Indiana and No. 12 Michigan State are coming off performances they are not happy about as they prepare for a Big Ten showdown on Tuesday night in East Lansing, Mich.
The Hoosiers (12-4, 3-2) enter the game in a foul mood following Saturday’s loss to No. 10 Nebraska. They blew a 16-point second-half lead to suffer their first home loss of the season.
Tuesday’s trip to Michigan State (14-2, 4-1) marks the second of four consecutive games against current Quad 1 opponents.
In order to pull off the upset at Michigan State — and claim its first Quad 1 win after dropping its first three opportunities — Indiana knows it would help to shoot a little better from 3-point range.
Indiana shoots 36.3% from long range for the year while making 10.6 3-pointers per game. But over the last two games, the Hoosiers went 19 of 55 (34.5%) from behind the 3-point line.
“It’s a big part of what we do,” first-year Indiana head coach Darian DeVries said. “Obviously when you are a 3-point shooting team, you want to make sure you’re getting the type of threes, the quality three that you want to get. That’s important. But we recruit to it. We play to it. It’s all about just making sure, though, that you get some.”
Lamar Wilkerson leads the Hoosiers with 20.3 points per game while hitting a team-high 56 3-pointers. Tucker DeVries averages 14.9 points per contest with 45 3-pointers, while Tayton Conerway averages 12.3 points and 4.3 assists.
Michigan State also comes in lamenting its most recent performance, even though it ended as a 76-66 home win on Thursday over Northwestern.
The Spartans trailed by seven points at halftime and often looked lethargic, but managed to rally for a win in what was their third game in seven days. The silver lining is that Michigan State had four days to prepare for Indiana.
“I’ve just got to do a better job of making sure my team is fresh,” said Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo, who gave his team Friday off.
Michigan State has been led by its four core returnees from last year’s team that won the Big Ten and reached the Elite Eight.
Jaxon Kohler averages 14.3 points and 10.1 rebounds, Jeremy Fears provides 12.1 points and 8.8 assists per game, Coen Carr averages 11.6 points and Carson Cooper delivers 10.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.
Michigan State also hopes to reverse recent struggles against Indiana.
The Hoosiers have won three of the last four meetings, including last year’s 71-67 victory in East Lansing that prevented Izzo from breaking Bob Knight’s record for Big Ten wins.
“They’ve got a lot of guys that can score the ball. They shoot a lot of threes,” Izzo said of Indiana. “They seem to be very balanced offensively and defensively, very well-coached. It’s a good team, but a lot of it, though, (is) Wilkerson’s getting 27 a game all of a sudden.”
–Field Level Media
