Indiana returns to action Thursday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall against UNC Greensboro. The Hoosiers lead the all-time series against Greensboro 2-0.
The non-conference matchup will tip at 6:30 p.m. ET on FS1:
Indiana is off to a solid start to the 2024-25 season. The Hoosiers have won each of their three games by at least 16 points and, as a result, have moved up in the computer ratings.
Indiana heads to the Bahamas next week for Battle 4 Atlantis, but the Hoosiers must first take care of business in Bloomington against UNC Greensboro. The Spartans are 2-1, having won against Florida Gulf Coast and NC Wesleyan, a Division III program. Greensboro lost its first road game, 81-68, at SMU on Nov. 11.
The two programs last met on Nov. 28, 2014, in Bloomington. Indiana won 87-79.
MEET THE SPARTANS
The Spartans are led by coach Mike Jones, who is in his fourth season in Greensboro. This will be Jones’s first season coaching the program without the Langley twins, who graduated last spring. Greensboro also lost its leading scorer, Mikael Brown-Jones, to Ole Miss via the transfer portal.
Despite the losses, Greensboro will be competitive in the Southern Conference. In the preseason, the Spartans were picked to finish second in the league and they’re currently comfortably inside the top 200 on KenPom. Early in the season, the Spartans are 175th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, per KenPom and 179th in adjusted defensive efficiency. Last season, Greensboro had the 118th-best offense and the 202nd-ranked defense, according to KenPom.
Through three games, Greensboro has three players averaging in double figures. All three are guards or wings and two are transfer portal additions.
Kenyon Giles, an addition from Radford, is averaging a team-best 16.3 points and is shooting 50 percent from the field. The 5-foot-11 junior guard is 10-for-20 on 3s in 25.7 minutes per game. Giles also has a team-high seven steals in three games. Last season, he averaged 14.3 points, 2.8 assists, two rebounds and a steal at Radford.
George Mason transfer Ronald Polite, a 6-foot-2 senior, is averaging 10.3 points in 23.7 minutes per game. Polite does a solid job of getting to the line and is 10-for-13 from the stripe thus far.
Donovan Atwell, a 6-foot-5 junior, had an excellent sophomore season. Atwell averaged 11.2 points, shot 42 percent from 3 and 94.7…