Indiana Basketball vs Portland St: Know your opponent, preview, prediction
By Alec Lasley
The Indiana basketball program aims for its second win of the season when welcoming in Portland State to Assembly Hall on Saturday.
Assembly Hall was excited to welcome back the Indiana basketball program on Tuesday for its 2019-20 season opener and after a huge win against Western Illinois, the Hoosiers return to action on Saturday to take on the Portland State Vikings.
Though Indiana didn’t have Devonte Green in the opener, and likely won’t on Saturday, it’s another game that IU should control on both ends of the court.
For the Vikings, they are led by preseason Big Sky All-Conference guard Holland Woods. The junior guard can score with the best of them with 25 games in double figures and seven 20+ point games last season.
Not only can Woods score the ball, he also ranked second in the conference last year in assists (5.3) and fourth all-time in Portland State program history with 361 assists.
While everything starts and ends with Woods, Sal Nuhu is the centerpiece up front for the Vikings on both sides of the ball.
The senior big man averaged 9.6 points,7.0 rebounds last season while leading the conference at 2.0 blocks per game. His athletic ability allows him to guard a couple of positions on the defensive end, and while his offensive game is still raw, he has the ability to face up and also post on the block.
Head coach Barret Peery has seven new faces on the roster this season, including a few transfers. One of those is grad transfer Matt Hauser, who led the Vikings in scoring in the season opener with 13 points. Formerly at Santa Clara, Hauser is best known for his shooting and playmaking abilities. With a 3.18-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio as a sophomore, ninth best in the NCAA, and a career three-point rate of 36 percent, Hauser can cause a defense problems in multiple ways.
Peery’s teams are best when they are pressuring the ball, and pressuring full court. The Vikings forced 15 turnovers per game last year with nearly nine steals a contest and they started right where they left off this year. In their opener, Portland State forced an absurd 31 turnovers, granted it was a DIII opponent.
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Key Storylines
Indiana:
Indiana has the ability to be a terrific defensive team, will its performance carry over from Tuesday? Assuming Devonte Green will miss another game, how will the backcourt matchup against a very press heavy defense from Portland State? Will Rob Phinisee start in place of Armaan Franklin? Will the rotation be as deep and steady in game two? Another game to shake off the rust for Jerome Hunter.
Portland St:
Force Indiana to shoot the three. With their size, the Vikings will look to make it tough for the Hoosiers’ frontcourt in the paint. On the opposite end, with Indiana’s depth up front, the Vikings must shoot better than 2-of-15 from the three-point line, like they did in the opener, if they want to keep it close. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. The Vikings had 18 steals in the season opener, will they be able to disrupt the Indiana backcourt?
Key Players
Indiana:
Justin Smith (24.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg), Al Durham (21.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg), Rob Phinisee (14.0 ppg, 3.0 apg), Joey Brunk (11.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg), Trayce Jackson-Davis (8.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 4.0 apg)
Portland St:
Matt Hauser (13.0 ppg), Alonzo Walker (12.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 4.0 spg), Holland Woods (12.0 ppg, 5.0 apg), Sal Nuhu (12.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg)
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