NOTES: First Road Test at Arkansas on Sunday

OPENING TIP
Indiana University begins its 119th season of competition in men's basketball. The Hoosiers will visit Arkansas in each team's second game of the Hardwood Showcase. Both teams are 1-0 in the multi-team event. The Hoosiers have an 80-35 win over Montana State, while Arkansas defeated UC Davis, 81-58. Texas-Arlington also is in the event. The Razorbacks will visit Assembly Hall next season. IU is coming off a 96-73 win over #24 Marquette in the Gavitt Games. The two teams last met in the 2008 NCAA Tournament in Raleigh, NC., where Arkansas won the first round matchup 86-72. IU won the first meeting in Bloomington in 1949, 75-50.

Indiana (3-0) at Arkansas (1-1)
Hardwood Showcase
Sunday, Nov. 18 • 3:30 p.m. ET
Bud Walton Arena (19,368)
TV: ESPN (Karl Ravech & Dalen Cuff) Watch Online
Radio: IU Radio Network; XM 195, INTERNET 957
(Don Fischer, Errek Suhr, Joe Smith)
Listen via TuneIn
Live Stats

THE COACHES
Indiana Coach Archie Miller begins his second season of guiding the Cream and Crimson. Last year, the Hoosiers finished 16-15 and 9-9 in the Big Ten. He is 158-78 in seven- plus years as a head coach, which includes six years at the University of Dayton. His Flyer teams made NCAA Tournament appearances in each of his last four seasons, including a trip to the Elite Eight in 2014. Indiana Associate Head Coach Tom Ostrom was an assistant coach for the Razorbacks from 2007-2011. Arkansas is led by Mike Anderson. He is in his eighth season in Fayetteville and has a 152-87 record and led them to the NCAA Tournament last season.

DEFENSE FUELING OFFENSE EARLY IN THE SEASON FOR IU
Coach Archie Miller's squad has been impressive defensively in three regular season games, an exhibition game and a closed scrimmage. IU is holding opponents to 33.3% from the field, 18.6% from three-point range and have allowed just 54.3 points per game. In addition, it is forcing 19.7 turnovers per game.

IU is averaging 22.6 points off of turnovers and allowing just 12.0 per game. The Hoosiers are also averaging 21.0 points per game on the fast break, while their transition defense is holding opponents to 6.0 fast break points per game. The Hoosiers have been a force inside outscoring its opponents 152-74 in the paint. IU's 63.6% shooting effort against Marquette was the best ever performance for an Archie Miller coached team in his eight seasons as a head coach. His team's previous best came when Dayton beat George Mason and shot 62.9% in 2016.

IMPRESSIVE DEFENSIVE IMPACT VS. MARQUETTE
Coming into the game, Marquette All-American Markus Howard was averaging 26.5 points per game, including a 37 point effort against Bethune Cookman. Hoosier guards Rob Phinisee and Aljami Durham deserve a great deal of credit for never allowing Howard to become comfortable. they held Howard to just 7 first half points and forced 3 early turnovers as IU jumped out to a 19-4 lead. Howard finished with 18 points, but made just 1 of 5 three-point FG attempts.

BENCH PROVIDING CONTRIBUTIONS
The Hoosiers are averaging 35.6 points per game off the bench. The 51 points off the bench against Chicago State eclipsed last year's season-high of 39 against Howard. Junior Devonte Green had 15 and senior Evan Fitzner added 14 as reserves. Fitzner had 16 off the bench against Marquette. Since the 1996-97 season, IU had only scored 50 points off the bench twice before. The Hoosiers scored 53 against Drake on December 27, 1998 and 50 against Buffalo on December 10, 1999.

PROMISING SHOOTING NIGHT
In the Hoosiers first two games, despite the large margin of victories, the team needed to improve its shooting from outside and its output from the free throw line.

Against Marquette, IU shot 45.0% from three-point range making 9-of-20 from beyond the arc. Graduate transfer Evan Fitzner led the way by making all four of his long-distance attempts.

From the free throw line, IU shot 73.9% and was led by junior DeRon Davis. The Colorado native was a 75.5% shooter from the line as a freshman but dropped to 50.0% as a sophomore. After hitting 2 of 5 from the line to start the season, he hit 5 of 6 against the Golden Eagles.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Aljami Durham

Evan Fitzner

Devonte Green

Rob Phinisee

Indiana University Athletics