Pain. Again.
Once Indiana lost Xavier Johnson for the second time this season in the win over Iowa, the ceiling for the season dropped significantly.
The guard rotation was not deep to begin with, and this roster wasn’t built to sustain a long-term injury to any of its main guys. If I had seen the score for today’s game without knowing the result, I would have assumed that Boo Buie went off for a career-high, torching the Hoosiers’ young guards from everywhere on the court.
That wasn’t exactly what happened today, but the backcourt once again hurt Indiana in its loss to a wounded Wildcats team. A consecutive bad game from Indiana’s leading scorer, Malik Reneau, and this one was over well before time expired.
The Hoosiers showed some fight at the end after Reneau fouled out, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit they found themselves in. And Boo Buie started heating up, hitting contested threes to stop every Indiana run.
Things aren’t going great for Indiana this season and it’s not clear how things will get better.
Here are Three Observations:
Malik Reneau
Indiana’s offense this season has been at its best when Malik Reneau showcases his agility and footwork to create for himself and Kel’el Ware in the paint. When the pair are at their best, I wouldn’t trade this frontcourt for any other in the conference.
The problem has been that Reneau has not been himself much in the last few games. He’s now fouled out of three of his last four games – all Indiana losses, and hasn’t reached his 16.5 ppg. average in the last two games combined.
If he can’t turn it around soon, we are likely in for a few more low-scoring efforts from Indiana. Without him playing well, the offense doesn’t have enough guys who can initiate and get Indiana out of the extended scoring droughts that appear in every loss.
It’s not necessarily a surprise that he would hit some kind of slump this season, given just how much he’s improved statistically since last year. He’s also potentially playing through an injury, which could explain the funk.
Unfortunately for Indiana, this slump has come at the worst possible time.
The Backcourt
Outside of a surprising performance from Gabe Cupps, who knocked down multiple 3-pointers and defended Buie well, Indiana did not get enough from its backcourt today. This has been the case in so many losses this year that I’ve lost track.
Galloway’s seven points and 12 assists reflect how hard he was playing and how much he was asked to do. But the box score doesn’t show that he missed the shots Indiana needed him to make, a pair of wide-open 3-pointers and a couple of free throws.
In 12 minutes today, Anthony Leal also missed an open 3-pointer and the front end of a one-and-one that stymied Indiana’s comeback attempt. C.J. Gunn had another quiet game, scoring just two points in 10 minutes after a hot end to the Purdue game.
The guards weren’t to blame for the turnover troubles today (Reneau had four), but should have contributed more offensively in a game in which Chris Collins relied on walk-ons for guard minutes.
The Little Things
As has been the case too often this year, Indiana failed to do the little things that it would have needed to do to win today. Turnovers, missed defensive rebounds, and trouble at the free throw line doomed Indiana again today.
Though the score doesn’t reflect it, the defense turned in a solid effort today, holding Northwestern to just 35.4 FG% in the game. The effort was squandered by Indiana’s inability to grab defensive boards though, as Northwestern had 12 second chance points in the game.
13 turnovers is far from Indiana’s worst performance on the season, but they were certainly costly in a game that came down to four points. Pair it with a worse than average free throw shooting performance from a team that’s already staggeringly bad at free throws, and you have all the makings of an ugly loss.
The defense managed to hold Northwestern to zero transition points, another impressive feat, but the inability to rebound led to the Wildcats getting 12 more FG attempts than Indiana.
The one thing you cannot say about this team is that it doesn’t play hard. The comeback fell short, but the effort was there from the start.
The issue was the lack of any clear direction for that effort. The team can run its scripted plays and score on the sets drawn up after timeouts or out of the half, but when left to their own devices, struggle to make decisions on the offensive end.
At this point in the season, the staff is going to have to take a more hands-on approach to turn things around. There are some experienced players on the roster, but they haven’t been able to lead by example with any consistency to maintain this relatively unstructured offensive scheme.