Indiana lost by 25 points in Iowa City last night for mostly the same reasons it lost twice to Iowa in the 2022-23 season and another two times in 2021-22 season. The Hawkeyes, anticipating a paint-oriented Indiana offense, collapsed their defense, forced turnovers, and hit 3-pointers.
Just like that, Indiana is now 1-5 against Iowa under Mike Woodson.
There’s plenty to say about how these issues have plagued Indiana beyond its matchups with Iowa, particularly the way poor perimeter defense and bad shooting combine to put the Hoosiers on the wrong end of far too many blowouts.
There’s also the fact that Woodson has done little to adapt this approach, despite overwhelming evidence that some, if not most of his colleagues, know exactly what’s coming (sorry, Kenny Payne).
Those are old stories though. At this point, there’s hardly any more to say about the problems – philosophical, and more concrete – that this program has faced over the last four seasons.
Focusing too much on the negatives, however tempting, tends to obscure the broader context of how we got to be here. As in last night’s game, there have been real highs for Indiana under Mike Woodson, things to give fans and administration hope that year four wouldn’t be like this.
As ugly as the ending was, the loss in Iowa city last night felt roughly analogous to Woodson’s tenure so far.
Indiana’s slow start out of the gate against the Hawkeyes – a 13 point deficit under 10 minutes into the game – felt like we were back to end days of the Archie Miller era. Iowa looked better coached, better prepared and even looked more talented early yesterday.
There are plenty of games, and maybe the 2022-23 season as a whole, that might represent Indiana’s comeback last night. The Woodson era hasn’t meant a total stylistic departure from the Miller era, but it’s featured higher-end talent that can overcome schematic issues.
That’s not a knock on Woodson or his staff. Indiana has few rivals when it comes to NIL resources, but his NBA background has undoubtedly helped attract a new level of player to Bloomington.
Things haven’t always been great, but the flow of NBA talent through Indiana has been enough to keep things interesting. Indiana doesn’t win in Mackey arena without a lottery-pick point guard and All-American center in its lineup.
The good times didn’t last in Iowa City last night though, and they appear to be coming to a total end for Mike Woodson and Indiana. After the gutty comeback, the group took at least one full step backwards and found itself trailing by ten at the half.
Watching the tape, yesterday’s debacle may have been more than one step backwards for Indiana. With only one big in the lineup, Indiana had appeared to finally find spacing that worked for its offensive scheme and perimeter shots started to fall.
Perhaps anticipating a better matchup inside, Woodson and company abandoned that approach and went back to keeping Ballo in the paint and forcing guards to make contested entry passes. The result was 16 turnovers and 24 Iowa points off those turnovers.
And now, despite the improved roster construction, glimpses of small ball, and higher talent level, Indiana finds itself in a bad spot again. One step forward, at least one step back.
There’s still time this season for Woodson to turn it around. 4-2 in conference play, like a ten point deficit at half, is hardly a death sentence.
Seeing Woodson drop another game to Fran McCaffery for the same reasons does not inspire confidence though. Even if Woodson were to embrace changes to fix things for a game or two, he seems likely to revert back to his preferred methods.
This team has enough talent that there will still be wins, and maybe even streaks, to probably keep this team on the bubble. Woodson’s been blown out of the NCAA tournament both times he’s appeared though, and a third time would hardly feel like a step forward for this program.