Questions surround struggling Hoosier offense

Many questions surrounded the Hoosiers' 55-45 loss to Notre Dame Wednesday night and their preparations for a zone defense. \nThe answers varied, depending on who you asked.\n"I was not expecting the zone, and we were never able to penetrate it," said junior guard Bracey Wright. "I don't think they've zoned any other team the entire game, but they did with us and we didn't make shots."\nIU made about as many shots as questions they answered after the game. \nHeld in the locker room for almost 40 minutes after the game's conclusion by IU Coach Mike Davis, the Hoosiers had no excuses for their 30.2 shooting percentage from the field.\n"(Davis talked) about preparation, poise in the game," Wright said. "Not the fact that we missed shots or anything that Notre Dame did. It was just that how we played, how we prepared for the game, how we focused on the game. That was pretty much the bulk of the talk in the locker room."\nShooting 25 percent on 5-20 from behind the arc, the Hoosiers scored just 45 points against an extended Irish zone, leading to IU's third straight loss. \nDavis said his team knew what was coming, based on its UConn performance Saturday.\n"We knew they would come out and play a zone," he said. "The zone didn't really cause us any problems -- we just missed shots. They stripped the ball from us when we got inside. We didn't find open people quick enough. If you go back and watch the tape we had so many open looks. We didn't drive the ball to the basket. (We) didn't play strong. We knew what they would do because we watched the Michigan (against Notre Dame) tape and they watched our tape, so there was no way they were going out come out and play us man-to-man."\nIrish Coach Mike Brey said it was his team's goal to spread its combination of 3-2 and 2-3 zones to guard against the three pointer.\n"We did a great job tonight of defending the three-point shot out of a zone," Brey said. "We spread out. I liked that because that's something we're going to use a lot of this year to keep our big men on the floor."\nThe Irish zone defenses forced the Hoosiers into a stagnant offense. \nStanding, watching and settling for outside shots and not moving the ball led to the demise of the Hoosiers' offense that had glimmers of hope after Saturday's game.\nComing off a 28-point performance against UConn, Wright struggled, ending with just six points, making only two of seven three-point attempts.\nWright said his team had only one zone play, and when it stopped working, there was no other choice. \nBut it wasn't just Wright who struggled against Notre Dame. No Hoosier made over five shots and only the starters made baskets for IU. \nSenior Ryan Tapak put all the blame on his team, but also said IU knew what was coming. \n"We were prepared for everything," he said. "The coaching staff does a great job day in and day out preparing us, it's just that for some reason we get on the court and we don't execute what our game plans are. It's hard to explain. We come in prepared as a team and just don't execute." \nWhatever the reason might be, the Hoosiers offense lacked the cohesiveness it showed at UConn. \nEven though they spread the zone, the Irish were still able to pack the middle, not allowing freshman D.J. White or sophomore Pat Ewing Jr. to operate down low. Ending with a team high 13 points, White played a key role for the Hoosiers as Ewing struggled with foul trouble. White agreed with his coach that the Hoosiers knew what was coming their way.\n"Yeah, we were ready," he said. "We knew what they were going to do."\n-- Contact staff writer Josh Weinfuss at jweinfus@indiana.edu.