Make that four double-digit losses in a row to Nebraska.
IU got off to a slow start and trailed 13-3 early in Lincoln, but they found their footing. The Hoosiers led 23-19 with 11:09 left in the first half, and neither team led again by more than five going into halftime. Nebraska appeared to be pulling away when they took a 58-49 lead, but IU rallied to tie the game at 62 with 10:35 to go. But it was all Huskers in the final 10 minutes, as they finished the game on a 21-4 run.
Let’s take a deeper look at how IU lost 85-68 with our latest edition of The Report Card.
Indiana (8-3, 1-1) will have the week off before hosting Chattanooga next Saturday.
COACHING (C)
There seems to be one player on this Nebraska team who you cannot let go off and have a big game. And that player — Brice Williams — went for 30. To be fair, IU doesn’t have a great defensive matchup for him. But they needed throw more his way and make someone else beat them.
Woodson kept Mackenzie Mgbako on the bench too long with two fouls. When it became apparent Nebraska was going to dare IU to shoot threes all night, Woodson needed to gamble with the foul situation in order to make sure as many of those threes as possible were taken by Mgbako. He said he kept Mgbako out because the game was close, but he missed an opportunity to build a lead.
To their credit, Woodson and staff weren’t trying to force hard, contested post shots against double teams. They made adjustments and ran offense that created open shots. The 35 three-point attempts were eight more than any Mike Woodson coached Indiana team had taken.
OFFENSE (C+)
Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg was intent on turning IU into a 3-point shooting team. That strategy got a major boost when Indiana’s best shooter, Mgbako, picked up two fouls in the first 33 seconds of the game.
Woodson is known to say his team had a lot of good looks but didn’t make them. He said it after this game, and it seems like a fair description of what went down. Indiana wasn’t taking bad shots, and they were taking what the defense was giving them. There was a long stretch of the game when IU was running good offense and getting good results.
But 8-of-35 from three (22.9%) is going to get you beat on most nights. The Hoosiers started the game 5-of-8 from deep but finished an abysmal 3-of-27. That kind of finish is definitely a losing formula, as was their overall 1-of-18 finish from the field.
IU is a better 3-point shooting team than what they were last year. But with Mgbako on the bench, the shot distribution was dangerous, even if necessary.
Despite the shooting woes, IU scored .99 points per possession, not a great number but it’s possible to win at that level if the defense is on point (spoiler: it wasn’t). A season low turnover rate of 13.1% and 15 offensive rebounds helped the Hoosiers stay close for the first 35 minutes.
DEFENSE (D)
Indiana set the tone for the game on this end with a bad start. Nebraska opened the game 7-of-7 from the field. That gave the Huskers early confidence coming off an embarrassing loss.
“We had no defensive presence at the start of the game,” Woodson said.
There wasn’t much of a defensive presence at all, beyond a brief stretch in the first half when IU was able get back in the game as the Cornhuskers made 3-of-10 shot over a seven minute span. But beyond that brief hiccup of good defense, Nebraska made 27-of-39 for the rest of the game, good for 69.2% from the field.
Indiana did have seven steals, and they forced 14 turnovers. But it wasn’t nearly enough.
The Hoosiers gave up the exact same amount of points per possession as in their embarrassing loss to Louisville — 1.23. Indiana was undisciplined and fouled excessively, and Nebraska lived at the free throw line. IU was fortunate the Huskers made only 17-of-26 attempts from the stripe.
MORE GAME COVERAGE
- Watch: Mike Woodson and Myles Rice discuss loss at Nebraska
- IU basketball: Nebraska 85 Indiana 68 — Three keys, highlights, final stats
- Mike Woodson updates Gabe Cupps’ timeline: “Probably out for rest of the season”
THE PLAYERS (*starters)
*Mackenzie Mgbako (D) Mgbako should be well past his defensive shortcomings, but they continue. Obviously the matchup with Brice Williams was difficult. He did rebound at a high rate in his limited minutes. The Hoosiers could have used him in this one.
*Malik Reneau (D) Indiana can’t have Reneau on the bench with foul trouble. They can’t have him getting just three rebounds. And they can’t have games where his presence isn’t felt.
*Oumar Ballo (C) Ballo rebounded well, but like Reneau he was largely taken out of the game. He had some good two-man action going with the guards in the first half, but Ballo didn’t score after the break. He didn’t even shoot in 15 second half minutes.
*Myles Rice (B) Rice put Indiana on his back and scored 13 straight points to pull his team back into a tie when the game seemed to be slipping away. He was good in passing lanes with four steals. Rice only had one assist, but you wonder how many he lost due to missed shots.
*Trey Galloway (C-) Galloway got off to a good start shooting the ball in this one. He was pretty good defensively too. But the shots stopped falling. A couple more makes would have made his night seem much different.
Kanaan Carlyle (C-) Carlyle reverted back to his shooting woes after a strong game against Minnesota. He did help lift Indiana’s defense when he was in the game.
Bryson Tucker (C-) It was a lot to ask Tucker to guard the 23-year-old Williams. Tucker did make his first three of the season before missing his next four. He has to be able to shoot better from deep than what he’s shown thus far, and Tucker has to focus on getting to the rim rather than taking contested mid-range twos.
Luke Goode (C+) Goode was probably giving the best effort of anyone on the floor for IU. And you want him taking all 10 of those threes.
Anthony Leal (C) Indiana was playing well with him on the floor, but this wasn’t a high impact game for Leal in 10 minutes.
Langdon Hatton, Jakai Newton, and Dallas James did not play, coach’s decision.
————————
Gabe Cupps is out long-term with an injury
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- Find us on Facebook: thedailyhoosier
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
