Thursday’s 67-63 loss to Purdue was just the second home loss of the season for IU, and it didn’t look pretty.
But how did they lose? The Hoosiers are so good at home. Their only loss in Assembly Hall this season was an early-season slip up to a tricky Eastern Washington team.
Purdue simply had IU’s number this season. This particular matchup is a tough one for the Hoosiers for two reasons: size and more size.
See, size allows Purdue to do two things that are integral to their success, especially against IU. The Boilers can take away the 3-point shot and outrebound the Hoosiers.
Everyone knows that Purdue is bigger — not just down low, but at every ?position.
That makes it hard for IU to get open looks at 3-pointers because Purdue’s length allows them to close out better.
IU hit just 5-of-16 threes on Thursday, good for just 31.3 percent. But, the worst part of that statistic is how few shots they actually ?attempted.
For eight minutes and 48 seconds in the second half, IU failed to even register a 3-point field goal attempt. Yes, Purdue closed out well and focused on taking away that play from IU, but it’s still unacceptable.
The game after IU hit a Big Ten-record 18 3-pointers, they didn’t even manage to shoot that many against Purdue.
IU junior guard Yogi Ferrell said IU was just as much to blame for the bad performance from deep and missed some opportunities that were open.
“I think we just missed a couple shots — just maybe we weren’t out ready to shoot,” Ferrell said. “Maybe not taking open shots, the ones that we had.”
IU’s bread and butter is the 3-point shot and you can’t just allow a team to take that away from you, game plan or not. IU needs to start running plays designed to get open looks from behind the arc.
Even IU Coach Tom Crean, who usually says 3-pointers just come within the flow of the offense admitted the Hoosiers needed to take more deep shots.
“We didn’t get as many attempts and probably spent a little too much time trying to drive and create things rather than make it simple,” Crean said.
Rebounding was perhaps an even greater travesty for IU. The Boilermakers won the rebounding battle 38-to-21, and an incredible 23-to-9 in just the ?second half.
Despite IU’s lack of size, they are actually a pretty good rebounding team. Going into Thursday’s game, the Hoosiers were third in the Big Ten in rebounding margin in conference play.
But not against Purdue.
Ferrell again summed up that aspect of the game with a simple statement.
“We got to fight,” Ferrell said. “Tonight we felt like we came to play and played real well to an extent. But at the end of the day, our fight didn’t match theirs.”
Putting the rivalry aside, this loss is not really devastating to IU. They still have a very easy schedule left and a great opportunity to get 21 wins — a solid number entering the Big Ten ?Tournament.
I still don’t think Purdue will be the better team come March, but they’re certainly better than IU head-to-head.
crkrajew@indiana.edu
