IU Basketball game day essentials: Indiana hosts North Alabama

IU Basketball Game Day Essentials:

North Alabama (6-6) vs. Indiana (8-3)

• Tip Time: 8:30 p.m. Eastern, Thursday
• Location: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (17,222), Bloomington, Ind.
• Television: BTN (Cory Provus, Trent Meacham)
• Stream:  Fox Sports
• IU Radio Network: IU Radio Network
• Point Spread:  Indiana is around a 14.5 point favorite.
• KenPom Projected Score: No. 87 Indiana 81 – No. 225 North Alabama 68
• Series: Indiana leads series, 2-0.

North Alabama’s Tony Pujol

Pujol enters his sixth season as head coach of North Alabama’s men’s basketball squad. Last season, Pujol lead the Lions to an 18-15 record, and led North Alabama to their first NCAA Division 1 postseason game in the CBI Tournament. Pujol is 66-89 as head coach of the Lions and in his career.

Pujol was hired as North Alabama made its transition from Division 2 to Division 1 hoops. Since becoming coach, Pujol provided a steady improvement in record each of his first three seasons and gave North Alabama their first winning season at 13-10 in the 2020-21 season.

Prior to becoming head coach, Pujol worked as an assistant under Anthony Grant’s staff at Appalachian State in 2004, VCU in 2006 and Alabama in 2009. After the 2014 season, Pujol took a year off of coaching before being hired as an assistant at Wyoming in 2016. Prior to collegiate coaching, Pujol coached in high school La Progresiva Presbyterian HS and Northwest Christain Academy HS in Miami, Florida.

North Alabama’s Results and Roster

North Alabama’s Game Notes (via North Alabama Athletics)

PLAYER OF THE WEEK

On Dec. 4, the ASUN office announced UNA’s Jacari Lane as the Player of the Week. In games against Tennessee Tech and K-State, Lane averaged 19.5 PPG and played nearly 70 minutes. Lane notched his first career double-double with an incredible performance at K-State, scoring 19 points with a career-high 11 assists. Lane is a two-time Player of the Week after winning it once last season.

North Alabama Tallies Most Wins Since 2013-14

North Alabama finished the 2022-23 season with an 18-15 record and a 10-9 record in ASUN play. Both totals represent the most wins since the Lions made the jump to Division I in 2018-19. UNA had a winning record for just the second time in the Division I era and the 18-win total is the highest since 2013-14 when the Lions finished 23-10 and won the Gulf South Conference.

Veteran Leadership

Experience is key for potential Atlantic Sun Conference contenders, and UNA brings that to the table this season with four returning starters. UNA returns 70 percent of its scoring to the starting lineup, not including reigning ASUN Freshman and Sixth Man of the Year Jacari Lane who was first off the bench last season and leads all returners in scoring with 12.7 PPG last season.

Quick Hits

• The 109 points UNA scored vs. Rust College set a new Division I school record — which spans six seasons back to 2018. Since making the jump to Division I, UNA has shot at least 50 percent in 24 games and at least 60 percent just twice, including last year’s win over Oakwood and last Thursday’s win over Rust College.
• The 60.6 percentage vs Rust is the second-highest single game total in UNA’s Division I era behind last season against Oakwood (63.4 percent).
• The Lions now have four active players who scored their 1,000th point at UNA. All four scored some of their points at different schools prior to UNA. (KJ Johnson, Tim Smith Jr., Damian Forrest, Marco Foster)
• In UNA’s game against Morehead State on Dec. 10, Jacari Lane scored 28 points to mark the most by any Lion in a single game this season. He went 10-20 from the field.
• After exiting the Tennessee Tech game with an injury on Nov. 30 less than two minutes into the contest, KJ Johnson made his first appearance back with a 14-point performance against Charleston Southern on Wednesday. Johnson was sidelined for three games.
• The Lions return four starters from the 2022-23 squad that tallied a new Division I record for wins in a season. Will Soucie, Damian Forrest, KJ Johnson and Dallas Howell all return this season, while reigning ASUN Freshman and Sixth Man of the Year Jacari Lane comes back for his sophomore season. Lane and Johnson both averaged double figures in the 2022-23 campaign.

No. 224 North Alabama’s KenPom notable numbers:

(out of 362 teams)

Tempo – No. 122 (Offense No. 100 / Defense No. 251)

Offensive Efficiency – No. 215

• North Alabama has a 48.8 percent effective field goal percentage (No. 219), with a lot of their struggles coming from inside the arc (47.5 percent, No. 261). They are slightly above average when it comes to shooting from the outside (34.2 percent, No. 139).
• The Lions are very efficient from the charity stripe with a 76.3 team free throw percentage (No. 33).
• Three-pointers are not a big part of the offense, with 3-point attempts making up just 33.1 percent of total field goal attempts (No. 284).
• North Alabama is not a good offensive rebounding team, with second chances on just 25.7 percent of misses (No. 285).

Defensive Efficiency – No. 232

• Opponents are shooting a 49.7 effective field goal percentage (No. 170) against the Lions while shooting 33.7 percent from three (No. 201) and 49.3 percent from inside (No. 152).
• North Alabama fouls at a very high rate. Opponents are getting to the line at a 42.2 percent rate (No. 323) for every field goal attempt. Free throws produce 23.1 percent of all opposing points (No. 39).
• Blocks and steals are not a big part of North Alabama’s defense, with 7.1 percent and 8.5 percent rates, respectively (No. 274 and 265).

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