LIU-Brooklyn at Indiana Basketball Preview

LIU-Brooklyn (1-0, 0-0) at Indiana (1-0, 0-0)
6:00 PM EST
TV: BTN
Line: Indiana -23
Over/Under: n/a
Series Record: First Meeting
Last Meeting: n/a
Blog Representation: the Crimson Quarry

The Hoosiers will host LU-Brooklyn in the regional round of the 2K Sports Classic tonight. The Blackbirds are the reigning Northeast Conference champs and beat St. Peters 87-80 in their season opener. Indiana is coming off of an opening 100-72 win over WAC opponent Chicago State.

The Hoosiers may have their hands full defensively with a quick Blackbird unit. LIU-Brooklyn also likes to spread the ball around, hitting on 11 of their 24 three pointers in their first game. The Blackbirds backcourt will be an area of interest for the Hoosiers, especially Gerrell Martin and Jason Brickman. Martin led LIU-Brooklyn in scoring with 24 points, making 6 of 8 from deep. Brickman did a fantastic job passing the ball, picking up 14 assists. All five starters in their first game scored in double digits compared to a bench that only added 9 points.

Indiana was able to clear the bench in their opener versus Chicago State and ideally would like to do more of the same here. They very well are capable of another dominating performance but they'll need to score more points from the field instead of relying on 55 free throws. Indiana wasn't spectacular in limited three point attempts and committed too many turnovers but were able to do enough to coast last weekend.

Freshman Noah Vonleh will be key to Indiana's success and he's coming off of a 11 points, 14 rebound night. The Hoosiers will love Vonleh if he can clean up down low like he did on Friday, but his 3 of 10 shooting is an area to improve at. Also, look for Indiana to work on passing the ball around a bit more, coming off of a game where they had 8 assists and 19 turnovers.

As the Hoosiers work to clean up their performance, expect the team to push their defense and try to slow down a pesky Blackbird team with an upset in mind. There are areas of concern for Indiana but there's simply too much talent here for them to lose a game like this. LIU-Brooklyn is fully capable of sticking around for a maybe half but the depth and talent here in Bloomington will more than suffice and cover up any problems.

Expect another win for this youthful Hoosier squad.