IU basketball game day essentials: Indiana hosts UNC Greensboro

Game Day Essentials:

UNC Greensboro (2-1) vs. No. 16 Indiana (3-0)

• Tip Time:  6:30 p.m. Eastern
• Location: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (17,222)
• Television: FS1 (Connor Onion, Robbie Hummel)
• Radio: IU Radio Network (Don Fischer, Errek Suhr, John Herrick)
• Stream: Fox Sports
• Point Spread:  Indiana is a 17.5 point favorite
• KenPom Projected Score:  Indiana 81  UNC Greensboro 65
• History: Indiana leads the series, 2-0.
• Last Meeting: IU 87, UNCG 79 on Nov. 28, 2014 in Bloomington

UNC Greensboro’s Mike Jones

Mike Jones serves as the head coach for UNCG men’s basketball and is in his fourth season with the Spartans. Jones was hired on April 19th, 2021.

Jones had a long resume as an assistant before landing his first head coaching job. Jones made stops at Howard, Furman, Richmond, and West Virginia before getting hired onto Georgia’s staff in 2003. Jones would be an assistant for the Bulldogs up until 2009 when he would get hired under Shaka Smart at VCU. Jones would stay until 2011 before getting the offer as a head coach at Radford.

Jones’s 10-year tenure at Radford was filled with some ups and downs. Overall, he amassed a 175-150 overall record, finished at the top of the conference twice, and appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2018. Jones won the Big South conference championship that year as well and was also named Big South Coach of the Year.

Jones was hired by UNCG in the spring of 2021 to become the program’s 10th head coach in its history. Jones has a 60-39 overall record as the head coach for the Spartans. His best season came a season ago, where UNCG went 21-11 with a 12-6 record in the Southern Conference, which placed them second at the end of the regular season.

UNC Greensboro’s results and roster:

UNCG Notes (from UNCG Athletics)

• The Spartans were voted to finish sixth in the SoCon Preseason Coaches’ Poll.
• Donovan Atwell was voted to the Preseason All-SoCon team.
• The Spartans return nine from last year’s roster, while adding seven newcomers.
• UNCG has 13 regular season non-conference games this season: five home, five away and three neutral.
• Non-conference breakdown: CAA (2), ASUN (2), Big South (1), ACC (1), Big Ten (1), Big West (1), Mountain West (1), Conference USA (1), NCCAA (1), DIII (2)
• The Spartans opened the 2024-25 season with their first of two SoCon/ASUN battles including Florida Gulf Coast, taking the win 73-64.
• There will be six games in Fleming Gymnasium and eight in the First Horizon Coliseum this season.
• UNCG begins its SoCon slate with a game on New Year’s Day, traveling to Spartanburg, South Carolina, to face off against Wofford and the Spartans conclude regular season conference play on March 1 against Samford in Greensboro.
• UNCG travels to Wofford on Jan. 1 and Chattanooga on Jan. 9 and will play on the CBS Sports Network.
• The Spartans’ game at ETSU on Feb. 19 will be on ESPNU, while the team will host Samford on March 1 on ESPN2 or ESPNU.
• Kenyon Giles joins the Spartans after two years at Radford, where he was first on the team with 1.4 steals per game and second on the team with 14.3 points per game.
• Ronald Polite III and Malik Henry both come to UNCG with four years previously at George Mason. Polite III has averaged 7.4 points per game and 2.5 assists per game. Henry contributed a 62.5-percentage in field goals during his time with the Patriots.
• Demetrius Davis joins the Spartans after playing the last two seasons at Chattanooga and one year each at Lawson State Community College and Augusta.
• The Spartans are nationally ranked 11^th with 32.3 defensive rebounds per game, 34^th with 43.3 rebounds per game, 41^st with 36.3 field goal percentage defense and 45^th with a 39.7 three-point percentage.
• UNCG is second in the SoCon in field goal percentage defense, free throw attempts per game (21.7), free throws made per game (15.7), rebound margin (8.3), defensive rebounds per game, three-point percentage, turnovers per game (11.0) and winning percentage (66.7).
• Miles Jones is currently leading the SoCon with 8.0 rebounds per game.
• Giles is nationally ranked 52^nd with 50.0 three-point percentage and 54^th with 3.3 three-pointers per game. He is third in the SoCon in both categories.
• UNCG has the advantage against its foes in points per game, 80.0-66.3, three-pointers per game, 9.7-6.3, rebounds per game, 43.3-35.0, assists per game, 15.7-11.3, and steals per game, 2.7-1.7.

OG’s Pick:

Once again, I’ll keep track of my scoring predictions throughout Indiana’s season for fun.

Record: 3-0 (this will obviously get worse when the Big Ten season gets around)

If Indiana plays a similar game as they did against South Carolina, this should be over quickly. UNCG is the first team that Indiana has faced that has shown they can shoot the ball pretty well, though. We’ve seen some teams light up the Hoosiers in the Hall, but if Indiana has another good defensive showing, there shouldn’t be much to worry about.

PICK: Indiana 89 – UNC Greensboro 60

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