College Hoops

What to Expect: Indiana vs. Kennesaw State – Inside the Hall

Alex Bozich

Indiana closes out non-conference play on Friday evening at Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers will host Kennesaw State, which is coming off a 65-56 win against USC Upstate. 

The Owls are 8-4 and 3-3 on the road with wins at Charleston Southern, Appalachian State and Mercer. Friday’s game is set for a 7 p.m. ET tip on BTN:

Indiana has one final piece of business before a 13-day hiatus. The Hoosiers will take on Atlantic Sun foe Kennesaw State to close out non-conference play. The Owls are the highest-ranked non-power conference opponent on the IU schedule in the KenPom ratings.

Friday’s game in Bloomington will be Kennesaw State’s ninth non-conference game away from home. Kennesaw State is the former home of current IU president Pamela Whitten. The Owls return all five starters from a team that finished last season 13-18 and was picked to finish eighth in the ASUN.

MEET THE OWLS

Junior guard Chris Youngblood is Kennesaw State’s leading scorer and the Tuscaloosa, Alabama native was named to the preseason all-conference team in the ASUN. The 6-foot-4 Youngblood is averaging 14.2 points on 50 percent shooting from the field. He’s connected on a team-high 29 3-pointers and is shooting 45.3 percent from distance.

The Owls, like many non-power conference teams, will be undersized. Guards Terrell Burden, Brandon Stroud and Kasen Jennings are projected to start alongside Youngblood.

The 5-foot-10 Burden is the team’s second-leading scorer at 11.3 points per game and its leading assist man. Burden has dished out a team-high 45 assists and 20 steals, but has struggled with turnovers. Burden’s assist-to-turnover ratio is just 1.25-to-1.

Stroud is a 6-foot-6 wing from Atlanta who leads the Owls in rebounding at 6.8 per game. He’s averaging 7.6 points on 44 percent shooting from the field.

Jennings is a 6-foot-3 guard who shoots just 39.3 percent from the field overall from the field, but 41 percent on 3s. He’s fifth in the team in scoring at 6.6 points per game.

Senior forward Demond Robinson starts at the five, but is logging just over 20.5 minutes per game. Robinson is third on the team in scoring at 8.5 points per game and second in rebounding at 4.8 per game.

A few key reserves for the Owls include 6-foot-4 guard Spencer Rodgers, 6-foot-6 guard Quincy Ademokoya and 6-foot-9 forward Cole LaRue.

Rodgers is second on the team in minutes played, but is shooting a dreadful 26.5 percent from the field. Ademokoya is 13-for-37 on 3s for the…

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