Indiana men’s basketball lost a game it needed to win tonight, and it did so in horrifying fashion, as all of the team’s worst tendencies cost it a winnable game and potentially an NCAA Tournament berth.
Cold shooting, being out-rebounded, fading in the second half, and the lack of interior offense are all familiar themes to this season, usually keeping Indiana out of games against more talented teams. Tonight though, it looked like Indiana would have collapsed against anyone, as it dropped what was
supposed to be one of the most winnable games left on the schedule.
The Hoosiers have now lost three straight, all in embarrassing fashion, and will likely be on the wrong side of the Tournament bubble when it’s all sorted out.
Here are 3 Takeaways from the game:
No Excuses
Indiana’s last two losses, despite the humiliating deficit, were somewhat understandable. Both Purdue and Illinois are locks for the NCAA Tournament, likely to get high seeds and will have good odds to make the second weekend. Northwestern is not that.
Not only was Northwestern not a good team in terms of their Big Ten record, but this was a team that Indiana should have beaten on paper. It was not one of the taller teams that Indiana has struggled to rebound against, as the Hoosiers have the higher average height between the two. Indiana got out-rebounded, nonetheless.
Northwestern also allows a lot of assists, which should have meant easy buckets for Indiana inside, especially once the team started to go cold from deep. Indiana was able to exploit this in the first half, but then stopped going to Tayton Conerway and Sam Alexis in the second half, for some reason.
As a whole, it was clear that Darian DeVries was out-coached today. With home court. In a game he had to win.
That is going to be tough to sit with.
Tayton Conerway
For the second straight game, Conerway has come off the bench to be Indiana’s second leading scorer behind Lamar Wilkerson. He also had 3 assists versus one turnover in 19 minutes of action.
He did have four fouls tonight, something that’s been a problem for him all season. He also made some questionable decisions off drives, with a few turnovers wiped off the board by effort plays from Indiana to recover his errant passes.
As it stands, it’s looking like DeVries is going to have to live with Conerway’s shortcomings to maximize what this group can do on offense. With Nick Dorn and Tucker DeVries failing to score consistently, Indiana cannot afford to keep Conerway on the bench. He’s also the best at penetrating off the dribble to start Indiana’s offensive actions.
I’m fine with him continuing to come off the bench, a role he’s seemed to play better in, but Conerway is a guy that is too important for Indiana to be without if it wants to salvage something in these last three games.
The Season Outlook
Frankly, I am not 100% sure Indiana can bounce back from that, but I imagine it takes going either 3-0 to finish the year, or 2-1 with a win in the Big Ten Tournament. At 8-9 in Big Ten play, the Hoosiers also face an uphill battle to finish .500 in the conference.
With losses to two of the worst teams in the the Big Ten in Minnesota and Northwestern, it’s hard to say that Indiana deserves to play meaningful postseason basketball. It sucks for guys like Lamar Wilkerson, who leaves it all on the court every game, but it’s the reality of the season so far.
Indiana basketball’s most urgent problem suddenly seems to be the upcoming portal cycle, where it will need to upgrade the roster, or at least replace its top five most used players, all of whom are out of eligibility after this season.
