10 Challenge when the ‘Noles came to Bloomington and was receiving accolades as being a contender for the always tough ACC conference and left B-Town with a blowout loss to the Hoosiers.  I’m 99% certain no one expected the same outcome this year considering the ‘Noles were once again being considered one of the early favorites to win the ACC and the Hoosiers were picked by many to be a middle of the pack team at best in the absolutely loaded BIG10.  Indiana battled the huge and talented ‘Noles toe to toe for the entire 45 minutes but left Tallahassee with a 2pt. loss in overtime.

     Game #6 against the North Alabama Lions who came into the game with a 2-1 record and averaging an impressive 88pts. a game.  There was obviously be a difference in talent and depth, but the Lions can score so Indiana’s much improved defense had to show up…and it did.  The Hoosiers won this one going away by a final score of 87-52 to move to 4-2 on the season.  Indiana imposed their will on the defensive end early and made North Alabama uncomfortable in their half court offense.  On the offensive side, IU was pretty much in control the entire game.  And aside from a few minute stretch in the first half, and then again late in the game when some strange combinations of players were on the floor getting what we hope to be valuable playing time in preparation for later in the season.

     Trayce Jackson-Davis set the tone and carried the majority of the load early, and Indiana also got a first half spark from Trey Galloway as well.  And although there were lots of contributions in extending the lead in the second half, Armaan Franklin led the way.  Franklin’s defense and effort have never been questioned but he put it all together today.  Offense and defense, especially in the second half.

     There were lots of positive contributions from the entire roster in this game.  And although the outcome was really never in doubt, you can sometimes learn as much from a game you are supposed to win, as you can from an upset.  North Alabama was steadfast in staying in their 2-3 zone defense  and once IU figured out how to attack it, and was willing to be patient enough to execute, they got wide open looks from the perimeter by playing inside out.  And better yet, they knocked them down.

     I feel like this teams identity is their willingness and their ability to play defense.  But I think we also learned today that if our perimeter players can get their feet set and be ready to shoot when the pass is delivered, they CAN make shots.  They are just simply not going to be a great shooting team, but they can be average, and when you have a player in the post as good as Trayce Jackson-Davis then all you need is average.  The threat of being able to knock down open perimeter shots opens things up inside for players like Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson.

     I feel better about the prospects of the rest of the season after the first six games this year than I did last year.  Mainly because Indiana has defended and competed in five of those six games, and four of those games have been against Power 5 teams.  We can’t predict the future, and although IU still has a penchant for being a little sloppy with the ball at times, and has had trouble putting the ball in the hole, when you can, and will play defense, you give yourself a chance to win against anybody.

     As we head into a week off before hopefully playing Butler in the Crossroads Classic next Saturday I’d give Indiana a solid B if I was grading the season thus far.  Yes, they have plenty of areas to continue to improve in, but they’ve already shown a lot of improvement over last year too.

     So as the weather in Southern Indiana starts to cool down, at least for one day in December the shooting by the boys in Candy Stripes heated up.  Let’s hope this is a trend that continues for the remainder of the season.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: STAY SAFE AND GO HOOSIERS!