KNOXVILLE, TN. — The Indiana basketball team beat Tennessee 66-62 in a charity exhibition on Sunday at the Food City Center in Knoxville.
While both teams made mistakes typical of a preseason matchup and the No. 18 Hoosiers were a bit short-handed with Trey Galloway, Bryson Tucker and Jakai Newton all sitting out, the effort resembled that of a regular season game.
The largest lead for either team going into the final five minutes was six points.
Indiana took a 60-54 lead with 4:17 to go thanks to a 10-0 run — Malik Reneau accounted for all of IU’s scoring during the stretch — while Tennessee went just shy of five minutes without a field goal. Reneau jawed at the Vols’ student section after he was fouled on a floater in the lane.
Reneau led all scorers with 21 points and was one of three players in double-digits for the Hoosiers.
Here’s what stood out in the exhibition:
Indiana basketball guard Myles Rice has skills
Washington State transfer point guard Myles Rice showed a willingness to push the ball up the floor whenever he was in the game.
It didn’t always set up a quick scoring opportunity, but it was a notable change from last year when IU struggled to play an up-tempo style. He was also effective beating his man off the dribble whenever he attacked the basket and had 19 points with four assists. He’s the program’s most dynamic offensive guard since Yogi Ferrell.
With IU leading 60-59 with less than two minutes to go, Rice buried a fade-away jumper with the shot clock ticking down to silence the crownd. He shushed the crowd after the shot hit nothing but net.
More: Indiana basketball is short-handed in exhibition against Tennessee
Indiana basketball rotations and half court sets are a work in progress
Indiana coach Mike Woodson’s first substitution was to bring Illinois transfer Luke Goode into the game for starting center Oumar Ballo with 13:52 left in the first half. It was the first look at one of the smaller lineups IU could rely on this season with Malik Reneau playing the five.
At IU media days, Woodson said he wasn’t sure how many players he would use in his rotation, but everybody got playing time in the exhibition. The last scholarship player off the bench was Langdon Hatton, who got some playing time in the second half.
Indiana also looked like a team running new-look half court sets.
The Hoosiers were twice called for shot clock violations and players looked indecisive at times with where to go with the ball. The most effective strategy was to just dump the ball into the post whenever they could get one-on-one looks with Reneau or Ballo. Fans probably had flashbacks to last season when IU went four-plus minutes without a field goal at the end of the first half.
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Indiana basketball’s nightmarish 3-point shooting continues
In the spirit of Halloween, IU’s 3-point shooting was a horror film come to life.
The Hoosiers missed their first 11 3-point attempts and didn’t make a single 3-pointer in the first half. Indiana was one of the worst outside shooting teams in the country last year and it might well be the team’s achilles heel again this season. Stanford transfer Kanaan Carlyle ended the streak by hitting IU’s first 3-point attempt of the second half.
The Hoosiers finished the game 4 of 19 as a team.
Indiana basketball forward Mackenzie Mgbako is a riddle
Mackenzie Mgbako remains one of IU’s biggest enigmas.
He has an incredibly high ceiling as he showed in the second half by scoring 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting (2 of 4 from 3-point range), but that came after he was a total non-factor for the first 20 minutes.
Mgbako didn’t score any points in the first half and was called for a technical foul. Mgabko had a lot of games like that as a true freshman last season especially during the non-conference schedule, but settled down and ended up winning co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year. The Hoosiers would love to see more consistency from him this season with a full year of experience under his belt.
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
