For the second time this season, Indiana faced off against Northwestern in a game that would decide its NCAA Tournament fate. For the second time this season, Indiana lost a must-win game against Northwestern.
The Hoosiers have a new roster and new coach, but the hold Chris Collins has over this program continues. In a game that meant a lot more to Indiana than it did Northwestern, Northwestern led for more game time than Indiana did, including most of the second half.
Darian DeVries tried a new lineup
and got the same result, despite Northwestern being down Arrinten Page, who had 10 points and led Northwestern in assists in the first meeting. Even shorthanded against a different lineup, Northwestern looked like the better team while Indiana looked like a team that does not belong in the NCAA Tournament.
Here are 3 Takeaways from the loss:
Coaching decisions
In theory, starting two bigs against a team that killed Indiana on the glass and in the paint last time was a sound idea. But that doesn’t mean it was the right one.
Even without the benefit of hindsight, there were reasons to doubt the lineup DeVries started. Sam Alexis and Reed Bailey have never started alongside each other before, and have only spent 4.3% of the minutes over the last five games on the floor together.
While some change needed to happen, the lack of chemistry appeared to hurt Indiana, especially on the defensive end. Neither player appeared sure as to his rim protection responsibilities with the other big on the floor, allowing a lot of Wildcat points in the paint. Indiana narrowly won the rebounding battle, but still managed to allow more second chance points than they could score themselves.
There were also a handful of questionable substitutions throughout the game that I will refrain from getting into too much detail about so as not to bring attention to the players who were not put in positions to succeed.
Indiana has lost games because it was less talented, less athletic, and smaller than their opponent. That is not why it lost two must-win games against Northwestern this year.
Embarrassing
Given everything detailed above, coach DeVries has a lot to prove heading into his second season as coach at Indiana. He brought some improvement on the offensive end with the ball-movement and 3-point shooting stats that boosted the team’s analytical profile, but the game scores speak for themselves.
Missing the NCAA Tournament is generally considered a failure for the coach of Indiana men’s basketball. Doubly so with a roster full of seniors that was built to get the Hoosiers back to the tournament this season. Those two factors plus the fact that Northwestern kept us out of the Tournament with two upset wins feels like a new kind of low.
There is no universe in which this is an acceptable season outcome for a coach at Indiana. He will get the chance to right the ship, as he should, but he cannot sugarcoat what happened in year one. There are lessons to be learned here.
The season is over
The good news is that DeVries can now focus on fixing his mistakes, as Indiana has virtually no chance at the NCAA Tournament. As I said after the loss to Ohio State, there would be no benefit in playing in any other postseason tournament, so roster rebuild 2.0 starts now.
With so many seniors and such little production outside of those seniors, DeVries might be looking at a lot fo roster spots, which can be seen as a good or bad thing. It didn’t work out well the first time, but he now has his full staff intact and hopefully some existing connections that will matter in the portal.
Indiana also has a trio of four star high school recruits coming in, some of whom could end up being instant impact guys. Even with those spots filled, at least, there’s a lot to do with the rest of the spots in order to avoid another disappointing season.
With no basketball left to play, the staff can now make that its sole focus.
