Late game execution falters again for Indiana men’s basketball

The Hoosiers fell on the road against the Boilermakers after another poor final possession.

Indiana men’s basketball, or at least this version of it, only seems to lose in two different ways.

One is just straight up getting run out of the gym. That’s been a common theme among all four of Mike Woodson’s teams in Bloomington no matter the roster composition or overall talent level.

Another is poor execution in late game scenarios.

Indiana just about completely fell apart in the closing minutes of a road matchup against a Nebraska team that has since gone through something of a spiral. The Hoosiers actually kept the game pretty competitive for most of those 40 minutes but let it get away and turn into a blowout toward the end.

Now, back to back, Indiana’s chances of winning have come down to one play against Maryland at home and rival Purdue on the road. Which seems unfair to a degree given everything that had to happen to get there in the first place, but I digress.

The Hoosiers have had the chance to go ahead with seconds on the clock twice in two games and each of those opportunities have resulted in the ball leaving Myles Rice’s hands in a less than ideal way. I choose those words carefully.

Against Maryland, Rice had something of a head of steam when the staff called timeout to instead run a play with some confusing substitutions in between. Rice, who was meant to come around a Malik Reneau screen, instead caught the ball in the corner where he was pretty covered and chucked up an ill-fated turnaround 3-point jumpshot.

After the game, Rice cited aforementioned substitutions as being confusing. But in the moment, Reneau didn’t seem as confused and expressed frustration toward Rice following the final buzzer:

That comes down to a few different things. For one, Woodson electing to take the timeout rather than let Rice do what he does best. He’d played pretty well up to that point, finishing with 16 points, letting him take that ball to the rim with his speed and burst was a solid option.

Then there’s the substitutions that confused just about everyone in the arena and the fact that Rice just didn’t run the called play correctly and went rogue.

With this in mind, it’s worth noting that Rice wasn’t on the floor for a critical final possession against Ohio State. In that game, he’d finished with just four points and Indiana had enough flexibility in the backcourt to avoid having its starting point guard on the floor.

Put a pin in that. Indiana didn’t have its starting point guard on the floor for a critical offensive possession.

Flash forward to Friday’s game against Purdue at Mackey Arena, the most hostile venue on Indiana’s schedule by a wide margin. Rice was having a poor game, to put it mildly. He’d failed to score with just four attempts from the field and couldn’t find any other ways to impact the game.

Anthony Leal, who has started next to Rice lately, is in the game with Trey Galloway, who’s taken over running the point and been absolutely excellent in the second half. Purdue hasn’t had an answer for Galloway in the past 19 minutes, he’s scored and distributed the ball well to get the Hoosiers here, in a position to win.

But Leal exits the game after picking up his fifth foul. Unlike Ohio State where the Hoosiers had some flexibility, Indiana has to have Rice on the floor now.

Which, based on all of the above, might’ve been the beginning of the end.

Indiana was gifted with yet another potential go-ahead offensive possession with just a few seconds left on the clock after Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn did exactly what he needed to do to put the Boilers in front by a single point.

So, what happened this time?

Rice gets the ball off the inbound. Again, there’s seconds on the clock and time for Woodson to call a timeout during the dead ball. He doesn’t. The ball goes to Rice instead, who takes it up the court.

Unlike Maryland, Purdue is prepared. One of the first lines on Rice’s scout is his speed and he gets picked up by a freshman guard, Gicarri Harris, before he even crosses halfcourt.

This isn’t the same as Maryland. Rice had been having a good game against the Terps and caught the defense on its heels. Here, in Mackey Arena, Rice is barreling directly into the teeth of the Boilermakers with 0 points to his name.

Woodson said postgame he was trying to get Rice’s attention from the sideline in this moment and, from the broadcast, it looks like Rice looks over to the staff. Again, from the broadcast, it looks as though Woodson is waving. Whether he’s doing so to wave him forward or wave him closer, we don’t know.

But Rice puts his head down and gets downhill. Galloway’s not far away, showing he wants the ball.

Down two like this, the option is obvious. Get the ball to Galloway and have him run a pick and roll with Oumar Ballo to see if either of them can get a good enough look. If they can’t, get the ball to Mgbako, the three guys who’ve come up repeatedly for Indiana in the game.

Rice was the last person on the court who should’ve had the ball in his hands in this situation. If Leal doesn’t foul out Rice may not even be on the court, but here he is.

And, again, Harris is there to keep Rice from getting too much space. He gets between Rice and the rim, so the latter rises up with the ball and it leaves his hands.

You can debate whether or not this was a foul all day. With something that marginal in real time in that situation, it’s not really surprising that there wasn’t a whistle.

But… is this a shot? There’s no arc to it at all and is doesn’t look like Harris is physically making it into a poor release. Rather it looks like Rice could be trying to pass to someone who just isn’t there.

The ball goes right to Kaufman-Renn with time on the clock and Ballo fouls him, his fifth. Now, for the second time in as many games, one of Rice’s teammates is visibly taking issue with him after a poor play in crunch time.

So, with two poor plays in back-to-back games and a moment where he was notably absent late, does Woodson trust his starting point guard? Can he, given the results?

In the long list of reasons as to why this season has failed to live up to overall expectations, internal and external, it’s pretty high on the list that the program’s backcourt upgrade project undertaken through the transfer portal hasn’t yielded great results.

It hasn’t been good enough, the players or the coaching. Now that it’s February, it’s far too late to fix.