3 Things To Watch As Indiana Takes On Oregon

EUGENE, Ore. – After taking care of business Saturday at Washington, the degree of difficulty turns up a few notches as Indiana travels to Oregon.

In coach Dana Altman’s 15th season, the Ducks have won five straight games after a five-game losing streak in the middle of Big Ten play. They most recently cruised to an 82-61 home victory over USC, which followed a comeback win at No. 11 Wisconsin in overtime.

Oregon is No. 31 in the NET rankings, and its eight Quad 1 wins are tied for sixth most in the nation. Squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble, the Hoosiers could use that type of victory before it wraps up the regular season Saturday against Ohio State.

“The Oregon team is a tough team, man,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson said. “They play extremely hard, and we gotta go in with our A game and see where it leads us.”

Here are three things to watch in this matchup.

1. Indiana bigs versus Bittle

Indiana’s Malik Reneau is coming off a dominant performance Saturday at Washington, scoring 22 points on 10-for-13 shooting after missing the previous game with an illness. He and Oumar Ballo split minutes at the center position, aside from one minute late in the second half. Ballo played a season-low 15 minutes, but he was effective with seven points on 3-for-4 shooting.

Whether it was Reneau or Ballo, both Indiana bigs played strong defense against Washington’s leading scorer, Great Osobor, who finished with just four points, his second-fewest of the season.

“[Osobor] is a load, man, in terms of what he does offensively, and we knew that coming in,” Woodson said. “We just tried to take some things away from him. I thought Goode did a good job when we double-teamed him some and tried to keep it out of his hands as much as we could. I thought for the most part, we did that.”

Reneau and Ballo have another challenging matchup against Oregon center Nate Bittle. The 7-foot senior averages 13.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game while leading the Big Ten with 2.5 blocks per game in conference play. It will be difficult to score at the rim against Bittle, who also steps out and attempts 3.1 3-pointers per game and shoots 32.6%.

2. Will Shelstad, Barthelemy stay hot?

Indiana’s 3-point defense has been a weakness at times this season, allowing 10 or more threes in nine games. Overall, opponents are shooting 32.8% from 3-point range against Indiana, which puts it 11th among Big Ten teams and 121st nationally.

The Hoosiers have to be especially mindful of Oregon guards Jackson Shelstad and Keeshawn Barthelemy from long range. They’re Oregon’s two most frequent 3-point shooters at 4.9 and 4.3 attempts per game, respectively. Shelstad is tied for fourth among Big Ten players in conference action with 45 threes made, and Barthelemy is tied for 16th with 35.

Since Barthelemy entered the starting lineup in February, Oregon’s backcourt duo has been on fire. Both players are shooting 44% from 3-point range during that eight-game stretch. If Indiana is to head back to Bloomington with a second win out west, it can’t give Shelstad and Barthelemy frequent open looks from deep.

3. Galloway’s playmaking

Trey Galloway was thrust into the point guard role last year after Xavier Johnson’s injury, despite rarely playing the position for the first three seasons of his Indiana career. It’s turned out to be a real strength for the fifth-year senior guard.

He dished out nine assists in back-to-back games against Purdue and Penn State, and followed that up with seven assists Saturday against Washington. That’s raised his average to 4.8 assists in Big Ten play, good for sixth in the conference.

Galloway has been especially effective in the pick-and-roll game with Ballo and Reneau, and Woodson said he trusts Galloway because they’ve been together all four seasons. In a close loss at Purdue, coach Matt Painter said the Boilermakers were fortunate Galloway didn’t have the ball in his hands on the final possession after totaling 15 points on 7-for-10 shooting with five assists in that game.

It has also seemed to have a positive impact on Myles Rice, who has accepted playing an off-ball role in spurts. Rice has come off the bench in four of the last five games, a stretch in which he’s made 7-of-14 3-point attempts. That marks the most 3-pointers Rice has made in a five-game stretch since the first five games of his Indiana career, when he began the season 7 for 15.

Indiana’s offense has operated well of late with Galloway running the point, and it needs a strong performance from the senior on Tuesday to upset the Ducks.