Indiana men’s basketball had some nights in the first month of the season when it looked invincible.
The Hoosiers have shown that, on their day, they can shoot 3-pointers as well as anyone in the country. At their best, they play a fast-paced, free-flowing offensive style paired with stingy, aggressive defense. When IU has played like that, this group has looked like one of the best teams in the country.
But Wednesday night wasn’t Indiana’s night, and the 22nd-ranked Hoosiers looked astoundingly mortal against a Minnesota team ranked outside the top 100 on KenPom. The Golden Gophers led for a majority of the second half at Williams Arena and handed Darian DeVries a 73-64 upset loss in his Big Ten debut.
“I think for us, the image is, we lost the game. It was gonna happen at some point,” DeVries said after the game. “The main thing now is that now that you’ve lost one, how do you respond? And what happens in that locker room, on the practice floor as you get ready for the next game? Cause there’s a lot of really good games we’re gonna have this year, and every night’s gonna be a fight just like this.”
Indiana (7-1, 0-1 Big Ten) actually came out looking really strong offensively at the beginning of the game. The Hoosiers entered the first media timeout in the first half — just over five minutes into the game — shooting 5 for 6 from the field. They shot just 34.7 percent for the last 35 minutes of the contest.
This IU team is built to live and die by the three, and tonight, it died. Fifth-years Tucker DeVries and Lamar Wilkerson, Indiana’s top two shooters, went a combined 5 for 16. The rest of the squad combined to shoot 3 for 11 from beyond the arc.
Frankly, those numbers are subpar, but not horrendous. But in this particular game, Indiana wasn’t doing enough else right to make up for it.
“Offensively, we just kind of let their physicality bog us down a little bit,” IU’s head coach said. “We didn’t get the type of quality shots that we’ve been getting and (are) accustomed to getting.”
IU made things hard on itself by shooting a season-worst 60 percent at the foul line. The Hoosiers also went just 10 for 19 on layups and dunks, adding to the high-percentage opportunities they didn’t convert.
But perhaps the most glaring difference in the game was on the glass. Indiana’s biggest weakness, from day one, has been rebounding. DeVries’ team is undersized, and there had already been some issues — even before Wednesday — on the boards. When the Hoosiers are competitive on the glass and keeps the rebounding margin close, or outrebounds their opponent, they’ll at least have the opportunity to play their best basketball.
But that didn’t happen at The Barn. Minnesota (5-4, 1-0) outrebounded Indiana 40-25. The Gophers grabbed 10 offensive rebounds — already the fourth time this season an IU opponent finished with double digits — and turned them into 14 second-chance points.
Indiana’s leading rebounder, senior Reed Bailey, grabbed just four boards. Five Minnesota players finished with at least four rebounds Wednesday.
Squandering makable looks and losing on the glass just give IU a razor-thin margin for error in other areas of the game. And although Indiana has plenty of 3-point threats capable of heating up quickly, a team so reliant on outside shooting can sometimes endure wide variance.
Off-nights will happen — this wasn’t the Hoosiers’ first this season, and it won’t be their last, either. One of the biggest keys to Indiana’s success this season is finding ways to win games when those shots aren’t falling. And this team just couldn’t get enough going Wednesday to pull that off.
“They were just being physical with us,” senior Sam Alexis said. “It’s a tough loss. We’re gonna pick it back up.”
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