Indiana begins a two-game road trip on Saturday night against Washington at Alaska Airlines Arena. The Huskies are 13-15 overall and 4-13 in the Big Ten.
Saturday’s game tips at 6 p.m. ET on Peacock:
With three wins in its last four games, Indiana is beginning to show up in bracketology projections for the 2025 NCAA tournament.
The Hoosiers won their last two games in Bloomington, including an impressive 73-58 dismantling of Purdue on February 23. At 17-11 and 8-9 in the league, Indiana likely needs two wins in its final three games to feel good about its NCAA tournament chances entering the Big Ten tournament.
Washington, meanwhile, is last in the conference standings and a near lock to miss the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis. The Huskies, led by first-year coach Danny Sprinkle, are 2-6 in Big Ten home games this season.
MEET THE HUSKIES
Washington enters Saturday’s game on a three-game losing streak, including a 26-point loss at Wisconsin on Tuesday. The Huskies’ two conference home wins this season came against Maryland on Jan. 2 and a depleted Northwestern team on Feb. 8.
The centerpiece for the Huskies is 6-foot-8 big man Great Osobor, who followed Sprinkle from Montana State to Utah State and then to Washington. Osobor has the second-highest usage rate in the Big Ten at 30.8 percent. He ranks in the top 15 in the league in offensive rebounding percentage and top 10 in defensive rebounding percentage.
An excellent passer, Osobar has dished out a team-best 94 assists. He is averaging 14.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game while shooting 47.3 percent from the field. Osobor, who has a team-high 53 steals, also ranks in the top 10 in the Big Ten in free throw rate (FTA/FGA) and shoots 62 percent from the line.
Senior center Frank Kepnang, who missed over two months from mid-November through late January with a knee injury, has started the last three games alongside Osobor up front. A 6-foot-11, 253-pound native of Cameroon, Kepnang averages 6.2 points and 5.1 rebounds in 17.7 minutes.
Sophomore Tyler Harris, a 6-foot-8 forward who transferred from Portland, has been a bright spot as a floor spacer. Harris is third in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting percentage (48.1) and is 43-for-87 on the season from deep. Harris is Washington’s second-leading scorer at 12 points per game.
Washington’s starting backcourt is freshman Zoom Diallo and junior Mekhi Mason, a transfer from Rice.
The 6-foot-4 Diallo is a dynamic playmaker and will have the ball in his hands nearly every possession. Diallo has the fifth-highest usage rate in the Big Ten and is eighth in assist rate. But he’s a poor 3-point shooter (16.7 percent), an average finisher (49 percent on 2s in conference games) and can be turnover-prone.
Mason, a 6-foot-5 guard, has to be accounted for on the perimeter, as does senior guard DJ Davis, who comes off the bench. Mason is shooting 42 percent on 3s and Davis, who transferred from Butler, is shooting 36.2 percent on triples. While Washington isn’t a high-volume 3-point team, defenses must respect the perimeter because Harris, Mason and Davis can all get hot.
Two other reserves to know are 6-foot-4 guard Tyree Ihenacho and 6-foot-10 big man Wilhelm Breidenbach.
Ihenacho has had an interesting journey as he started his career at North Dakota, played two seasons at James Madison, transferred back to North Dakota and is now at Washington for his final season. He’s a low-usage offensive player who brings experience and is a solid defender. Breidenbach began his career at Nebraska and is an efficient finisher who can also stretch the floor. Breidenbach is shooting 34 percent on 3s and is finishing 70.7 percent of his 2s.
TEMPO-FREE PREVIEW
(All stats are from conference games only and updated through Thursday’s games.)
As you’d expect from a team in the conference cellar, Washington’s struggles have come in nearly every facet of the game. The Huskies rank 18th in the league in points per possession and 17th in points per possession allowed.
Washington has been a middle-of-the-pack 3-point shooting team in league play. It connects at a 34.6 percent clip and scores 30.6 percent of its points on triples, the seventh-highest rate in the conference. Preventing a perimeter outburst from Davis, Harris or Mason is key.
Looking at the four factors defensively, Washington is bottom five in the league in effective field goal percentage defense, turnover percentage and free throw rate. If the Hoosiers take care of the ball, they should be able to produce good looks in the half-court.
WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO
The KenPom projection is Indiana by three with a 61 percent chance of a Hoosier road victory. Bart Torvik’s ratings like Indiana by two with just a 54 percent chance for the Hoosiers to win.
Indiana is 3-5 in conference road games with wins against Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan State. The status of Malik Reneau is an unknown entering the game after he missed Wednesday’s game against Penn State with an illness. Having Reneau available would be huge for the Hoosiers in dealing with a post-up heavy offense featuring Osobor. Indiana has three players – Oumar Ballo, Myles Rice, and Kanaan Carlyle – who are familiar with Alaska Airlines Arena from their PAC-12 days.
After a five-game losing streak, Indiana is playing well over its last four games and looks to be peaking at the right time of the season. This isn’t uncommon for Mike Woodson’s teams as last year’s group had a similar surge in late February. Road games in the Big Ten are never easy, but this is a game the Hoosiers need to win to continue their momentum towards an NCAA tournament berth.
(Photo credit: University of Washington Athletics)
Category: Commentary
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