Indiana men’s basketball at Minnesota: 3 things to know

Indiana men’s basketball (7-0,0-0) will play its first true road game of the season, heading to Minneapolis to take on the Golden Gophers (4-4, 0-0). Both teams are led by new head coaches in Darian DeVries and Niko Medved, who have proven themselves as winners at their prior stops.

The Gophers enter the game on a three-game losing streak, dropping a trio of neutral site games to San Francisco, Stanford, and Santa Clara. Minnesota has yet to beat a power conference opponent this season.

Indiana has struggled with consistency so far though, allowing teams like Lindenwood and Incarnate Word to stick around longer than they should have in Assembly Hall. As a Big Ten road game, Wednesday will be a more difficult test, so Indiana can’t take its foot off the gas.

Here are three things to know about the game:

Cade Tyson

Minnesota’s leading scorer, Cade Tyson, averages 22.4 points per game so far this year at the 3 spot, putting him ten points ahead of the next biggest threat in the Gopher offense. Per Kenpom, he’s used in more than 25% of Minnesota’s possessions.

Coming from North Carolina, Tyson is a player with high-major experience that the Hoosiers need to take seriously. He dropped 30 against Gardner-Webb in the season opener, and is coming off a 29-point performance in the loss to Santa Clara.

He’s struggled from deep this year, but shot over 40% for two seasons at Belmont before his year with the Tar Heels, so he deserves respect on the perimeter.

Indiana dealt with a high-volume scorer in P.J. Haggerty when Kansas State came to town, but that was at the guard spot. Tyson being a wing will be a new challenge for Indiana.

Niko Medved

Minnesota has not gotten off to the start it envisioned, but its new head coach, Niko Medved, is a proven commodity in college basketball. At his last stop, Colorado State, he made the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four seasons, each of which had the Rams finish within the top 50 of Kenpom’s end-of-season rankings.

When he’s had his guys, Medved has been able to field offenses and defenses that were top 50 nationally in efficiency. The good news for Indiana is that even his best Colorado State teams have been subpar at offensive rebounding, which has been Indiana’s biggest area of weakness so far on the season.

Darian DeVries will have the talent advantage in this first meeting and is expected to win easily, but this is a program to keep an eye on. Being on a three-game losing streak will only make them hungrier to start Big Ten play with a win at home against a ranked team.

Fouls

Besides rebounding, Indiana’s biggest problem this year has been foul trouble, especially with the number of injuries the team is dealing with so far. This is bad news against a team that’s elite at getting to the line and gets nearly a quarter of its points there.

The saving grace is that the Gophers struggle from the line, shooting 66.7% from the stripe.

Given Indiana’s prior foul troubles, the short bench, and Minnesota’s ability to draw fouls, this might be the biggest thing to watch for Wednesday. Indiana needs to avoid fouls not just to limit Minnesota’s offense, but to have enough players available to finish out a close game.