Indiana men’s basketball may not be “over the hump,” but it’s rounding into form at the right time.
The Hoosiers have now won four of their last five games after a dominant 78-62 victory at Washington on Saturday. They’ve played like a rejuvenated team since head coach Mike Woodson’s forthcoming departure became official ahead of the Michigan game.
Both Woodson and his players, during this five-game stretch, have looked like a weight has been lifted off their shoulders. Indiana (18-11, 9-9 Big Ten) is playing looser and coaching more freely. Everything is just flowing a lot better than it had for much of the season.
“You can call it that (playing more relaxed and less stressed). I call it, when you win, it eases the mind,” Woodson said after the game. “You do things that you think you’re accustomed to doing, and when you lose, you’re looking over your shoulders. You’re worrying about what people are saying, all the shit that really don’t matter. I mean, we need right now support with these players, man, because they are playing hard. They are trying to win basketball games.”
This was IU’s most comfortable win in quite some time. 12 of the team’s 18 victories on the season have finished with double-digit margins, but most of those games came in non-conference play. Indiana has enjoyed only five Big Ten wins by 10 points or more on the year, and this was just the second such result in the last 13 games. Additionally, this was IU’s largest margin of victory in any conference game this year; it hadn’t won by more than 18 points since December 6 against Miami (OH).
But lU’s dominance in Seattle went beyond just the final score.
Recently, the Hoosiers have performed much better in second halves than in the first half. In their only other double-digit victory in the last 13 games, at home against Purdue, they had to make up a 12-point halftime deficit in a stunning second-half turnaround. This was Indiana’s first double-digit halftime lead in nearly three months, since a similarly comfortable home win over Minnesota in early December.
“We are playing better, and I’ve been saying that,” Woodson said. “We’ve been playing much, much better basketball, and these last three games, these guys have come and showed up.”
Indiana’s defense was particularly key to this victory.
Washington (13-16, 4-14) shot just 36.2 percent from the field as a team, the lowest field-goal percentage for an IU opponent since Miami (OH). Only three total Indiana opponents all season have finished with a lower shooting percentage than the Huskies recorded on Saturday. IU held Washington standout Great Osobor to just four points, all scored at the foul line.
The Hoosiers are suddenly a team finding ways to win, and they’re putting themselves in position to get back to the NCAA Tournament. It’s been an improbable turnaround for a team whose season was tailspinning not long ago.
“Every season has its ups and downs,” Luke Goode said. “Our down was a little longer than we would’ve liked throughout those five or six games we lost in a row. But we’re building momentum at the right time. We’re on the up-slope at the right time. And we just got to keep it going.”
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