Indiana shows off 'great quality' of resiliency as it 'responded to that adversity' throughout exhibition win over Baylor

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — No team in college basketball is a finished product in October, or near truly finding out what its identity is. But the multiple learning experiences that Indiana basketball has had throughout the preseason has helped this new-look group quickly morph into a team built on resiliency.

After two come-from-behind wins in three games in Puerto Rico and another double-digit comeback against Baylor on Sunday, resiliency is the exact message Darian DeVries is taking away as Indiana heads into regular season play next week.

“I certainly felt like they had a little bit of calmness. I think you could tell some guys have played a lot of basketball,” DeVries said of his group after IU’s 76-74 win over Baylor. “They’ve been through it a little bit. I think even our Puerto Rico games, both games against Mega [Superbet] where we were down 20 and had to find ways to come back in those games were good for us as well. So we’ve had several games here in an exhibition-type setting where we’ve had our guys challenged and have to respond to some type of adversity, and that’s always a good quality to find ways to come out on top.”

While Indiana’s games in Puerto Rico provided a challenge at times, Sunday’s exhibition with Baylor provided a much different look for the Hoosiers. The size, length and athleticism of Baylor was a clear advantage early in the game — and something that Indiana really had to adjust to.

“It’s just hard for us in practice to simulate some of that speed and athleticism and playmaking. So we thought this was going to be a great opportunity for us in an exhibition type setting to get to experience that. And I thought the first half you could see struggle with that at times,” DeVries said. “At halftime when we came back out, it kind of readjusted. And I thought we were much more aggressive second half, defensively especially. So I thought they did a nice job of kind of taking what they saw in the first half, changing it and flipping it in the second half.”

The key moment, and first bit of resiliency shown was in the first half when Baylor took its largest lead of the game at 13. At the 8:53 mark, Baylor held a 28-15 lead and it was clear — the Bears were in total control. Indiana’s defensive pressure was nonexistent, while the size disparity showed.

(On3+): Three takeaways from Indiana’s exhibition win over Baylor

Baylor was 9-of-14 from the floor through the first nine minutes of the game. Then, Indiana dug in and went to what its identity is — toughness and resiliency. IU held Baylor to just 6-of-15 the remaining 11 minutes. A lead that could’ve easily ballooned to 20, shrunk to five at the midpoint. That’s when DeVries knew his team was able to turn the corner.

“I think it’s a great quality, and hopefully it continues when it goes in the win-loss column. But it is something that matters,” DeVries said. ” … I thought a huge part of the game today was we were down 13 with about seven minutes to go in the first half, and the game can go a lot of different ways right before halftime. I challenged the guys in the timeout of don’t let this get to 20. This can’t be what we just do all the time. So I thought they did a really good job of fighting back and getting it down to five at halftime. And now you’ve got a much more manageable second half as opposed to, hey, it’s not going well, and letting that thing slide up to 20 for us.”

Indiana took that quick swing and the halftime adjustments and came out the aggressor in the second half — doing so from the start.

Indiana used a 19-6 run in the first eight minutes of the second half to take an eight point lead and did so on its defensive intensity. It forced four turnovers and had three blocks in that span en route to 14 points off of seven second half turnovers, and holding the Bears to just 29 percent from the floor after halftime.

“They played a lot tougher than us. We turned it over way too much in the first 12 minutes (of the second half). And we let our offense dictate our defense,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said after the game. “And the last eight minutes, we really did a good job defending. But credit them, they came out in the second half at one point, I think we were four for 18. And that’s Coach DeVries’ coach team, that’s what you get sometimes, cuz they do a great job.”

But, Baylor didn’t go down easy, fighting back from a nine-point deficit at the 8:24 mark to eventually retake the lead at 70-68 with just 2:10 remaining. Darian DeVries’ response? Letting his group play, and try to figure it out.

“It was great for us because there was a stretch in there as the lead was starting to evaporate a little bit. Where it’s like we’re not trying to run a lot of our stuff. So it’s kind of like we just let it go,” DeVries said. “Normally we would probably have called a timeout in there, but I wanted to see how they’d respond.”

That response? A strong take by Lamar Wilkerson and two free throws to tie it. A defensive stop and then two more made free throws from Wilkerson. After a big three from Dan Skillings, giving Baylor the 73-72 lead with a little over a minute left, there was no timeout by DeVries — instead, leaning on his teams resiliency to bring them home.

It was a Tucker DeVries midrange jumper in the short corner that gave IU the 74-73 lead with 45 seconds left, and then a driving layup with eight seconds left by Tayton Conerway to give Indiana the 76-74 win.

Wilkerson led all scorers with 28 points while Tucker DeVries had 18 points, six rebounds and five assists. Conerway added 15 points, five assists and zero turnovers.

“Same thing with some of the last few minutes, we didn’t want to run a lot of our stuff. So we kind of let them just kind of play and play off of one another,” DeVries said. “So I thought they did a good job there of finding ways to go make plays and execute when they needed to. Be able to hit some shots there to tie that game up. But what a great learning opportunity for us to have this, have the game come down the wire. I thought it was really good for us.

“For us, every scenario that could happen today was going to be a good thing for us because it’s something that we can learn from. Whether you lose handily, win handily, close game, whatever hour it plays out, there’s going to be opportunities for us to go back on the practice floor and get some things figured out.

“Going back to Puerto Rico and then this game, you’ve had three games now where you’ve had deficits against pretty strong teams, and you’ve responded to that adversity each time.”

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