Indiana closes out its exhibition slate Sunday with a trip to the Ford Center in Evansville, where the Hoosiers will face Western Kentucky at 4 p.m. ET.
The game will stream exclusively on B1G+, and viewers have a few different ways to get access. A single-game pass for Sunday’s matchup costs $8.99.
A monthly subscription is $12.99, which would cover the exhibition and three regular-season games. There’s also a three-month season pass for $34.99 that does not auto-renew, plus a six-month winter pass for $44.99, also without auto-renewal.
For those looking longer term, the annual subscription is normally $89.99 plus tax, but it’s available for half off with promo code B1GPLUS50. The three Indiana regular-season games listed for B1G+ are Eastern Illinois on Monday, November 2, Jacksonville on Tuesday, November 24 and Farleigh Dickinson on Monday, December 22.
The biggest thing to track in this final tune-up is whether Indiana’s work on the glass keeps rolling. Through two exhibitions, the Hoosiers have been relentless on the offensive boards and sturdy enough on the defensive end to turn possessions into advantages.
Against Butler, IU grabbed 17 offensive rebounds in a 96-68 win and posted an offensive rebounding percentage of 40. Against North Carolina, the Hoosiers pulled down 20 offensive boards in a 76-58 victory and rebounded 49 percent of their missed shots.
All told, Indiana has outscored opponents 42-12 in second-chance points.
That emphasis wasn’t an accident, either. Darian DeVries made it clear that rebounding was built into how the roster was put together.
“It was certainly something very intentional for us just from a roster construction standpoint,” DeVries said Wednesday. “And then also a point of emphasis that we wanted to prioritize being an elite offensive rebounding team, elite defensive rebounding team.”
If the rebounding trend holds, the next layer is what Indiana does with it. DeVries wants the Hoosiers to turn stops into speed, and that part hasn’t quite shown up yet the way he wants. IU had 13 fast-break points against Butler and seven against North Carolina, and DeVries said transition offense still has room to grow.
“That’s one of the areas that I don’t think we’ve been as good as I think we can be, is in our transition offense,” DeVries said. “I think we’ve rebounded at a high rate, but I don’t know that we put enough pressure on defenses yet in transition.
“So it’s certainly something we’ve continued to stress in getting kick-aheads and being able to put guys on their heels, attack the rim a little bit more, get some paint touches out of transition, which can lead to more of those kick-out threes once we get the defense collapsed. So we need to continue to get better at that. But yes, it should be a strength of ours as the season goes along.”
Sunday also could be a chance to see more from Indiana’s freshmen if the Hoosiers open up a comfortable cushion. The first two exhibitions were handled with the edge of regular-season games: one in a hostile setting at Butler, the other on a neutral court against North Carolina. Even though the results didn’t count, Indiana treated them like they did, and that approach figures to carry over again.
Western Kentucky enters having opened with a narrow 65-62 win over Bowling Green in its own exhibition, and the Hilltoppers were No. 122 in KenPom to start the season. If Indiana is in control late, that could create minutes for Prince-Alexander Moody, Clemens Sokolov and Vaughn Karvala.
Trevor Manhertz has already moved ahead of the other freshmen and is the only one currently in the rotation. Karvala sat out the Butler exhibition for precautionary reasons and played three minutes against UNC. Moody logged eight minutes against Butler and three against North Carolina, while Sokolov played six minutes against Butler and less than a minute against the Tar Heels.
With Indiana’s guard and wing rotation looking strong, Karvala and Moody may only get spot duty this season. That says more about the depth around them than about their future upside.
In Other News...
Indiana Escaped Michigan But A Bigger Hoosiers Concern Just Grew
Indiana got what it came for in Ann Arbor, leaving with a 13-6 overtime win over Michigan and another victory to keep the season rolling at 7-1. The defense did the heavy lifting, tightening at key moments and delivering the stop the Hoosiers needed in overtime after a game that never really let the offense settle in.
Josh Hoover and the passing game were the bigger concern even in a win, with the offense sputtering for much of the afternoon. Hoover finished 8 of 18 for 81 yards, a touchdown and an interception, and while Indiana will happily take the result, the way it got there leaves plenty for the Hoosiers to sort out if they want to keep climbing. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana-Michigan Sparked Another Officiating Debate Fans Will Recognize
The second quarter at Michigan offered Indiana something every road team will happily take and every fan base will immediately scrutinize: a roughing-the-passer flag that extended a drive and helped the Hoosiers turn it into three points. Fox analyst Joel Klatt did not hide his frustration with the call on Michigan freshman Tariq Boney, saying it was the kind of penalty that can swing a game and echo the broader officiating complaints viewers have heard in other matchups this season.
For Indiana, the result was a 6-0 edge at that stage, but the larger conversation quickly moved beyond the scoreboard. Klatt pointed to the growing pattern of similar penalties and the way they can hand out free yards at the exact moment a defense believes it has made the stop it needs. Indiana will gladly accept the field position and points, but the debate over where the line is drawn on those hits is likely to linger long after this trip to Ann Arbor. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan Coach Just Made Indianas Statement Win Look Even Bigger
Kyle Whittingham did not spend much time sugarcoating Michigans 13-6 overtime loss to Indiana, and that only made the Hoosiers result look more impressive in hindsight. The Michigan coach pointed to his teams problems on the ground, its red zone issues and the turnovers that kept the offense from ever finding a rhythm, a blunt acknowledgment of how hard Indiana made things on a night when points were already at a premium.
Even in defeat, Whittingham still praised Michigans defense and said he remains confident in the programs overall quality, which only underscores how well Indiana handled the bigger picture. Michigans offense has been stuck near the bottom nationally in success rate, EPA per play and yards per game, and Indiana still dragged the game into overtime before finishing it off, turning what looked like a sturdy win into one that now reads as a statement. [Read more 🡒]