For the second straight game, Indiana suffered from questionable late game decision making in a crushing Big Ten loss.
What happened after Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn made a 12-foot jump hook with 11 seconds remaining to give the Boilermakers a 77-76 lead?
IU coach Mike Woodson says he wanted a timeout, but instead Luke Goode inbounded the ball to Myles Rice after the Purdue score, and Rice dribbled all the way down the floor to just outside the right block for a contested mid-range jumper.
Woodson can clearly be seen gesturing, waving his arm forward for Rice to “Go!” as he was bringing the ball up the floor. But it isn’t clear if that was for Rice to get across the halfcourt line to call a timeout, or for Rice to make an improvised play with no timeout. Rice hadn’t crossed halfcourt when Woodson made the gesture, and the redshirt sophomore guard appeared to interpret Woodson’s signal as a prompt to attack the basket, which he did.
But after the game, Woodson said he did in fact want a timeout.
“Couldn’t get his (Rice’s) attention by the time he got to where he was going,” Woodson said. … “Once he took off, I couldn’t get to him. It was too late. The officials went by. We just got to connect better, that’s just the bottom line.”
There are multiple problems with Woodson’s account of the situation.
First, Kaufman-Renn’s basket came after a Purdue timeout. So Indiana clearly had an opportunity during that timeout to discuss the “what if Purdue scores” scenario.
Second, the NCAA rules allow a coach to call a timeout during a live ball in the final two minutes of the game. So Woodson didn’t even need to get Rice’s attention.
Either because his arm was contacted or the shot was blocked, Rice’s shot was well short and rebounded by Purdue with less than four seconds left on the clock.
PAINTER HAS THOUGHTS ABOUT INDIANA
Purdue coach Matt Painter was relieved the ball didn’t end up in the hands of Trey Galloway on that controversial late Indiana possession.
Galloway had made three shots in the final six minutes, including a floater that gave the Hoosiers a 76-75 lead with 29 seconds to go. He scored 13 points in the second half, while Rice had spent almost the entire half on the bench due to poor play.
“We were just fortunate there at the end that Trey Galloway doesn’t have the ball in his hands,” Painter said. “Let’s just be frank about it. He was making plays and he doesn’t have the ball there at the end and we were able to get a stop right there and that was huge.”
Painter was also complimentary of the lineup Indiana had on the floor for much of the game — a lineup influenced by Malik Reneau’s foul trouble and Rice’s poor play.
With Trey Galloway initiating the offense, Luke Goode, Mackenzie Mgbako and Anthony Leal on the wings, and Oumar Ballo rolling to the paint, IU had Purdue’s defense in some serious conflict with a variety of high ball screen actions.
For Painter, watching Indiana at Mackey Arena was reminiscent of his team last season with Zach Edey.
“When you have a huge guy (Ballo) like that rolling to the basket and you stick shooters behind on the outside, that’s what they did and we’ve made a living off that,” Painter said. “They found Mgbako late with that three, which was a big shot. Trey kept driving and getting fouled and getting the ball there, dumping down to Ballo. They really had something and Mike (Woodson) did a really good job of just staying with it and they had something that was just working right there.”
Despite the success of the lineup in the first half, Woodson started Reneau and Rice in the second, and Purdue opened with an 11-1 run.
BALLO CLEARLY FRUSTRATED WITH RICE
Ballo was picked up on video yelling at Rice after his failed attempt in the closing seconds. Several IU players and staff members attempted to calm a clearly upset Ballo, who moments later skipped the postgame handshake line.
It isn’t clear what had Ballo so animated, but a review of the late possession that resulted in the Rice miss provides clues.
The 7-foot Ballo had Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer helping on him as Kaufman-Renn left Ballo and went to help on Rice’s drive. Loyer would have obviously be an easy matchup for the IU big man to physically dominate if Rice had lobbed it to him. And Loyer’s help on Ballo left Mgbako open in the opposite corner for a skip pass if Rice looked that direction.
Woodson was asked about Ballo’s frustration after the game.
“Everybody’s heated in the heat of the moment, and he (Ballo) didn’t think it was a good play,” Woodson said after the game about Ballo’s reaction. “And he voiced his opinion on it, which is OK.”
The video is dark, but you can clearly see a very frustrated Ballo here:
Scenes in the huddle following Oumar Ballo’s fifth foul. #iubb pic.twitter.com/13xpaiJsrs
— Joe Cronin (@Joe_cronin03) February 1, 2025
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