‘A bunch of miscues that we can’t have this late in the season’: Saturday’s performance fully encapsulates the cracks with Indiana basketball

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The message from this Indiana basketball team has been consistent throughout the entire season. Whether it’s not enough effort, toughness or leadership, Indiana knows what the core issues are — just unable to fix them.

As Indiana saw another winnable game fall by the wayside on Saturday, it was a reminder of the major cracks this team has this year.

And, any reasonable shot at receiving an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament completely disappeared.

“I mean, we came out in the second half — we had a four-point lead going into the half and we weren’t playing well at all,” Indiana senior captain Trey Galloway said following the loss. “I mean, and then we come out in the second half and it’s the same thing. We are just not playing hard enough and smart enough on the defensive end. We had a lot of unnecessary fouling and then just a bunch of miscues that’s really just on us that we can’t have this late in the season.”

‘Can’t have this late in the season’. That’s exactly the feeling that the majority of Indiana fans had as they started to head for the exits with 3:22 remaining in the 14-point loss to Penn State.

Indiana fell to No. 100 in KenPom’s ratings and No. 102 in the NET rankings following the loss. It was the seventh loss by 10+ points this season.

Related: Indiana basketball lacked ‘fire’ in crushing 14-point loss to Penn State

Indiana’s nine losses have come by an average of 14.7 points per game.

While Saturday’s loss was bad, it was the manner in which it happened that makes it worse. After holding an 11-point lead in the first half, Penn State outscored IU by seven in the final 5:15 of the first half. Then, it was a quick 12-2 run in the first 5:37 of the second half that would blossom to a 22-7 spurt.

Indiana, seemingly, had given up. There was no emotion — good or bad — on the faces of any player. Body language was poor, communication was worse and the leadership was nowhere to be found.

“I just thought tonight, second half, we were so flat coming out,” Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson said postgame. “I mean, something I hadn’t seen.”

Respectfully, it was a performance that Indiana fans had become all too familiar with. Indiana’s inability to play a full 40-minutes has been consistent throughout this entire season. Whether it is from half to half or possession to possession, Indiana’s mental toughness had always been a major concern. And, that stems from a real lack of leadership.

That starts at the top with the coaching staff. Their message continues to fall on deaf ears, so at some point things need to change. They haven’t.

Their inability to hold their senior leaders and captains accountable has also been a disappointing theme. And if there’s no accountability there, there won’t be between the players.

It’s evident the trust is lacking between player to player and even in the coach to player relationship — and vice versa.

“I think just being in the moment and being confident in what we are doing. Coach gives us a game plan, we have to follow it and do it,” Galloway said. “So I think the miscommunication, it’s kind of us just being hesitant but we have to kind of break out of that shell and talk to each other and find ways to get stops. And it’s all of us. It’s not just one guy. It was all five guys on the court tonight, and it showed.”

Again though — because of the consistent performances like Saturday, it can no longer be on the players. This coaching staff needs to take on all of the responsibility from this point forward because it’s clear that the players can’t. And while that’s disappointing, you can’t keep trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

“I’m not going to throw my guys under the bus,” Woodson said. “They didn’t just perform the second half. They didn’t. They didn’t. They were flat as hell.”

“I want more fire. I mean, come on. Yes, I want more fire to my guys.”

The message from the program two weeks ago was all about ‘soul-searching’. That didn’t fix any of the issues.

Unfortunately, the ‘we’ve got to get back to work’ and ‘got to get them over the hump’ messages from Mike Woodson have dried out.

My message to Mike Woodson? It’s time to look in the mirror and actually do what you are saying — get to work and get them over the hump. No more excuses. Don’t put it on the players; it’s on you.

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