Indiana took down Syracuse by a score of 83-80 on Monday night in Gainbridge Fieldhouse. It was an entertaining game with many lead changes throughout, and hopefully a sign of things to come for Indiana.

The Guards

Indiana’s guards were the story of this game. Markus Burton, Jaeden Mustaf and Darren Harris combined for 58 of IU’s 83 points. If you include Bryce Lindsay off the bench, that number jumps to 69 out of 83. Mustaf’s ability to get to the rim, and his effort on the glass (7 rebounds) stood out as winning basketball. He is going to be a fan favorite in Bloomington this year.

Big Men

Indiana did not utilize the post as much as they had been doing against smaller teams. Some of that was foul trouble, as Aiden Sherrell picked up two fouls within the first 5 minutes, and never found his rhythm in this one. The active Syracuse guards affected Samet Yigitoglu’s ability to post up during some parts of the game. Additionally, he was open in the post multiple times, and just did not get the ball thrown his way. This will be a point of emphasis as the season continues, as the guards shouldering this much of the scoring burden is unsustainable.

Turnovers

Indiana’s ability to force turnovers was the reason they won this game. Syracuse outshot them, which would have spelled doom for this team a year ago. This year is a different story. Indiana forced 12 turnovers and turned that into 20 points. In a game where neither team led by more than 7, this was a key factor.

Looking Ahead

Indiana has a lot to clean up before next Tuesday’s showdown with Arkansas in Madison Square Garden. The competitiveness from this team tonight is a significant positive, additionally, I believe this Syracuse team is better than the national perspective on them early in the year. This win will likely age very well.  The Hoosiers should be able to learn a lot from this game in the film room, and have a Thursday night game against Tennessee Tech to implement some changes in a game setting. Like we talked about in the schedule preview, Indiana gave themselves a runway to next week’s matchups with Arkansas and Kentucky, and they should be firing on all cylinders for those two games.