Indiana Basketball: 3 takeaways from win vs Notre Dame

1. 2019 recruiting class most important

Archie Miller came to Indiana with little talent from top-to-bottom around the program, but now with his third recruiting class, it looks like he finally has that.

With Armaan Franklin, Trayce Jackson-Davis, and Joey Brunk in the 2019 recruiting class, it looks like that trio could be the most important class to Miller and the rest of the Indiana staff moving forward.

It all started with Joey Brunk from the opening tip. The Butler grad transfer has had a bit of an up-and-down start to his Indiana career, but as of late, he has been anything but down. Once again, Brunk provided a spark from the tip which included being extremely active on the boards on both ends. With his 11 rebounds in the first half, and career-high 14 for the game, he was the force behind outrebounding the Irish by 10 for the game.

Not only did he rebound the ball, he added nine points and more importantly, three assists. After dominating the first half, Notre Dame started to double Brunk whenever he caught the ball, which led to either an open Justin Smith or Trayce Jackson-Davis cutting down the lane for an open bucket.

The other front court member is Trayce Jackson-Davis. Obviously he needs no introduction, as he is quickly becoming one of the best freshmen in the country, and again he played up to that standard on Saturday.

Jackson-Davis, while quietly going for 14 points and seven rebounds, did most of his damage down the stretch of the game when the Hoosiers had given up the lead. Going 6-for-6 before missing two important layups within the last few minutes of the game, it was Jackson-Davis who had one of the biggest buckets of the game at the end of the shot clock to tie the game at 59 all off of an inbounds play.

For the final member of the class, Armaan Franklin, it was a coming out party that will hopefully last the rest of the year. Scoring 17 points on 4-for-5 from deep, he also hit the game-winner with 15.7 seconds left, capping off a terrific game.

Taking, and making, big shot after big shot, his energy and aggressiveness on both ends was needed when the Hoosiers went into a bit of a slump halfway through the second half. Moving forward, while he won’t be averaging 17 points a game, his ability to knock down an open shot and play aggressively on defense will be crucial with the rest of the backcourt proving to be inconsistent thus far.