Indiana was already down 21 in the second half when C.J. Gunn made his first shot on Saturday evening at Purdue.
He didn’t make a dent in the massive Boilermaker lead. It was apparent by then nobody was going to do that.
The Hoosiers have lost six games by 14 or more points this season. And one reason is because rarely has a guard done for Indiana what Gunn would go on to do in his 15 second half minutes in West Lafayette.
The sophomore from Indianapolis scored a team and career high 13 points. That tally included a 3-of-4 night from beyond the arc. And it all came in the final 13 minutes.
Did Gunn flash his potential and perhaps pick up some confidence along the way? Or do the circumstances suggest we shouldn’t overreact? Maybe both can be true?
Gunn’s second season in Bloomington has kind of just been like that.
Did you know he’s up 36.7 percent from three on the season? On the surface, that’s a rate the staff and fans alike would have been thrilled to see this far into 2024.
But the problems are he’s arrived at that percentage on low volume (just 30 attempts from three in 23 games played), and seven of his 11 makes have come just like Saturday evening — late in second halves of games when Indiana was getting blown out.
Gunn has been a factor in some important Indiana wins. In fact it isn’t clear the Hoosiers would have won without his 10 points in the first meeting against Ohio State, or his eight points at Michigan.
But there have been several games when Gunn has stumbled out of the gate and failed to make an impact. In the rematch at Ohio State, he committed two turnovers in seven minutes and ceded playing time in the second half to Anthony Leal.
“This game is by inches, and you come in a game and make a mistake and it makes it harder,” IU assistant coach Kenya Hunter said on Mike Woodson’s radio show Monday evening, talking not just about Gunn, but Indiana’s bench as a whole.
“We have to get those guys feeling good about when they come into the game bringing positive minutes.”
Indiana’s path to success over their last seven games doesn’t feel like an either Gunn or Leal scenario. Lacking guard depth, especially with Xavier Johnson out, the Hoosiers need both to be productive.
“Hopefully for C.J. it can give him confidence with seven games remaining to be consistently like that off the bench,” Hunter said. “And it’s not just the scoring. It’s the ability to play both sides of the ball and execute on the defensive end and schemes, and offensively be able to find a way to get good shots.”
Hunter said a lot in that last sentence.
Gunn has flashed a lot of potential on the defensive end. It seems clear when it comes to his instincts and athleticism, he can be very good. Although he has lost track of the defensive gameplan at times, his 4.3 percent steal rate is more than two percentage points higher than anyone else on the team.
And getting good shots? That’s been an adventure at times. He comes into games looking to shoot, and that’s okay. That’s why he’s on the team. But the shots he’s taking have, at times at least, been questionable.
As mentioned, Gunn is making 36.7 percent of his threes, and he’s converting 47.4 percent at the rim. But it’s the in between — he’s making just 27.8 percent of 2-point jumpers — that leaves you wanting better shot selection. And nearly half (42.4%) of Gunn’s attempts have been 2-point jumpers despite that low make rate.
Whatever the circumstances, Saturday night looked like the C.J. Gunn who can make a difference for IU down the stretch. He has the potential to be a pressure relief valve with his shot-making, and his defense can create easy points going the other way.
Hunter isn’t afraid to say it. He saw what we all saw, and knows Gunn can help this team win games.
“We need that from him,” Hunter said.
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