Did head coach Darian DeVries solve something in Indiana’s win over Washington?
As a perimeter-oriented group, Darian DeVries’ first team at Indiana has struggled with the things you would expect a team to struggle with. Notably, rebounding.
There are ways to defend and score at the rim with good scheming, but rebounding is harder to teach. To overcome a size deficit like the one Indiana faced tonight against Washington, a team with a pair of 6-11 players inside, requires teamwork and effort, something that can be hard to coach into a roster made entirely from the portal.
Tonight, though, Indiana bought in on the team rebounding effort and out-rebounded the Huskies 33-29. Indiana kept the Huskies to just eight offensive boards, holding them to 14 second-chance points. Meanwhile, the Hoosiers grabbed 11 offensive boards of their own, which they converted into 13 second-chance points.
Sam Alexis led Indiana with 6 rebounds, impressive considering he saw just 16 minutes and is at least three inches shorter than either big he was up against.
More impressive though was how everyone else on Indiana rebounded. All eight Hoosiers who played grabbed at least two rebounds, while Trent Sisley, Tucker DeVries, and Lamar Wilkerson each had four, tied for second behind Alexis.
Being able to rely on a team rebounding effort will be key for DeVries in surviving Big Ten play, especially as he continues to figure out what he can get offensively out of Alexis or Reed Bailey inside.
Indiana was out-rebounded by 15 in the embarrassing road loss to Minnesota earlier this season, so seeing this effort against a better Big Ten team is encouraging. Washington is top 75 nationally in offensive rebounding percentage and opposing offensive rebound percentage too, so this was no fluke.
Category: General Sports
