IU Basketball game day essentials: Indiana hosts Kennesaw State

IU Basketball Game Day Essentials:

Kennesaw State (9-4) vs. Indiana (9-3)

• Tip Time: 6:00 p.m. Eastern, Friday
• Location: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (17,222), Bloomington, Ind.
• Television: BTN+ (Austin Render, Galen Clavio, Tricia Whitaker)
• Stream:  BTN+
• IU Radio Network: IU Radio Network
• Point Spread:  Indiana is around a 12.5 point favorite.
• KenPom Projected Score: No. 84 Indiana 88 – No. 209 Kennesaw State  75
• Series: Indiana leads series, 3-0.
• See also:

Indiana expecting multiple recruiting guests for Kennesaw State game

Kennesaw State’s Antoine Pettway

Antoine Pettway is serving his first season as head coach at any collegiate program and was named the program’s eighth coach in Kennesaw State’s history earlier this year.

Prior to finding his head coaching role, Pettway was most notably an assistant and a player for Alabama.  He served on staff at Alabama along with IU assistant Yasir Rosemond.

Regarded as one of the nation’s best recruiters, Pettway brought in eight NBA-level talented players such as Collin Sexton, Herb Jones, Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney in his last four years as an assistant. Pettway spent a total of 16 seasons as a graduate assistant, assistant coach, and as the director of operations for the program.

Also known as the “offensive coordinator” at his time in Alabama, Pettway helped the Crimson Tide rank in the top 2o in total scoring over the last four seasons. In those seasons, Alabama won four SEC championship titles and appeared in the Sweet 16 twice. This past season, Alabama averaged 81.8 points a game, which ranked seventh in the nation.

Kennesaw State’s Results and Roster

Kennesaw State’s Game Notes (via Kennesaw State Athletics)

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Both of the Owls’ returning starters from last year’s NCAA squad, as well as the two remaining members of the every-game rotation, have carried their championship mentality into the 2023-24 season and are currently all averaging double-figures to place Kennesaw State this year.

Senior Terrell Burden is scoring a career-best 13.5 ppg this season while also dishing out a career-high 6.2 assists per contest, which ranks him 15th in the nation while he’s also tops in Atlantic Sun in assist/turnover ratio at 2.29.

Senior Demond Robinson, a 6-9 forward and one of the top returning post players in the ASUN, is posting career numbers as well for the Owls this year, with 12.5 points and 8.1 rebounds per contest. He also is tied for the team lead with 16 blocks.

Making a huge step up in his sophomore season is combo guard Simeon Cottle. He leads the Owls in scoring at 16.3 ppg, sixth-best in the ASUN, and is seventh in the league in three-pointers per game at 2.38 and ninth in steals (1.5 spg).

After experiencing a shooting slump in the first five games while reaching double-figures just twice, senior guard Quincy Ademokoya has been on fire. He has reached double-figures in seven of the past eight games, including a career-high 22 points against UNC Asheville. He currently has made 18 of his past 36 attempts from three-point range and leads the team with a 38.4% for the season.

FASTEST TO TOURNAMENT IN NCAA HISTORY

The Owls officially pulled off one of the most incredible turnarounds in NCAA history, as they are the only team to ever take just three years to reach the NCAA Tournament following a one-win season after making their first appearance in March Madness last season. That followed the team’s 1-28 mark in 2019-20.

KSU is also the only team in NCAA history to have ever doubled its win total in three consecutive seasons (1-5-13-26).

HIGH-SCORING OWLS

The Owls did something in their road win at Presbyterian (Dec. 16) that’s never been done before by KSU in a basketball game, and that was to have three players all finish with at least 20+ points in a game. Demond Robinson and Jamel King both poured in 22-points to pace the Owls in the victory, while Simeon Cottle, the team’s leading scorer this season, added 20.

No. 209 Kennesaw State’s KenPom notable numbers:

(out of 362 teams)

Tempo – No. 1 (Offense No. 2 / Defense No. 244)

Offensive Efficiency – No. 176

• As noted above, Kennesaw State has the second-fastest running offense in all of Division 1, with their average offensive possession lasting 13.7 seconds.
• The Owls are middle of the pack when it comes to their effective field goal percentage (49.8 percent, No. 184). They aren’t the best from the outside at 30.4 percent (No. 277) but do find some success from two at 52.8 percent (No. 95).
• Kennesaw State takes a good number of free throws in their games, as they get to the line at a 41.4 percent rate (No. 30). However, they’ve had some struggles knocking the foul shots down, as their team percentage sits at 67.2 percent (No. 290).
• The Owls are good at taking care of the ball. Teams are not forcing a lot of turnovers against them at just a 15.6 percent rate (No. 68).

Defensive Efficiency – No. 249

• Opponents of the Owls are shooting an effective field goal percentage of 50.5 percent (No. 199). Kennesaw State does a good job holding down the arc against teams (32.2 percent, No. 136) but struggle when defending the inside (51.8 percent, No. 236).
• Kennesaw State does do a good job at forcing turnovers at a 20.5 percent rate (No. 55). The defensive steal percentage is respectable at 10.6 percent (No. 101) and they block shots at a 12.6 percent clip as well (No. 49).
• Although their aggressiveness works to a point, foul trouble has been an issue for the Owls. Opponents are getting to the line at a very high rate for every field goal attempt at 46.2 percent (No. 347). Teams are also having 25.1 percent of their total point distribution come from the free throw line as well (No. 10).

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