The story of IU’s 94-74 loss to No. 7 Duke is not how poorly the Hoosiers played. The story is seeing them go up against a pretty good team and learning what IU simply might not be — any good.
No longer did I see what IU should be fixing. I started seeing what a team like Duke is capable of and how the Hoosiers just aren’t in that wheelhouse.
IU is praised as this potentially dominant offense, and here we see teams can shoot just as well as IU and still have athletic size that makes plays on defense.
The narrative is moving away from IU being this dominant offense that just needs to improve its defense. The narrative is becoming that the ceiling for this team might not be high at all. Even when IU had sound defense and a Duke player contained, the Blue Devil would make a prolific post play or a layup through traffic.
Maybe the failures in Maui spared viewers of more of what fans saw Wednesday at Cameron Indoor Center.
The thing is, Duke is good, but not great.
Yet, when IU drove to the basket for a contested layup, two or three Duke defenders were there to put a hand up or swat the shot away. One does not typically see that when someone makes it into the paint under IU’s basket. If so, it’s a bonus.
Duke went on crazy shooting runs that reminded me of IU shooting on Austin Peay. The Hoosiers had a solid offensive game. They shot 51 percent from the field and 41 percent from 3-point range.
Yet here they are, trying to figure out what went wrong in a 20-point loss that felt even worse.
My point is that IU is likely to figure things out. It will come back to the middle and have a decent season. But we saw tonight how it can only get so much better.
It was funny hearing Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski discuss how IU switched around between man and zone defense and mixing in some combination of the two. It seemed like he meant it as a compliment, yet it was difficult to tell if IU knew what defense it was playing sometimes.
The joke with the IU football team has become about how many opposing quarterbacks have their best career games against the IU defense. I can’t help but see that happening with IU men’s basketball, as well.
Duke’s highly touted freshman forward, Brandon Ingram, is a top-10 NBA Draft prospect who had yet to breakout in his first seven collegiate games.
In the first half against IU, Ingram scored 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
I don’t know if panic is the correct response. IU will bounce back. It will probably use this game as a catalyst for improvement and win plenty of games.
But tonight, I saw that this team can only go so far even if it gets back on track.
brodmill@indiana.edu
