BLOOMINGTON — When Indiana let a double-digit lead against No. 2 Kansas get away on Saturday, there were multiple ways to frame that outcome.
That game provided some glimmers of hope, as IU played well for 30 minutes and pushed one of the best teams in the country to the brink. But coming away from that performance with nothing to show for it, in the team’s last opportunity for a marquee non-conference win, was a missed opportunity.
But there’s only one way to properly frame Indiana’s 69-68 win over Morehead State on Tuesday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
The Hoosiers (8-3) may have avoided calamity by coming back from a 15-point deficit to escape an upset, but their performance for the large majority of this game raises some major concerns about this team. If some subtle red flags emerged from the Kansas game, this contest was an embodiment of Indiana’s famed “William Tell” timeout.
This was a potential letdown spot for IU coming off a highly-anticipated game with an electric atmosphere. And Morehead State (8-4), in fairness, is no slouch — the Eagles are one of the top teams in the Ohio Valley this season and could contend for the league’s NCAA Tournament bid.
It would be one thing if the sole reason this game was close was because of Morehead State’s strong play. But it wasn’t close for much of the evening, and Indiana’s poor effort and self-inflicted wounds had a lot to do with that. Only one team looked ready to play ball from the opening tip, and it was not the team in white uniforms.
IU head coach Mike Woodson said those sorts of letdowns should never happen, particularly at home.
“The Kansas game was a great game. I thought we did a lot of good things in that game, but we just fell short. That doesn’t mean you come back the next game and lay an egg to start the game. That’s unacceptable. That’s on me, man,” Woodson said after the game. “I was very disappointed in how we played the first half. That should never be. I’ve just got to keep working as a coach to get them better to make sure that we don’t put ourselves in that position again.”
Many of Indiana’s issues are well-documented by now. Its guard depth is thin with Xavier Johnson injured, and while Gabe Cupps has done some good things in an expanded role, the freshman has to continue developing his body and his game to make a more consistent impact. The Hoosiers do not have enough outside shooters — and they’ve had just as much trouble defending the 3-point line. Five-star freshman Mackenzie Mgbako has shown flashes of strong offensive play, but he’s been inconsistent there, while consistently struggling defensively.
IU had a litany of other things go wrong on Tuesday. The “buddy ball” duo of Kel’el Ware and Malik Reneau did not pack its usual punch for most of the night. Indiana’s rebounding effort was poor for much of the game, which allowed Morehead State to build its lead. The Hoosiers shot just 57 percent at the free-throw line — if that mark was around, say, 80 percent, this could’ve been a more comfortable win. They also had constant defensive breakdowns that led to open shots for Morehead State, and they’re lucky the Eagles missed a lot of open looks.
These Hoosiers are just not doing the small things well. Their shot selection is frequently poor, and that was an issue again on Tuesday. Even when they don’t commit an excessive amount of turnovers — they had just five against Morehead State — they tend to give it away at important points in games, and they’re often unforced errors. And their defense hasn’t been good enough to completely counteract the offensive issues.
And perhaps IU’s biggest problem is that those mistakes regularly compound into further problems. A blown defensive assignment leading to a turnover; a bad shot turning into a frustration foul on the other end; giving up an easy second-chance bucket turning into sloppy offensive play. Issues snowball too often for this group. Individual mistakes will happen from time to time — it’s human nature. But when they stack on top of each other, that’s when it can become the difference in games.
“Momentum is a powerful force, and that’s the beautiful part about this sport is once things start going well, everything starts going well. I think the most important part of their run is the fact that we didn’t stray away from each other. We stayed together, kept encouraging each other, kept playing Indiana basketball. Mistakes are going to happen,” forward Anthony Walker said. “Just being able to pull together in that moment and continue to play Indiana basketball, continue to trust Woody is something that we did, and we get to pull out the game.”
As Walker said, IU can carry some positive thoughts from the game for at least a few hours — after all, a win is a win.
Walker turned in his best game at Indiana, with 18 points on a 7-for-11 line with nine rebounds. His performance almost single-handedly kept the Eagles from completely breaking the game open earlier, keeping their lead from growing any larger than 15 points. The Miami (Fla.) transfer was the only Hoosier who was up for the challenge for the whole of the night.
Trey Galloway stepped up defensively and helped keep Eagles guard Jordan Lathon quiet over the last nine minutes of the game after he’d already scored 30 points. The Hoosiers, overall, responded when they absolutely had to, turning the game around in the last eight minutes.
But once the team starts breaking down film from this game, the good vibes will end quickly. IU shouldn’t have needed that type of comeback, at all, against a team like Morehead State. This isn’t the same as the mental toughness the Hoosiers showed to pull out their win at Michigan. This turnaround kept a bad loss off their résumé, but doesn’t overshadow the way they got into that position.
Purdue, once again the No. 1 team in the nation, beat this Morehead State team by 30 points in November. Penn State, projected to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten, defeated these Eagles by 23 points a week later. Those results cast IU’s performance on Tuesday in an even worse light. It might indicate that further caution is required when setting expectations for the Hoosiers in Big Ten play.
IU should get Johnson back eventually, as he’s trending in the right direction. And his return will help the Hoosiers. But if effort becomes an issue in future games the way it was on Tuesday, that red flag would outweigh anything he can inject into the team.
