Indiana men’s basketball beats Siena 81-60: 5 things we learned

Indiana men’s basketball moved to 10-3 on the season with an up-and-down 81-60 win over Siena on Monday evening in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

The Hoosiers build a substantial cushion with an outstanding performance in the first half before a lackluster showing in the second kept them from turning this into another 100-point outing. There’s some likes and dislikes coming out of this with a substantial break heading into the new year.

Here’s five things we learned:

• Indiana’s second halves leave something to be desired. The Hoosiers resoundingly won the first half 46-20 but were outscored 40-35 in the second. There’s something to be said of using that substantial cushion to try a few things out and push players out of their comfort zone to see how they respond, but the second half issues have become something of a trend that Indiana can’t afford in Big Ten play.
• Tayton Conerway picked up the slack in that second half, leading all Hoosiers in scoring during the final 20 minutes with 12 points on 5/8 shooting from the field. he was able to push the ball in transition and found enough gaps in the defense to get to the rim. Indiana’s going to need that when the offense gets stagnant.
• Lamar Wilkerson can be pretty unstoppable when he’s on a heater. He finished the game with 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists. He scored enough to get the defense to collapse and made the right read more often than not to find shots, mostly throughout the first half.
• The ball has to keep moving throughout the game. Indiana finished the first half with nine assists on 14 made field goals but managed just two on nine made field goals in the second. Again, there’s something to be said about playing with a cushion, but complacency is a dangerous thing. The lack of ball movement hampered the offense enough to let Siena get comfortable and play the game on its terms. If that’s a full 40 minute game, Indiana’s in trouble.
• The non-conference slate was disaster-free for an Indiana team that’ll enter Big Ten play at 1-1. The problem is the Hoosiers didn’t pick up any quality wins. Indiana’s going to have to build its tournament resume in league play, which could be tough for a team that’s really reliant on the 3-point shot.