After losing twice last week, No. 22 Indiana hopes to pick up the pieces Tuesday when the Hoosiers host Penn State in a Big Ten matchup from Bloomington, Ind.
This will be the conference opener for the Nittany Lions (8-1), while the Hoosiers (7-2, 0-1) got a dose of league play at Minnesota last Wednesday. Indiana was 7-0 and ranked No. 22 heading into that contest — an early-season run highlighted by wins over Marquette and Kansas State — before absorbing a 73-64 loss at the hands of the Golden Gophers.
Tucker DeVries (17.8 points per game) and Lamar Wilkerson (16.0), Indiana’s top two scorers on the season, were held to a collective 24 points on 8-of-27 shooting against Minnesota.
The duo combined for a more typical total of 38 points on Saturday against Louisville, but they shot 10-of-29 from the field between them. The sixth-ranked Cardinals, meanwhile, knocked down 41.9% of their 3-pointers that day en route to an 87-78 victory.
“Our guys played their tails off. They left it out there,” Hoosiers coach Darian DeVries said. “I was proud of them from that standpoint. Was there things that we could have done better? Yeah, absolutely. But I liked the way we approached the game. I liked our mindset. I liked our toughness, physicality. I thought that’s what we need to do every night.”
Penn State is coming off an 87-76 win over Campbell on Dec. 2. Kayden Mingo registered 21 points, while Freddie Dilione V had 17 points to pace a balanced scoring attack. Mingo averages a team-best 15.0 points per game, while Dilione is next at 13.2.
The Nittany Lions are averaging 83.1 points per game, but they have allowed 70-plus points to teams such as Navy, Harvard, Boston University and Campbell — a trend that coach Mike Rhoades knows isn’t sustainable.
“We’ve got to be able to guard good offensive teams,” Rhoades said. “I thought our guys did better sustaining our defense, deflections in the half court.”
Indiana won both matchups with Penn State last season — a six-point victory on the road on Jan. 5 and a five-point win on Feb. 26 in Bloomington.
