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Tayton Conerway couldn\u2019t help but smile when asked about teammate Conor Enright following Indiana\u2019s 86-69 win against Kansas State on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him on the bench, \u2018Man, you\u2019re one of my favorite players to play with,\u2019\u201d Conerway said during his postgame press conference. \u201cYou just make basketball so much easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
His comments came moments after the Hoosiers overcame their toughest defensive test to date, P.J. Haggerty \u2014 college basketball\u2019s leading scorer. Haggerty entered the matchup averaging a staggering 28 points per game in a Wildcats\u2019 offense that totaled 92.8 points per contest.<\/p>\n
Indiana\u2019s solution? Well, it started with Enright.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the shot went up, we had him run to Haggerty on every shot so that we could jam him a little bit, make or miss, and not let them start their transition game,\u201d Darian DeVries said. \u201cIt takes a lot of discipline to be able to do that every time and I thought he was terrific at it.<\/p>\n
Haggerty finished with a season-low 16 points on 7-for-17 shooting and coughed up six turnovers.<\/p>\n
DeVries is no stranger to Enright\u2019s impact on the defensive end. The two spent three seasons together at Drake before diverging paths to different programs. Now, reunited in Bloomington, Indiana\u2019s head coach is utilizing the same traits he recruited Enright for five years prior.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been that way his whole life,\u201d Darian DeVries said. \u201cLet me do all the scrappy things that impact winning. He doesn\u2019t care about scoring. He can score, but he doesn\u2019t care. He just wants to win. That\u2019s why he\u2019s the ultimate team guy. I love having him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
It started just 30 seconds into the game. On Kansas State\u2019s first offensive possession, Enright\u2019s outstretched left hand denied a kickout pass to Haggerty on the perimeter, a steal that promptly resulted in a Lamar Wilkerson transition 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
He set the tone for an aggressive Indiana defense that held the Wildcats to just one make in their first 11 attempts from the field. Kansas State\u2019s 27 points in the first half were the fewest it\u2019s scored in any half this season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tempting to slap the term \u201cglue-guy\u201d onto a player like Enright, but it\u2019s a title that doesn\u2019t fully encapsulate the true impact he has on the floor. It isn\u2019t just hustle, a willingness to sacrifice one\u2019s body by sprawling onto the hardwood or a commitment to play defense for a full 40 minutes. Those are traits Enright possesses, sure, but there\u2019s more to the story.<\/p>\n
What truly makes him valuable is his mindset. Enright wasn\u2019t just willing to guard a player like Haggerty, he was eager for an opportunity to shut him down.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t back down, man,\u201d Conerway said. \u201cHe wanted all the smoke. He\u2019s been talking about it. Three days ago, he was excited for this game. He wanted to show what he could do, so stepping up to the challenge and he executed.\u201d<\/p>\n
That kind of energy is contagious. As a whole, the Hoosiers notched seven steals, tallied four blocks and forced a season-high 19 turnovers.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Indiana addressed a glaring issue it displayed last time out \u2014 rebounding. The Hoosiers gave up 16 offensive boards to Ohio Valley Conference foe Lindenwood last Thursday. Against Kansas State, Indiana cut that number in half.<\/p>\n
Leading the way in that department, none other than the shortest player on the floor, Enright. At just 6-foot-1, he snagged a team-high six rebounds. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought our defensive rebounding was much, much better,\u201d Darian DeVries said. \u201cStill plenty of room for improvement, but we\u2019re taking some strides there.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Indiana continues to take strides, so does Enright. Despite entering the game averaging just 3.8 points per game, he confidently sank a pair of makes from beyond the arc against the Wildcats. While it\u2019s clear that Enright\u2019s role is not that of a primary scorer, an ability to stretch the floor at a high clip would make him an even more valuable asset for DeVries.<\/p>\n
All of that \u2014 the defense, the rebounds, the unexpected scoring \u2014 is just a reflection of how he approaches the game every day. Enright\u2019s energy is essential to the identity DeVries is trying to build in his first year at the helm.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people just see it during the games and stuff, but he\u2019s like that in practice,\u201d Conerway said. \u201cHe\u2019s like that everywhere. That\u2019s just Conor.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the outside, Enright\u2019s success in slowing down college basketball\u2019s leading scorer was a statement, a surprise defensive showing that fueled Indiana to its sixth-straight win to open the season. But to Conerway and his teammates \u2014 that\u2019s just Conor.<\/p>\n
See More: Media<\/a>, Conor Enright<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tayton Conerway couldn\u2019t help but smile when asked about teammate Conor Enright following Indiana\u2019s 86-69 win against Kansas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,24698],"class_list":{"0":"post-436608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-conor-enright"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115616383037382040","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}