Indiana basketball takes on Sam Houston State on Tuesday in Bloomington.
The Hoosiers will take on the Bearkats on December 3 in Assembly Hall. Indiana basketball is coming off of a rough visit to the Bahamas leaving the Battle for Atlantis 1-2 and finishing in 7th place. In the last week before conference play begins, the Hoosiers, who are no longer in the top 25, have two home games and will be looking to bounce back from the holiday tournament.
General Information:
Teams: Indiana (5-2) vs. Sam Houston(4-4)
Tip-off: 7:30 pm EST
Watch: Big Ten Network
Listen: The Varsity Network
What to know about Sam Houston State:
In the 2023-2024 season, Sam Houston finished 21-12 overall and first in the USA Conference. The Bearkats are currently 4-4 on their season and ranked 8th in their conference. In their most recent game, they defeated Colgate 82-78 where senior guard Lamar Wilkerson led the way for the Bearkats with 17 points. This is Wilkerson’s third season with Sam Houston. Last season, he was named first-team All Conference USA after being the leading scorer for the Bearkats, averaging 13.8 points a game. Other notable players include sophomore guard Brennen Burns and junior guard Dorian Finister Burns is a transfer from Southeastern Oklahoma where he averaged 16.4 points a game. Finister is a former three-star recruit transfer from Kansas State.
Latest on Indiana basketball:
The Hoosiers are returning from a rough trip to the Bahamas after competing in the Battle 4 Atlantis over the Thanksgiving holiday, finishing 1-2 and in 7th place. The Hoosiers lost their first game of the week to Louisville 89-61. Indiana shot 33.3% while Louisville shot 56.9%. Furthermore, IU was 7-20 from the 3 pt. line and the Cardinals were 10-27 and scored 52 points in the second half. The next day Indiana faced off against Gonzaga, losing 89-73. A major issue for this game in particular was rebounding as the Bulldogs out-rebounded the Hoosiers 42-27. On the final day of the tournament, Indiana competed against Providence for the last place spot. The Hoosiers defeated the Friars 89-73, with Trey Galloway starting in place of Kanaan Carlyle who was out with an injury. Sophomore forward Mackenzie Mgbako led the way for Indiana contributing 25 points. Coming off of the bench, senior forward Luke Goode posted a season high of 9 points along with 3 rebounds.
Something else of note from the Battle for Atlantis is that senior guard Anthony Leal played his first minutes of the season with four minutes in the game against Louisville and 1 minute in the game against Gonzaga. Fans can take this as a sign that Leal is headed in a positive direction in recovering from his injury. It should also be said that Galloway’s start was partly a result of him telling head coach Mike Woodson that he was feeling better than ever in regards to his knee injury from the end of last season. With more minutes from these experienced seniors, whose leadership on the court is valued, IU may see a change in their play.
This past week was no doubt rough for IU and hard for fans to watch. They have seven days to find a rhythm before conference play begins on Monday, December 9 against Minnesota. This makes their games this week against Sam Houston State and Miami of Ohio extremely important.