“If he dies, he dies.” – Ivan Drago, “Rocky IV”
***
Junior guard Josh Newkirk chucked the ball from a few steps in front of half court. He missed. The first half ended on that shot, with the Hoosiers trailing 35-25.
A 10-point deficit at home against a subpar Michigan team that hasn’t won a true road game all season had transformed Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall into Simon Skjodt Library. The crowd, students and season-ticket holders alike, sat down unenthused and, rightfully, a bit ticked off.
Then came the Firecrackers.
Composed of 4th- to 8th-grade girls, this stellar jump rope team’s performance took Assembly Hall by storm. After a routine that included a human jump rope and many other unbelievable stunts, the crowd gave the group a standing ovation. Even the press box, where cheers and jeers are supposed to be kept to a minimum, had its share of hoots and hollers.
Just a few minutes later, IU made its way back onto the court with the 20 most important minutes of the season about to begin.
Twelve seconds into the second half, junior guard James Blackmon Jr. took a 3-pointer. He did not score in the first half.
The shot from behind the arc was a brick, clanging against the rim.
The Wolverines grabbed the rebound and made their way down the court. The crowd was a little bit quieter than they were just a few moments earlier.
***
That was bad.
There are many ways we can analyze that game. We can break down the statistics, look at where the shots were taken on the floor and read the box score ad nauseum to try to find the key to the Hoosiers’ downfall.
However, the only stat we need is the big one. IU lost again. After the 19:13 in the first half mark when Derrick Walton Jr. hit a 3-pointer, the Hoosiers never led during the game. Not for one second.
They fought, scrapped, cut the Michigan lead to six multiple times, but the combination of IU missed shots and Michigan easy buckets created a 40-minute game that felt like a preordained loss from the get-go.
The only positive for the offense was freshman center De’Ron Davis, who went 80 percent from the field and scored 13 points in 14 minutes.
Other than Davis, the team was putrid offensively.
One of the major contributors to this squad’s lack of offensive success is its inability to set a screen. It’s a basic motion of hitting the defender on a pick to free up the ball-handler, but the Hoosier big men habitually fail to make contact. With the defenders free of the fear of being hit, playing defense against IU is almost too easy.
Turnovers, the season-long Achilles’ heel of this team, devastated IU once again. The Hoosiers lost the ball or threw it out of bounds or committed a foul or had a shot-clock violation 15 times. These 15 possessions led to 20 points for Michigan and were a key factor in the Wolverines’ easy shots.
As the season began and IU started their sloppy ways, there were plenty of justifications and explanations.
They’re building a new offense. The young guys need to get their feet wet. Newkirk needs to become more acclimated to being a starter. It’s early in the season. We’re just a few games in.
Excuse after excuse has been made to try to explain the turnover problem, but there doesn’t seem to be a focus on fixing it. Even during the wins, this team has an inability to hold onto the ball. This isn’t just on the ball-handlers; this is an institutional blunder, from the top down.
With fewer than four minutes left in the game, Crean mimicked the Hoosiers’ shoddy play by taking a tumble himself. After nailing a three, Michigan’s Moritz Wagner attempted to avoid a ref and bowled over the IU head coach instead.
Crean hit the deck hard. It was almost too perfect of a parallel, and an exact microcosm of IU’s play since the Big Ten schedule began.
Perhaps the most perplexing part of watching this IU team, especially after last year’s Big Ten resurgence, is the inability to do the little things. Along with turnovers, IU constantly makes the same mistakes as if it forgot it made them just a few moments earlier.
The one defensive lapse that stands out routinely is the stunning incompetence against the pick-and-pop offense that Michigan used to perfection. The guards and big men repeatedly kept their mouths shut and never communicated.
Instead of switching or staying with their individual man, the player with the ball would consistently get double teamed, leading to an uncontested look from the screen-setter. The Hoosiers had no answer for this on Sunday.
On the other side of the ball, IU continued its season-long streak of being unable to break out of an isolation-style “offense.” Michigan’s ball-movement, precise passing and cutting was a breath of fresh air when observing Indiana.
Going one-on-one is fine once in a while when a player is in a groove, but when the entire team is struggling from the field, a cut for a layup or open jumper would be nice. This has been a predicament all year for the Hoosiers, and, 26 games into the season, it probably won’t change anytime soon.
Unlike every other home postgame press conference, Crean spoke to the media before the players did.
He entered in a rush and started to talk before his butt even hit the cushion-less seat of the white folding chair. Fidgeting, he grabbed a packaged moist towelette from his pocket and attempted to open it while still speaking. Eventually, he took off his glasses and began to clean them as he talked about the Hoosiers’ failures.
He moved the mic back and forth and then pushed forward the mini water bottle. He cut off multiple questions and answered the questions he wanted to answer, even if the response didn’t match the query.
When asked about the team’s turnover problem, Crean spoke about how the 3-point shooting difficulties led to the defeat.
He had many reasons, from immaturity in the backcourt to injuries coming at the worst times to a lack of movement to a noticeable lack of leadership, to explain the loss.
At this point, however, there are no more alibis, and Crean’s squirming in front of the microphone shows that he agrees. This team isn’t a tournament team. It’s just not good enough.
This team can scratch and claw during its five remaining regular season games and possible NIT contests, but at 15-11 overall and 5-8 in the Big Ten, the Hoosiers’ 2016-17 season is officially dead.
gigottfr@indiana.edu
@gott31
