During Tuesday’s loss to Rutgers, Indiana basketball led 18-11 with 9:40 remaining in the first half. Mike Woodson then went to a lineup with four of his five starters on the bench, leaving Kel’el Ware in the game alongside the bench lineup.
Indiana’s seven-point lead disappeared as Rutgers went on a 19-9 run to take a three-point lead into the half. Indiana would not lead in the game again and went on to lose by nine.
Indiana’s rotations have been a perpetual topic of conversation through their first 16 games as the bench’s inconsistency has limited the Hoosiers success thus far.
Tuesday’s instance was one of many this year where the bench lineup hampered Indiana basketball in a critical spot. After the loss against Rutgers, Mike Woodson had a ton to say when asked about his rotations.
“You can’t play everybody 40 minutes,” Woodson said when asked about the lineup during Rutgers’ first-half run. “That whole stretch had went a good 10, 11, to 12 minutes, and I thought they needed a blow, so that’s why I substituted. I feel good about our bench. I need our bench to give us more, so that’s why I went to the bench. We didn’t get it and they caught up, but the game was back and forth.”
The entire Indiana bench combined to shoot 3-of-10 from the field and all finished with a negative plus/minus in the loss. In total, the bench was -28 for the game.
Woodson has emphasized all season that he trusts his bench and he’s going to play them, even if it continues to hurt the Hoosiers.
On the year, here are the +/- totals for the second unit.
Gabe Cupps: +6 in 352 minutes
Anthony Leal: -11 in 57 minutes
Payton Sparks: -37 in 99 minutes
Anthony Walker: -51 in 248 minutes
Kaleb Banks: -57 in 205 minutes
CJ Gunn: -61 in 214 minutes
The starters? Here is their breakdown.
Trey Galloway: +82 in 523 minutes
Malik Reneau: +76 in 463 minutes
Mackenzie Mgbako: +64 in 352 minutes
Kel’el Ware: +51 in 467 minutes
Xavier Johnson: +33 in 218 minutes
In one of their best performances Indiana basketball only played eight guys in their loss to Kansas. Woodson relied on his starters, going away from the bench lineup and playing the starters big minutes in the close loss.
Outside of the loss against Kansas, Woodson has trusted his bench to play key minutes all year and has rotated his players the same way every game. That strategy has burned him quite a few times already this year, including against Rutgers.
“I’m not going to sit here and answer that question when it comes to the fans or you. I elected to go to my bench, which I’ve done this season, and I’ve gotten some good results here and there,” Woodson said when asked about the bench’s play Tuesday. “And tonight they didn’t kill us, but they let them back in the game. I thought we withstood it. The big shot at the half I thought gave them momentum going in, but the game was still back and forth.”
Senior forward Anthony Walker has been the only Hoosier to consistently give Indiana productive minutes off the bench. Gabe Cupps, Kaleb Banks, CJ Gunn and Payton Sparks have all had moments of brilliance, but their inability to consistently produce off the bench has put Indiana in a bad spot.
The issue is not that Woodson is playing his bench players, the issue comes from playing an entire bench lineup that has been bad all season long. When Indiana has played Walker, Cupps or other bench players alongside 3-4 starters, the lineups have been much more successful than a lineup of four or more bench players with one starter.
Until a bench lineup proves they can be successful on their own, which they have not, Woodson cannot keep going to that type of lineup and expecting a different result.
Indiana is currently 11-5 and their NCAA tournament hopes are fading as they continue to lose winnable games. Despite the gauntlet of a non-conference schedule Indiana built, they are still without a signature win and desperately need one if they want to make a run.
They host Minnesota on Friday night at Assembly Hall in what has turned into a must-win game as their season has begun to slip away. Indiana has a chance to get a win and build some momentum before they dive into the hardest part of their conference schedule.
With games against Purdue, Illinois and Wisconsin following, Indiana has a chance to earn that much-needed signature win but will need a performance similar to the one they had against Kansas if they are going to do that.
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