Why there was 'never thought' center would sit out Indiana basketball win after stitches

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball's starter center Samet Yigitoglu scored a game-high 18 points in Thursday night's 90-66 win over Tennessee Tech despite missing an extended stretch in the first half.

After scoring on IU's first three trips down the floor in the opening minutes, Yigitoglu got hit as he went up for another shot and stayed back under his own basket as play continued. The contact opened up a gash around his right eye, and he had to press a towel against his head to stop the bleeding as he walked back to the locker room.

Yigitoglu spent the entire time with the trainers getting stitched up — about 10 minutes of game time — just itching to get back on the floor.

"Even when I was bad, I was thinking I'm going to be back," Yigitoglu said. "I never thought I was going to miss the game. I was ready to go."

The officials reviewed the play that left Yigitoglu shaken up for a flagrant foul, but announced it was just "incidental contact." He received an ovation from the crowd at Assembly Hall when walked up to the scorer's table with 7:14 left in the first half.

Yigitoglu, who came into the game averaging 6.7 points and 6.0 rebounds, picked up right where he left off.

"I thought it was good," IU coach Darian DeVries said of Yigitoglu's performance. "He went back to the locker room, got stitched up, came back and said, 'I'm still big. I'm going to go post up.' I thought he had a great game."

Indiana's coaching staff made getting the ball inside to Yigitoglu a focal part of their game plan against an undersized Tennessee Tech team. The Golden Eagles unexpectedly avoided double-teaming the 7-foot-2 center, so the Hoosiers made adjustments at the half to put him in a better position to impact the game.

"I thought in the first half, to be honest with you, it almost went against what you thought we should be doing because we were trying to pound it inside," DeVries said. "I thought we got almost too stagnant trying to do that."

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DeVries called more ball screens in the second half to get his guards in space and open up the lane. Yigitoglu got plenty of looks rolling to the basket.

"I think we almost went too far overboard and made it too structured," DeVries said. "We let them really load up on us. I thought once it got free flowing a little bit the game opened up on our end."

Yigitoglu's day ended with him scoring back-to-back baskets right at the rim. The SMU transfer checked out just two points shy of matching his career-high on a night where he shot 9 of 10 from the field and added six rebounds.

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DeVries also praised Yigitoglu's contributions on Thursday night that didn't show up in the box score.

"He's not always scoring, but he's still a force down there," DeVries said. "He's drawing fouls. We're taking the ball out of bounds sometimes on those fouls, but it's getting us closer to that bonus quicker each half. I think the bigs, that physicality, they're impacting the game not just by scoring and rebounding, but by drawing fouls too."

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why there was 'never thought' center would sit out Indiana basketball win after stitches