[Postgame 3-2-1] What We Learned From Indiana's loss to Gonzaga
We break down three key stats, two observations, and one lingering question from Indiana's 89-73 victory against UNC Greensboro.
PARADISE ISLAND, THE BAHAMAS — It was another miserable day in paradise for Indiana basketball.
The Hoosiers were dominated once again in the Battle 4 Atlantis, losing their second-straight game against Gonzaga on Thanksgiving day.
The Hoosiers got off to a shaky start, falling behind 8-0 in the early minutes. But IU battled its way back into a track meet with the Bulldogs, trailing by four at the under-8 timeout.
That’s when Gonzaga pulled away with an impressive 19-2 run in a six-minute span to take a commanding 57-39 lead at the half.
The second half offered little relief. Indiana could not offer any defensive resistance, allowing 89 points for the second consecutive game, and ultimately fell to Gonzaga by a 16-point margin.
“We’ve got seven new players,” Indiana head coach Mike Woodson proclaimed postgame. “We’re still trying to work things out and work through.”
With the win, Indiana is now 4-2 in the young season and will play Providence at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow, looking to avoid a 0-3 trip.
Here are three stats, two observations, and one lingering question from Indiana's 89-73 loss against Gonzaga.
Note: there was no postgame show after yesterday’s game due to the Thanksgiving holiday. We will not have one immediately following the Providence game either. We will have a show sometime this weekend to reflect on Indiana’s performance in The Bahamas.
3 Meaningful Stats
1. Ballo Shines, Scores 25 Points
Before becoming an all-American under Tommy Lloyd at Arizona, Oumar Ballo began his career in Spokane with Mark Few and Gonzaga, so the game likely had added meaning for the big fella.
Ballo single-handedly kept the Hoosiers in the game in the first half, scoring 19 first-half points on an impressive 8-of-9 shooting.
Although he has made a name for himself underneath the basket, Ballo has improved his game significantly in the jump hook and from the charity stripe.
Like Malik Reneau in Wednesday’s loss to Louisville, Ballo didn’t have much help from his teammates and his best performance in an Indiana uniform thus far didn't result a victory for the team.
“I have no complaints for Big Fella. He’s doing everything we’ve asked of him,” Woodson said. “We just gotta get the supporting cast clicking on all cylinders.”
2. Gonzaga scored 1.187 points per possession
After a pathetic defensive effort against Louisville on Wednesday, Indiana followed it up with a worse effort on Thursday against Gonzaga.
Following Wednesday’s defensive debacle, Woodson preached that these defensive lapses shouldn’t be happening from a team that he considers to be a solid team on that end of the floor.
Like Wednesday, Indiana’s transition defense was poor, allowing Gonzaga to beat them down the floor and convert uncontested layups.
“We’re not connected right now defensively,” Woodson said. “Good teams like Gonzaga and Louisville … you can’t spot them like we did.”
Indiana’s calling card should be on the defensive end, but they’ve been like the Chicago Bears offensive line the last couple of games: soft and, quite frankly, pathetic.
There must be a turnaround in today’s game against Providence that can give fans some small modicum of hope that Indiana can actually play competent defense.
3. There were 44 fouls called
Games are hard to sit through when the team you’re cheering for is run off the floor for 40 minutes; however, it is so much worse when the game has no flow because of the amount of whistles stopping play.
Thursday’s game was one of the more physical games that Indiana will play, but there were far too many fouls called by the officiating crew. In the first five minutes of the second half, there were nine fouls called, and Indiana was in the bonus.
It goes without saying that none of the calls influenced the game’s outcome, but the game truly shone when both teams were hitting shots at a high rate, with minimal interruptions to the action.
That said, Indiana needs to clean up its shot defense around the rim. There were far too many fouls at the rim, and Gonzaga made IU pay for it, shooting a near-perfect 21-of-22 from the stripe.
Big Ten Conference games often feature questionable officiating or a lack of calls altogether, but Indiana must avoid putting themselves in situations that invite fouls called against them.
2 Important Observations
1. Indiana refuses to shoot the three
Last season, Indiana was at the bottom of the country in three-pointers attempted and although Woodson and his staff brought decent shooters via the portal, the Hoosiers continually dump the ball inside.
There’s nothing wrong with letting an all-American center go to work, but when the team is down by 15-20 points, those two-point shots don’t chip into the lead.
Indiana trailed by double-digits for vast majority of Thursday’s game, but still only managed to fire away 18 attempts from beyond the arc. 4-of-18 will rarely result in a victory, but Woodson needs to find a way to catch up to the common era of basketball and play the game inside out.
2. Basic fundamentals continue to plague Hoosiers
As the Mike Woodson Era marches on, it continues to become more and more apparent that his Indiana teams, while talented, are often lacking in some of the basic fundamentals of the game.
Take rebounding, for example.
After out-rebounding Louisville on Wednesday, Indiana was dominated on the glass by Gonzaga 42-27. Gonzaga had 13 offensive rebounds that resulted in 23 second chance points for the Bulldogs. Indiana is currently 270th in the country in offensive rebounding rate allowed, which continues the trend from the last three seasons.
Additionally, Indiana’s spacing was dreadful. When the ball got dumped down low to Ballo, Reneau, or Langdon Hatton, nobody cut to create space. It became stagnant, which allowed Gonzaga guards to double down and force bad shots or passes.
There are other issues in the areas of passing, ball-handling, and focus currently leading to an offensive turnover rate of 20.4%, which is 294th in the country.
On the bright side, free throw shooting continues to be improved, with Indiana making 76.8% of their shots from the charity stripe.
Luckily for Indiana, they have one more chance to get a win before leaving the island against a struggling Providence team. But if the Hoosiers cannot clean up some of these fundamental issues, all the talent up and down the roster won’t be able to save them.
1 Lingering Question
Game Preview: Indiana vs Providence
We are doing something new this week with games coming in such short order. Rather than a lingering question, we will be doing a preview of the Hoosiers’ next game.
Davidson beat Providence 69-58 in the nightcap in the Imperial Ballroom on Thursday, leading the Friars into a Friday morning tilt with Indiana.
Providence enters year two under Kim English, picked to finish sixth in a hotly contested Big East.
The Friars are led by Miami transfer Bensley Joseph, who is averaging 13 points per game in the early portions of his first season.
Like Indiana, Providence has struggled putting away teams in its buy games and has been exposed against higher quality opponents this week.
Providence struggled to score the basketball in its loss to Davidson on Thursday, so it will be an opportunity for Mike Woodson’s team to leave The Bahamas with a better taste in its mouth defensively.
The seventh-place game between the Friars and Hoosiers will be broadcast on ESPN2 with Beth Mowins and Debbie Antonelli on the call, while Austin Render and Errek Suhr will be on the hometown call for the IU Radio Network.
National media considered Indiana's portal work to be the best in the nation. Perhaps they were wrong.
Well stated. I may be out for the season before BIG play...