After a nightmare week in the Bahamas, Indiana returned to the U.S. and found its groove again on both sides of the ball, taking down Sam Houston State 97-71 inside Assembly Hall.
Tuesday was by far the best offensive performance for Indiana this season with three different Hoosiers scoring 18+. The Bearkats are likely the best mid-major Indiana will play this year, finding themselves at a very decent number — 165 in Wednesday’s first edition of the NET rankings. The first five or so minutes of each half looked promising for Sam Houston State, but that first media timeout was all Mike Woodson’s squad needed to take control.
It especially took Indiana a little while to get going in the first half on the offensive side of the ball. Sam Houston State had a lead just out of the first media timeout, 9-7, and then Woodson went to his bench for the first time. Bryson Tucker and Luke Goode were the first two reserves to see time and Goode was the star of the first half. After trailing 9-7, Indiana would go on a 17-3 run, very much thanks to four 3-pointers from Goode. The Illinois transfer finished this game with 18 points, finishing 5-for-7 from distance.
“I ran a few plays to get him to come up, but a lot of it was in transition,” Woodson said about how Goode was able to get clean looks. “He got a few in transition, one or two were on kickouts from the post. Same thing with Mac [Mackenzie Mgbako]. I’ve been trying to get them running and using more screen action to get them shots.”
It felt like it was only a matter of time before Goode, who’s a career 38% 3-point shooter, got going. He was only 6-for-21 from behind the arc coming into Tuesday.
“Yeah, this is a testament to the process,” Goode said. “I believe in myself, I know I’m one of the best shooters in the conference, and I feel that way every day. It was good to see shots go down. It helps the whole team when I’m able to make shots.”
Goode wasn’t the only player on the Indiana bench that had their best game of the season Tuesday. Anthony Leal, who’d only seen five total minutes before Tuesday, was asked to step up with absences of Kanaan Carlyle and Gabe Cupps due to injury. He was able to contribute four points in 25 minutes while guarding some of the Bearkats’ best shooters in Cameron Hueffner and Josiah Hammons. Tucker was the other bench player alongside Goode and Leal who played significant minutes.
“The energy they gave coming in early, they were really into it and they did a lot of good things,” Woodson said about what made the bench so great. “They gave us a really nice cushion heading into halftime, I thought they had a lot to do with it.”
Myles Rice and Malik Reneau were the others who had stellar offensive performances alongside Goode. Woodson thought it was big for Rice to get some confidence back after a tough week in the Bahamas. He added an efficient 19 points on 9-for-12 shooting. And Reneau took advantage of the much smaller Sam Houston lineup. Reneau spent a lot of time at the five, with Woodson seeming to go with the two-big lineup less and less as the season goes on.
“We definitely need to work on the two-big lineup for sure. When there’s one big on the floor, it just flows better,” Reneau said about himself and center Oumar Ballo. “But me and Ballo need to work on it so we can [have] a better presence on the floor.”
Indiana has a lot of work to do after getting tabbed at No. 71 in the first NET rankings and taking a pair of beatdowns in the Battle 4 Atlantis. IU has one more non-conference matchup with Miami (OH) on Friday before Big Ten play starts with Minnesota at home next Monday, Dec. 9.
