Bryson Tucker has shown ‘a little bit of everything’ on the floor to begin his IU basketball career

There aren’t many times that a freshman sparks a much-needed run when the roster is full of upperclassmen or players who have already started a handful of games and played heavy minutes in their college careers. But in Sunday’s 90-55 win over Eastern Illinois — it was just that for IU basketball.

Indiana entered halftime down 37-36 at home to a team that lost by 65 points to Illinois a week prior. The effort, energy and enthusiasm was non-existent for the Hoosiers in front of a lacking Assembly Hall crowd.

After watching the Eastern Illinois lead grow to five, IU mounted a quick 13-2 run to turn the game around in Indiana’s favor.

Then, it was freshman wing Bryson Tucker who put matters into his own hands on the offensive end of the floor to ensure that lead grew … and grew. His first made shot of the game was one possession after entering the game in the second half. His second was less than 1:30 later. His third? Barely two minutes later.

He scored six of Indiana’s first 13 points after he took the floor and added a few rebounds as well.

His energy helped IU basketball build on their single-digit lead and push it to 24 points in five minutes.

“Nobody expected that team to come out and be up on us at halftime,” Tucker said postgame. “When we went back to the locker room everybody was really locked in like this should never happen. Any team we play you don’t want to go down at halftime, so we just came out with a whole different level of intensity and we really locked in it.”

After not scoring in his six first half minutes, Tucker poured in 12 after the half on 5-of-7 from the field with six rebounds in 20 minutes.

At one point, Tucker scored 12 of Indiana’s 26 points over a 12 minute span.

“As you can see, Bryson is super talented, able to shoot, shoots at a high clip, dribble pull-ups, catch and shoot,” IU junior forward Malik Reneau said. “He is able to do a little bit of everything. Rip drives, attack close outs. He’s athletic. Getting lobs and stuff like that.”

Through two games, Tucker is averaging 7.0 points and 4.0 rebounds on 50 percent shooting from the field in 18 minutes a game.

“I would say just making the most out of my minutes,” Tucker said. “Like I come in, I know what I’m in there for, to score, play defense. So I just make the most of that and just stay focused. That’s really all there is to that.”

Tucker ranks in the top 5 on the roster in offensive rating, win shares and player efficiency rating, among players with qualified minutes.

“He has the whole game and it’s very easy to work around Tuck and other guys that are capable of doing a lot of things on the court,” Reneau continued. “It just opens up everything because he doesn’t have to limit himself to doing one thing. He is able to rip, drive, shoot, able to pull up.

“So it’s a lot of stuff that Tuck has in his bag that just opens up a lot for us on the court.”

Sunday’s performance is also on the heels of a 19-point burst in IU’s final exhibition just a week ago.

Through two regular season games and two exhibitions, Tucker has shown he not only belongs at this level, but he will continue to play an important role for IU basketball throughout the year as he gets more and more comfortable.

“He’s a young freshman that has got a nice skillset and especially on both ends of the floor,” IU head coach Mike Woodson said last week. “He’s long and athletic and he handles the ball. He can score the ball. He can do a lot of things. But he’s got to learn the college game, and he’s young at it right now and we’ve just got to keep pushing him in the right direction.”

SEE ALSO: ‘It just opens up the whole floor for us’: Trey Galloway’s playmaking ability an early bright spot for IU basketball

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