Race Thompson steps up & more Indiana basketball takeaways from Wednesday

#2. Xavier Johnson owned the second half and got everyone involved

Finally, Xavier really showed his strongest asset and value to this team as someone that can be a leader and get everyone involved. Johnson dished out a season-high 10 assists and nearly owned the entire second half by himself.

In five games this season, Johnson has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.27 (25-to-11). In the first five games for X last season, he had an assist-to-turnover ratio of just 1.33 (16-to-12).

That might not seem like a huge deal to some people, but that’s a big difference and could lead the Hoosiers to a very strong offensive season with fewer turnovers than what we’ve seen in recent seasons.

What I loved most about his game was he only attempted six shots. Last season, Indiana was just 9-8 (.529) when Johnson attempted 10 or more shots while the Hoosiers were 12-5 (.705) when he attempts less than 10 shots. Now, that’s a stat.