Indiana basketball shows veteran savvy to dominate Kansas State, PJ Haggerty

BLOOMINGTON — No. 24 Indiana routed Kansas State on Tuesday night, sending its fans into the holiday weekend on the high note of a 86-69 win.

Here's what I liked and disliked, and what the Hoosiers' victory means.

What I liked in IU basketball's win vs Kansas State

• Spreading responsibility. On a night when the game found its expected pace but not its expected points totals, stars were not immune. Tucker DeVries, Lamar Wilkerson and PJ Haggerty all struggled as their teams did. Indiana did what a veteran team does and spread the load accordingly. Reed Bailey chipped in 21, Tayton Conerway another 19. Conor Enright sank 3s in important moments, in addition to some excellent defense on Haggerty. Trent Sisley added 12 off the bench. Eventually, those leading lights found their way into the action, but IU (6-0) enjoyed an earned lead by the time they did because it could share the offensive responsibility when all else broke down.

• Enright's defense. A word on that: It was excellent. Haggerty entered this game among the most prolific scorers in America here in the early going, averaging country-leading 28 points per game. You would not have known it by the way Enright flustered and flushed him out of the game for long stretches. The influence of a player also averaging 5.3 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game was dampened significantly by dogged defense, offensive fouls and turnovers (Haggerty finished with six of them). He's hardly the only star to struggle inside Assembly Hall, but somebody has to do the hard work to keep him out of the game. That was Enright.

• Defense, generally. Kansas State (5-2) arrived in Bloomington one of the best offensive teams in the country. It has not mattered so far the opponent or the venue, Jerome Tang's Wildcats have shot and scored the ball at an exceptional rate. Not this night. Indiana held Kansas State to just 0.96 unadjusted points per possession, and 42.1% from the floor. IU will play better teams this winter. It won't play many better offenses, though, and it made this one look extremely pedestrian.

• A scrappy win. It's unscientific, sure. But we have justifiably asked what it might look like when this team needed to prove its own physicality and mettle when it mattered. When the athletic level on the other side was similar. When all the inherent advantages weren't working in the Hoosiers' favor. Marquette might have told us that but it turned out the Golden Eagles were not ready. Kansas State was. On a night when the offense did not come as easy as it might, when the Hoosiers had to win the fight on the boards and at the basket, when they had to make their free throws and shake off their misses at the defensive end, they proved themselves up to the task. They learned something potentially valuable about themselves in the process.

What I disliked in IU basketball's win vs Kansas State

• Settling. It's fine, admirable even, how committed Indiana is to weaponizing the 3-point line. And after the last several years, for this fanbase, it's welcome. But it can become a trap, one the Hoosiers fell into during the first half Tuesday. Plenty of the Hoosiers' staggering 22 attempts in the opening 20 minutes were good shots, but enough were not to make DeVries go spare. It did not feel by accident that IU opened a 20-point lead to start the second half almost entirely by attacking the rim and getting to the free-throw line, against one of America's worst 2-point defenses.

• Turnovers. They have not been much of a problem for Indiana so far this season, at least when weighed against the Hoosiers' ability to share and score the ball. But when those shots weren't falling, looseness with the ball became all the more problematic. A team that at times this season has posted an assist-to-turnover ratio better than 2 to 1 was running roughly equal in both categories for too much of Tuesday night. This team wins with offense. It cannot be so casual about ball security, especially not on a night when too many possessions are coming up empty to begin with.

What IU basketball's win vs Kansas State means

There will be tougher tests. But Indiana passed this one emphatically. The Hoosiers earned every bit of the credit they will claim from this one.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IU basketball score vs Kansas State today, game stats, likes, dislikes