Key takeaways from the Indiana basketball 97-71 win over Sam Houston State

Indiana basketball was back inside Assembly Hall following a disappointing trip to The Bahamas and took down Sam Houston State, 97-71, on Tuesday night.

The Hoosiers played one of its more complete games of the season thus far, moving to 6-2 on the year.

Here are the key takeaways from IU’s win.

The Luke Goode game: Known for his shooting ability, the rim had been a bit tight for Goode to start his Indiana basketball career. He was just 6-of-21 in the first seven games of the year, with only one game where he made more than one three. He had been turning a corner, making at least one three in four straight games before Tuesday — then he broke out. He had four 3s in 10 first half minutes and finished with five 3s for the game. It was his first game with double-digit points as well, finishing with career-high 18 points. Goode’s ability to stretch the floor as a 3 or a small ball 4 is critical for IU’s success and Mike Woodson has stressed numerous times in the early going of the season what his ability to make shots will do for the offense. We saw parts of that on Tuesday night.

Myles Rice in attack mode: After a few game slump for Myles Rice, it was back to the old for the IU point guard. He struggled a bit in the first half but made a concerted effort to attack first, make plays for teammates second, in the second half. It was when he was at his most comfortable and confidence on Tuesday night — and the entire season. While Rice has flashed his playmaking ability, he’s best in attack mode and creating off of the dribble for himself. He had 15 of his 19 points after halftime and showcased a full array of moved — scoring at the rim, off the dribble, in the mid range and from three. Indiana needs playmaking for teammates from its guards, yes, but it’s even more important for Indiana to get scoring from its backcourt. Myles Rice provides that and it’s something that needs to continue moving forward — especially in the half court. He sparked IU’s second-half offense to the following numbers: 1.447 points per possession, 71.7 scoring percent and just 7.9 turnover percent. Extremely efficient numbers all around because of the play of Rice.

Small ball on full display … in short bursts: Indiana has struggled with constant offense this season when it’s had both bigs on the floor. It’s been evident every game and it showed again on Tuesday night. The offense continues to be sluggish, deal with clogged lanes and overall slower with both Oumar Ballo and Malik Reneau on the floor at the same time. There is also a ‘force-feed’ mentality to the bigs when they are both on the floor. When Luke Goode or Mackenzie Mgbako are the 4 in the lineup, things are smooth, up-tempo and much more free flowing. In the first half, Indiana was +20 with just one of the bigs on the floor — they were -3 with both on the floor at the same time. Mike Woodson continues to be adamant about playing both bigs together, and I’m not sure you can totally get away with it for long stretches due to IU’s inability to rebound the ball at a high level — but it’s clear that there needs to be more lineups and longer stretches with just one big man on the floor.

Bench play: Indiana basketball has struggled to get quality minutes from its bench, but that wasn’t the case on Tuesday. IU finished with 30 points from its core reserves of Luke Goode, Bryson Tucker and Anthony Leal and they were a combined +93 in 70 combined minutes. At the under-8 timeout, that trio was +23, +23 and +31 respectively, while no starter was in double-digits for a +/-. Part of that has to deal with IU’s ability to go small with Tucker and Goode in the game, but their ability to play smart and under control is also a huge reason for their success. Tuesday was a very good step forward for that unit and shows the potential that group can have moving forward.

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