Indiana men’s basketball was handed a firm lesson on Tuesday night.
The Hoosiers entered Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena on a roll, coming off three straight wins and four in the last five games. After their season appeared hopeless, they’d recovered and played themselves back into the NCAA Tournament picture. A victory over the Ducks would’ve put IU in a comfortable position for its dancing hopes.
But the margins between winning and losing in March can be very thin. And Indiana found itself on the wrong side of those margins on Tuesday, as the Ducks quacked their way to a 73-64 win in Eugene.
IU (18-12, 9-10 Big Ten) did plenty of good things on Tuesday. The Hoosiers shot a solid 36 percent from 3-point range as a team, with nine made threes. They scored over 1.0 points per possession, which is usually a good sign for this team. Oumar Ballo recorded his second double-double in the last three games, and his third in the last six games.
But after Indiana took a one-point lead with 1:58 remaining, Oregon (22-8, 11-8) closed the game on a 10-0 run.
“I just thought we poorly executed our offense (down the stretch),” head coach Mike Woodson said after the game. “We had good calls, play calls made, but they took us out of it. That’s something that we got to learn from. When it’s nut-cutting time, you got to step up and make plays — which we’ve been doing. We’ve been making good basketball plays down the stretch. But tonight, we didn’t.”
Oregon’s edge in rebounding proved a key difference in the game. The Ducks out-rebounded Indiana 43-36, including 15 offensive rebounds that turned into 23 second-chance points.
But perhaps the biggest difference came at the free-throw line. Indiana was wasteful with its opportunities, shooting just 3 for 7. But the disparity came in the attempts — Oregon went 19 for 21 at the charity stripe. Woodson didn’t hide his frustration over the Ducks getting so many more trips to the foul line in a tight game.
“In a physical game like this, it can’t be 21-7. I mean, you got to be kidding me. 21 to seven on fucking free throws. It’s bullshit,” Woodson said. “It just can’t be, and not in a physical game. They’re a physical team. And it can’t be that lopsided. It’s impossible.
But that’s how March goes, sometimes. That’s how basketball goes, sometimes. There are games that referees decide, for better or for worse. Indiana put itself in position late in the season, but every team is subject to fate in one way or another, at one point or another.
And perhaps that’s the real lesson the Hoosiers need to take from this loss. There will be things they can’t control in nearly every game. In postseason play, pretty much every opponent will be just as desperate as they are. So they need to take care of everything within their control, and put themselves in the best position possible in every game to withstand anything nutty.
“We’re playing for something, just like everyone else in the Big Ten. And we go home, we have a tough Ohio State team coming in, and we’ll have two days to prepare and get ready for it.”
But there is a glass-half-full perspective on this game that has some merit. Indiana came up short, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. The Hoosiers clearly fought hard and showed they’re good enough to compete with good teams in March.
That sort of effort is what’s brought IU back from the dead this season.
“I have no complaints. These guys have been fighting and fighting and fighting. (If) we had a break here or there, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But we’re in the mix of a battle,” Woodson said. “Anything can happen once you get into tournament play.”
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