Just over a week after ugly scenes in Bloomington, some of the loudest cheers of the season filled Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Oh there were still plenty of boos through the peaks and valleys of another uneven performance on Sunday afternoon.
Indiana never gave up against Maryland like they seemed to during their last home game against Illinois. But they still found a way to lose.
In many ways, IU’s 79-78 loss to the Terps was a microcosm of the Mike Woodson era. Talented players made plays, the Hoosiers competed at times, but ultimately, it wasn’t good enough in the face of a multitude of mistakes.
The last few weeks, with blowout losses, brutal beats and unexpected wins certainly follow a familiar pattern.
The Hoosiers have now lost four of five games during a crucial stretch of the season, the fourth year of a Woodson tenure that is clearly teetering. Indiana lost five straight games in February in 2022, five of seven in December to January of 2022-23, and 8 of 10 in January and February a year ago.
Sustained success has been difficult to attain for Mike Woodson at the macro level, and it was the micro details in the final three minutes that sunk the Hoosiers on Sunday.
Indiana looked dead in this one when Maryland ran out to a 63-53 lead with 9:34 left.
But improbability is the name of the game with Woodson’s Hoosiers. They responded with a 22-7 surge to take a 75-70 lead with just 3:07 left. Indiana’s fans, desperate for something positive to happen, erupted. IU appeared to be on their way to a third Quad-1 win, and perhaps a turning point in a still salvageable season.
The IU players felt the energy from the fans.
“It’s what makes this place so special is just being able to go on runs like that,” IU guard Leal said. “This place and these fans reward tough plays and hard plays, and they notice when we’re out there playing as hard as we can. They reward us with energy, and it becomes contagious. That’s what makes this game so special.”
But this is the Woodson era, after all, when nothing good seems to last long.
And a parade of mistakes followed.
Maryland missed on their next possession, meaning IU had a chance to go up seven or more with well under three minutes remaining.
But instead of putting their foot on Maryland’s throat, Indiana appeared intent on dribbling out the clock. Woodson said after the game they weren’t trying to milk the clock, but they didn’t run their offense with a sense of urgency and ended up with an awkward midrange shot by Malik Reneau that he missed badly with 2:21 left.
The Hoosiers didn’t get back on defense, and Maryland made it 75-72 with 2:17 left.
Again the Hoosiers appeared intent on dribbling on the perimeter, desperately hoping the clock would run out. Myles Rice took an awkward hoist late in the shot clock with 1:38 to go. Reneau earned IU another possession with an offensive rebound, but Trey Galloway turned it over.
Coming out of a timeout, Maryland got the ball to Julian Reese, who bullied Reneau to the rim and made it 75-74 with 1:10 left. Reneau had four fouls, but that didn’t seem like the moment to worry about fouling out.
Anthony Leal seemed to give IU a reprieve, as he screamed in to rebound a Reneau shot that was blocked, scored and was fouled with just 38 seconds left. Despite what seemed like a disastrous couple minutes, Leal’s free throw made it 78-74 Indiana.
The Mike Woodson era was shocked back to life.
But the mistakes were just beginning.
Up four with less than a minute to go, Woodson apparently wanted his team to foul with one to give before the Terps got to the bonus.
That instruction, which Leal confirmed after the game was delivered, was not followed.
“We had discussed it (to foul) in the huddle, yes,” Leal said. “It’s on us as players to go out there and execute what we’re told to do. We didn’t do it right there, but that’s not the reason we lost the game. There’s plays and plays that add up and lead up to that.
“Sure, yes, we were under the impression we were supposed to foul, and unfortunately we didn’t. But it’s a long game, and there’s a lot of things that add up to it.”
Those things would keep adding up.
Ja’kobi Gillespie scored in the paint with :28 seconds left to pull Maryland to within two.
The Terps were patient with who they fouled, and found Trey Galloway for a one-and-one opportunity at the line. He missed the front end.
Coming out of another timeout, Maryland set up Rodney Rice for a three, his fifth of the game and the Terps’ eighth of the half. Rice was a player Indiana couldn’t afford to give any space up two with less than 20 seconds to go. Indiana could afford just about anything but that.
And even after all of that, the Hoosiers still had the ball down just one with seven seconds to go.
Indiana got the ball to Reneau, and he had the ball knocked out of his hands, and out of bounds.
Still three seconds to go. Still a chance to win. There’s always a chance it seems in this Woodson era.
Indiana sent in two subs, Luke Goode for Oumar Ballo, Mackenzie Mgbako for Leal. That apparently created confusion.
“I think we were trying to run a play, but then the substitutions kind of got everybody confused a little bit, trying to put everybody in their right spots,” IU guard Myles Rice said. “Then we didn’t have a timeout, so we were trying to fix everything on the fly a little bit in such a heated moment.”
Nothing was fixed. The ball was thrown into Rice in the corner and he was immediately trapped. With just three seconds to go, all he could do was throw up a desperation heave that missed the mark by a wide margin.
Three minutes of confusion, mistakes and chaos ended in a Maryland celebration on the Branch McCracken Court.
And it put the Mike Woodson era right back on life support.
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