Indiana returns to action against Sam Houston State on Tuesday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The game will air at 7:30 p.m. ET on BTN.

The Bearkats are 4-4 and are coming off an 82-78 win over Colgate on Saturday.

Indiana’s disappointing trip to the Bahamas is over. The Hoosiers have two non-conference games this week in Bloomington before Big Ten play begins next week.

First up is Sam Houston State, picked to finish third in Conference USA in the preseason. The Bearkats have wins over Tarleton State, Lamar, Trinity (D3) and Colgate with losses to Nevada, Baylor, Appalachian State and UNC Wilmington.

The two programs have met only once, on November 15, 2012 in Bloomington, a 99-45 win for the Hoosiers.

GET TO KNOW THE BEARKATS

Sam Houston State is led by 6-foot-10 senior guard Lamar Wilkerson, who scores a team-high 19.6 points in 31.3 minutes per game.

Wilkerson is shooting 47.5 percent from the field and 45.3 percent from three-pointers on 64 attempts. Wilkerson is 29-for-64 on 3s and is a 37 percent 3-point shooter for his career.

Joining Wilkerson in double figures are 6-foot-10 junior guard Dorian Finister and 6-foot-10 senior forward Cameron Huefner.

Finister is also a good 3-point shooter, although at a lower volume. He is 10 of 23 (43.5 percent) on triples, averaging 11.4 points and a team-best seven rebounds in 29.9 minutes per game.

Huefner missed the Baylor and Lamar games and is 9 of 22 from 3, with five of those coming against Division III Trinity on Nov. 21. He averages 10.5 points in 22.7 minutes per game.

Another name to know is 6-foot-2 senior Marcus Boykin, who has missed the last two games with an arm injury. Boykin suffered the injury in the loss to Appalachian State and wore a sling on his arm for Sam Houston’s last two games. Boykin has an assist rate of 40.9 percent, ranking 12th nationally. If he is unable to play, the Bearkats will be without one of their key contributors.

Brennen Burns, a 5-foot-10 senior, started the last two games at point guard while Boykin sat out. In the team’s final game, Burns played 30 minutes and scored 15 points, had four assists, two steals and no turnovers.

Up front, expect 6-foot-10 senior Kalifa Sakho and 6-foot-10 senior Kian Scroggins to share time at the five. Sakho is averaging eight points and 4.6 rebounds in less than 20 minutes per game and has a team-high 12 blocked shots.

Scroggins did not make the bench in all six games he played. He averages a solid 8.8 points and five rebounds in 20.7 minutes.

Another rotation player in the backcourt is 6-foot-10 senior Josiah Hammonds, a Chicago native who previously played for Incarnate Word. Hammonds made 77 3s at Incarnate Word last season and is 13 of 41 (31.7 percent) in six games.

SPEED-FREE PREVIEW

Sam Houston State is an excellent 3-point shooting team. The Bearkats have a 73-181 (40.3 percent) record from three overall and 39.9 percent against Division I teams, ranked 15th nationally as of Monday morning. They currently score 35 percent of their points with 3s.

The Bearkats are also excellent on offense, rebounding 34.6 percent of their missed shots. Indiana’s opponents are currently hitting 33.5 percent of their misses, which ranks just 292nd nationally.

Defensively, Sam Houston has struggled and could face significant problems against a much more talented Indiana squad. The Bearkats themselves are among the top 20 defensive rebounding teams in the country. And their opponents are shooting 36.8 percent on 3s and 55.5 percent on 2s.

What matters

The KenPom forecast calls for a 12-point lead over Indiana with an 85 percent chance of a Hoosier win.

Indiana hasn’t even come close to playing a 40-minute game this season, and Sam Houston will come to Bloomington with an upset on his mind. The Bearkats can cause problems by making 3-point shots that will likely be available and smashing the offensive glass hard.

After a 5-0 start, the Hoosiers were humbled after their trip to the Battle 4 Atlantis. The coaching staff still has a lot of work to do to solve major defensive problems. The team also failed to achieve its preseason goal of running a more modern offense with more 3-point attempts.

With just two games this week before Big Ten play begins, Indiana has a lot to improve on in a short period of time to stop the bleeding after a disappointing start.

Submitted to: Sam Houston State Bearkats