IU needs sophomore guard Tamar Bates in the starting lineup.
IU Insider Zach Osterman breaks down the Hoosiers' 69-55 pre-Christmas win against Kennesaw State on Friday night.BLOOMINGTON – Playing without two of his most-influential players due to injury, on the night before the night before Christmas, with half a crowd inside a cold Assembly Hall, Mike Woodson won’t have learned much from an uninspiring 69-55 win over Kennesaw State that he didn’t already know about his Indiana team.
If there was one thing Woodson might have pulled from such a forgettable fame, it’s that it’s time to give Tamar Bates a chance in Indiana’s starting lineup. But he clearly isn’t ignoring Bates’ performances either. Across Indiana’s last eight games, Bates is averaging 11.4 points. He’s shooting 17-of-36 from behind the 3-point line in that stretch. He has 22 rebounds, 12 assists and just eight turnovers.Bates is currently this team’s second-best 3-point shooter behind Miller Kopp.
Bates pairs well with Jalen Hood-Schifino, now IU’s alpha point guard with Xavier Johnson sidelined indefinitely by a surgically repaired broken foot. Hood-Schifino was good again Friday, with 18 points, four rebounds, three assists and some important offensive basketball during a second half in which the Hoosiers finally pulled away from Kennesaw State.
Bates is not Johnson, nor will Indiana want him to be. If anything, he’s developed lately into a plus version of what IU asked of Parker Stewart a season ago. Bates is knocking down the 3s the Hoosiers wanted to set up for Stewart, but Bates is also scoring in the midrange and at the rim, and he’s much more dangerous off the bounce.
Three of the Hoosiers’ last four opponents have reached double-digit 3s, a worrying trend that almost by itself explained why Friday’s game was tied at halftime and in the balance with eight minutes to go. The Hoosiers deserve at least some credit for overcoming the strange circumstances surrounding their nonconference finale, but they’d best not play that way again any time soon.
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