Indiana men’s basketball traveled to Lexington, Kentucky to take on the University of Kentucky in a renewed rivalry matchup — a contest between two blue-blood programs.
Historically, the Hoosiers have struggled on the road against the Wildcats, winning just three games in Lexington all time. Yet, this matchup was different.
The Hoosiers were not tasked with a typical top 10 Kentucky team. They weren’t tasked with even a top 25 Kentucky team. They instead faced a struggling Wildcats squad seeking its first win over a power conference program.
Indiana’s overall performance, which was plagued with poor offense, turnovers, undisciplined defense and a lack of rebounding was not enough to take down Kentucky and resulted in a 72-60 loss on Saturday inside Rupp Arena.
“Yeah, I thought the turnovers; it was a combination of things,” head coach Darian DeVries said postgame. “I thought, you know, we left our feet a few times. I thought we just got on our heels a little bit and didn’t play as disciplined as we needed to.”
All season long, the Hoosiers’ identity has been selfless play and sharing the ball. Yet against the Wildcats, Indiana recorded a season-low eight assists. The Hoosiers were not sharing the ball, and as a result, they were not generating good offense.
Indiana scored a season-low 60 points and made just 15 field goals on the night. The Cream and Crimson have been dangerous from the 3-point line all season long but were only able to sink four shots from beyond the arc — another season low. While some of this can be credited to the Wildcats’ defense, Indiana did not make good shot selections, and the lack of ball movement could be just as much of a reason to blame.
Some nights, the offense will have its struggles, and the shots won’t fall. Yet against Kentucky, the offensive struggles were not the only thing plaguing the Hoosiers.
The Hoosiers played undisciplined defense which resulted in careless fouls and 14 offensive rebounds for the Wildcats. Fifth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson, who Indiana has relied on all season long, was sidelined for nearly nine minutes of the second half after committing his fourth foul of the game with 17:58 remaining.
With Wilkerson out, Indiana allowed Kentucky to go on a 17-9 run and take its first lead of the second half. Despite Wilkerson being subbed back in with nine minutes remaining, Indiana was unable to get a stop on the defensive end and allowed the Wildcats to extend their lead to 11 points with five minutes remaining.
During the Wildcat run, Indiana wasn’t getting a stop on defense and gave up costly turnovers. Throughout the game, the Hoosiers turned the ball over a season-high 18 times, compared to the Wildcats’ four.
While shots falling is not always in a team’s control, disciplined defense, rebounding, ball movement and taking care of the ball is. Despite the Hoosiers being in control for much of the game, that kind of performance cannot earn a win against Kentucky in Rupp Arena. That kind of performance can’t win them a lot of games against a lot of opponents.
Indiana will need to clean up its game before getting into the heat of conference play. The Hoosiers will host two more non-conference tune up games before facing Washington on Jan. 4 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Nathan Shriberg (@NShriberg and naashri@iu.edu) and columnist Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki8773 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
