It took No. 12 Indiana nearly two weeks to play three games.
Now, the Hoosiers are in a stretch where they’ll play four in a span of a week.
The second of those four games will come on Sunday when they face Miami (Ohio) in Indianapolis.
Indiana (3-0) is coming off a gutsy performance in Friday’s 81-79 win at Xavier in front of a sellout crowd.
“The schedule is what it is,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson said after the win. “We can’t run from it, man. We’ve got a game Sunday. We’ll go back home and break this tape down and prepare for Miami of Ohio and get ready to play Sunday. You just take them a game at a time and a practice at a time. That’s all you can do.”
It might be early, but Indiana is delivering on high expectations to start the year.
Forward Trayce Jackson-Davis has lived up to his billing as the Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year and an All-American candidate, averaging 22.0 points and 6.3 rebounds a game.
He scored 30 points in the win over Xavier.
Senior guard Xavier Johnson got off to a slow start, but really came on against Xavier, scoring 23 points and showing why he’ll be one of the Big Ten’s best guards this year.
“They were tremendous, and I say that because they hadn’t really practiced the last three, four, five days,” Woodson said. “Under the weather, little nicks in there.”
Indiana will finish its busy week with home games against Little Rock on Wednesday and Jackson State on Friday.
Indiana first must focus on a Miami squad that enters 1-3 after a 95-69 home loss to Marshall on Thursday.
The game was a step back for the RedHawks after playing Georgia tough on the road on Monday before losing 77-70.
However, little went right against Marshall.
“I told our guys that I was absolutely embarrassed by the performance (Thursday),” coach Travis Steele said after the Marshall game. “Not embarrassed by the result of losing the game, but embarrassed by the response. All of a sudden a couple of 3s went in, and all of a sudden our team splintered apart.”
Miami was picked to finish 11th in the preseason Mid-American Conference poll.
The RedHawks have been led by Mekhi Lairy, who is averaging 16.5 points per game, Anderson Mirambeaux (15.8), Morgan Safford (12.0) and Julian Lewis (12.0).
“Defense can keep you in games when you have off-shooting nights,” Steele said. “It keeps you in games. Defense, rebounding and taking care of the ball. Those three things always win. Always have and always will. We’ve got to be more concerned with that than with shooting.”
The RedHawks committed 18 turnovers and shot 18.8 percent (6 of 32) from 3-point range against the Thundering Herd. Marshall had 12 steals and blocked seven shots.
–Field Level Media
