BLOOMINGTON — Indiana men’s basketball just looked flat.
The Hoosiers started Thursday’s game against Lindenwood with a 12-2 run, but it took them over 7:30 of game time to get those 12 points. They created enough separation on the scoreboard to pull away comfortably, overall, for a 73-53 win.
But Indiana’s on-court leader didn’t mince words about his team’s display at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
“We just got to play harder, to be honest,” redshirt senior Tucker DeVries said after the game. “It’s been an emphasis in practice and we’ll get it fixed.”
Indiana (5-0) has now endured back-to-back games that looked like this: a little sluggish, a lot of shooting struggles, and allowing some surprising runs to low-major opponents.
IU’s previous game against Incarnate Word on Sunday finished tighter than Thursday’s, as the team primarily hung on and survived against the Cardinals. This time, Lindenwood (2-4) went on a 10-0 run to start the second half, prompting IU head coach Darian DeVries to call a timeout. The Hoosiers responded with a 16-3 spurt to regain full control.
Coach DeVries expressed some surprise at Tucker calling the team flat.
“I thought the last couple days of practice, our guys, I thought they really learned from some of the things that happened in our last game. I thought they responded really well in practice from an energy level, (saying) ‘Here are some of the things we got to fix,'” DeVries said. “They were playing hard tonight. Just wasn’t the same juice. Part of it may be, when the offense isn’t flowing, they got to learn how to fight through that. These are all things early in the year that, as you’re getting going, you learn how to win games in a lot of different ways — that’s an important thing to have and quality to have.”
IU has clearly looked different the last two games than it did in its first three. The Hoosiers scored 98, 100, and 101 points in those contests, with superb ball movement leading to strong assist totals and a lot of good looks created around the 3-point arc; and that typically translated to high energy and intensity on the defensive end.
After those three straight games with at least 23 assists, Indiana finished with 18 against UIW, and on Thursday, the team recorded only 13.
That’s just another symptom of the Hoosiers playing a little flatter than they’d like. They didn’t move the ball as crisply, and when they did, they weren’t getting as many clean catches as they had in the first three games. All of those things played a role in Indiana tough shooting night: the Hoosiers shot a season-low 38 percent from the field, 32 percent from 3-point range, and a 6-for-17 clip on layups.
Energy is the common denominator for those struggles.
“I think you see the difference in the two teams of us, of when we are bringing that energy (compared to lower-energy games), and that’s something we got to really focus on and make sure that we’re bringing that every time,” Tucker said. “We talk about it all the time: we’re not a very good team when we are not playing with a bunch of enthusiasm and excitement. We got to get to that every point, 40 minutes a game, and then I think we’re really good when we are doing that.”
Rebounding may be the biggest example of any energy or effort concerns for Indiana.
That was already this team’s biggest weakness, as an undersized group that will often need to rely on guard rebounding to be competitive on the boards in Big Ten play. But there’s a difference between questioning whether IU will be able to rebound enough to win conference games and getting outrebounded by Lindenwood. The Lions finished with a 48-44 advantage on the glass.
This is already the third game out of five in which Indiana has allowed double-digit offensive rebounds — and the Lions racked up 19, a season-worst mark for the Hoosiers.
IU fans groaned during the first half when Lindenwood grabbed four offensive rebounds on one possession, and got another one less than a minute later.
Senior Sam Alexis led the Hoosiers with 10 rebounds off the bench Thursday. He didn’t link their struggles on the glass to effort, but he knows it’s an area the team has to improve in.
“I feel like we just need to bring energy every day. It starts with the bench, too. The bench have to have energy as well. I don’t feel like it’s no issue,” Alexis said. “I feel like we’re showing effort out there. It’s more about hitting bodies and squeezing the ball. I feel like we go pretty hard on the rebounds. It’s about squeezing the ball and hitting bodies, for real.”
Indiana locked in enough defensively to keep Lindenwood at a solid distance away for most of the game. The Lions shot just 25 percent from the field, with a 3-for-18 mark from 3-point range — they didn’t make their first three of the night until nearly four minutes into the second half. Had LU been able to shoot more efficiently, the Hoosiers could’ve faced a more serious threat throughout the night.
Darian DeVries wasn’t thrilled with his team’s defense to start the second half, but otherwise, he liked what he saw on that end. He sees defense as an area the Hoosiers can fall back on if they’re dealing with an offensive slump.
“I think it’s just learning as a group when the offense isn’t going, just to really embrace the defensive side and let that be our identity and let that be where your enthusiasm comes from,” DeVries said. “Did a good job with it. Holding them to 17 percent in the first half; we’ll take that on a lot of nights.”
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