With Indiana’s season all but drifted away — where does the program go from here?: ‘Nobody is going to feel sorry for Indiana basketball’

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana basketball’s snowball of losses has quickly turned into an avalanche as the Hoosiers dropped to 14-12 after a 15-point loss to Nebraska at Assembly Hall on Wednesday night.

Indiana came out flat once again and trailed by 20 at the end of the first half. The Hoosiers rallied back and cut the deficit to three midway through the second half when CJ Gunn drilled a three with 11:57 to go. Indiana then went over six minutes without a made basket which allowed Nebraska to extend the lead back up to 15.

Indiana was never able to get back into it from there and lost their third consecutive game.

“You have to have a half like you did the second half the first half and then see what happens,” Woodson said about the slow start. “So I got to keep working with them and see if I can get them playing two halves.”

After starting the season 10-3, Indiana basketball is 4-9 since the start of 2024 and the season has drifted out of reach from Mike Woodson’s ball club. Indiana currently sits at 14-12 and 11th in the Big Ten standings, during one of the weaker seasons in recent memory by the conference.

Unless Indiana can miraculously win the Big Ten Tournament, they will not be playing in the NCAA Tournament and they seem unlikely to qualify for the N.I.T.

“We got to really stick together,” Trey Galloway said about the team’s approach. “We’re right there and we show spurts where we can be really good.”

While it was expected this year would be a transition year after the departures of Trayce Jackson-Davis and company, not many predicted it would be this bad for the Hoosiers. Despite the losses, Indiana basketball does not lack talent as they still boast a starting lineup with three former five-star recruits, including Kel’el Ware, Mackenzie Mgbako, and Malik Reneau.

During a season of lows for Indiana basketball, the lack of improvement from the opening weeks has to be the biggest concern of the program.

In the opening weeks of the season, Indiana struggled to shoot the basketball, defend the perimeter, and rebound the ball. Now in late February, all three issues remain apparent for this team.

Against Nebraska, two of these issues stood out with the first being shooting. Indiana struggled to shoot the ball from both beyond the arc and from the free-throw line on Wednesday night. Indiana shot 4-of-21 (19%) from three and 14-of-24 (58%) from the free throw line in the loss.

Trending: Another blowout loss comes with boos from the home crowd. The season is off the rails for Indiana basketball — if it wasn’t already

Shooting has never been a strength during Woodson’s time as head coach, but this season has seen a new low for Indiana’s shooting struggles.

As a team, Indiana is shooting 32.1 percent from three which just does not cut it in this era of basketball where three-point shooting is needed to compete. Indiana is getting to the free throw line at an incredible rate, ranking top 40 in the country in attempts, but they are shooting 65.7 percent from the line as a team on the year, in the bottom third.

The other issue that stood out against Nebraska was the inability to defend the perimeter. It is hard to win games when you cannot make threes, and it is even harder to win when you are giving up a plethora of good looks from beyond the arc.

While Nebraska made some difficult shots, they consistently were generating good looks from beyond the arc against Indiana’s defense. The Cornhuskers shot 14-of-33 (42%) from three and the Hoosiers had no answer for the barrage of threes.

Once again, Indiana had no answer for Keisei Tominaga who led the way with 20 points and made four threes against Indiana. In their first matchup, Tominaga led Nebraska with 28 points in a 16-point win over Indiana.

Woodson has stressed the importance of continuing to work, but with the season all but officially over for Indiana basketball, the question now turns to the future of the program.

It is no stretch to say that this upcoming offseason will determine the fate of Woodson’s tenure as head coach of Indiana basketball.

The boos that came from the fans are a clear indicator that time is running out on the Woodson era if something does not change. With that being said, the success Woodson had in his first two seasons should give him at least one more year at the helm, but his seat has quickly turned from cold to warm over this season.

Five-star wing Liam McNeeley is currently the only player committed for the 2024 class which means Woodson will have to hit the transfer portal hard.

Woodson already struck out in the transfer portal once after failing to land a veteran guard last offseason and Indiana basketball will have a ton of holes to fill this offseason.

If Woodson is not able to fill the holes and put together a competitive basketball team for the 2024-25 season, the athletic department could look to make a change.

“Nobody is going to feel sorry for Indiana basketball,” Woodson said. “They’re not.”

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