Will Indiana rebound after their poor shooting night against the Wildcats? Do the Hoosiers have a shot to win this game if Jalen Hood Schifino doesn’t play? Can Kansas take care of their last major test before the new calendar year starts behind Jalen Wilson and Gradey Dick?
TV schedule: December 17th,2022 at 12:00 P.M
Location: Allen Fieldhouse
The Indiana Hoosiers go into this game with a record of 8-2. Their two losses came against Arizona and Rutgers. Their best win on the season came against North Carolina. The offense has looked very bad since their win against North Carolina as they lost Jalen Hood Schifino since that win.
The Hoosiers go into this game ranked as the 14th-best team in the country. Before the win against North Carolina, Indiana’s offense was very good. The offense was centered around Trayce Jackson Davis, but it had moved around the perimeter mostly through Hood-Schifino’s ball movement. When fully healthy, the Hoosiers looked like a very good offense.
As Schifino has missed the last three games, this offense has looked a lot like last season where it depends on Jackson Davis going off. If Jackson Davis doesn’t go off, the offense has stagnated and that is why they have struggled and lost against Rutgers and Arizona.
Kansas goes into this game with a record of 9-1. Their only loss of the season came against Tennessee in the Battle 4 Atlantis. Their best win of the season came against Duke. Another notable win that this Jayhawk team has is against a solid Wisconsin team.
The offense is led by two main guys. The leading man is Jalen Wilson. Wilson is averaging 22 points per game on 42 percent shooting. He is averaging 9 rebounds per game. The second leading man is Gradey Dick. Dick is averaging 15 points per game on 48 percent shooting from the floor.
Overall, the Jayhawks’ offense is one of the most explosive in college basketball, averaging 79 points per game. That is good for 33rd in the country. Kansas’s offense has been high flying this season and has only been kept in the 60-point range by Tennessee (which has one of the best defenses in the country) and Wisconsin (which has one of the better defenses in the country, especially the way they played defensively in the Battle Four).
Indiana’s average defense will not be able to slow Kansas’s offense like other top teams have done this season. I think this game will end up being an offensive showcase between both teams if both are fully healthy. As already said and I will highlight in the prediction, Indiana will not have a shot if Hood-Schifino is not playing or fully healthy.
If Schifino is healthy, I think Indiana will have a shot to win this game but I still think Wilson and Dick are too much for an Indiana team with a lot of good role players and Jackson Davis, one of the best players in the college basketball,
The Hoosiers could win this one if Schifino is healthy but if he isn’t, I wouldn’t give the Hoosiers a good shot to win this one against one of the best teams in the country. Look for Dick and Wilson to have a good game, Indiana’s offense will just not be able to replicate Kansas’ production.
The only way I could see Indiana winning this one without Schifino is if they slow this game down, I just don’t see a way they can do that with the amount of talent that the Jayhawks have.
Prediction: Kansas 85, Indiana 78