The ball floated in the air.
It hovered there as junior guards Josh Newkirk and James Blackmon Jr., the distributor and the target, respectively, watched.
Blackmon put his hands up and began to shuffle his feet already in the motion of a swing. He could see the basket. Just catch and rip, and he would finally put both himself and the Hoosiers on the scoreboard.
Instead Wisconsin’s Zak Showalter jumped the pass for an easy fast-break layup. The Badgers now led 13-0 less than three minutes into the game.
It was a perfect summation of one of the main reasons that IU has looked subpar as of late. The Hoosiers’ guard play isn’t up to snuff right now.
A bulk of the Hoosiers’ glitches comes from one of their supposed bright spots, a backcourt that had been heralded before the season.
The trio of Blackmon, Newkirk and junior guard Robert Johnson has not just been mediocre. They’ve been abysmal during the last 120 minutes.
With IU’s upcoming contest against Illinois, IU must stop the three-game slide and emerge victorious, especially at Assembly Hall. IU Coach Tom Crean said he knows how pivotal this game is to getting back on the right track.
All of the motivational speeches and pregame film studies won’t matter if the trio handling the ball doesn’t come out with more fire and take the game over from the get-go.
We all know they can score. When Newkirk isn’t turning the ball over, he’s adept at getting to the rim and finishing or drawing a foul. Blackmon and Johnson can both heat up behind the 3-point line and score in a myriad of ways. Even with the recent pedestrian shooting from the backcourt, that hasn’t been its main drawback.
Instead, it has been the guards’ collective inability to run cohesive plays and set up teammates. With ball in hand the Hoosiers and Newkirk especially have to start running their offensive sets instead of relying on isolation-ball.
This may seem simple, but starting a play at the 25-second mark gives you more time than starting a play at the nine-second mark. That’s analysis for you.
Furthermore, when the team finally begins its possession, the guards are often trying to create for themselves instead of their teammates. Sophomore big man Thomas Bryant has taken a tremendous step back this season, and one of the reasons why is he no longer has a slashing point guard able to get him the ball right where he needs it. In its place, Bryant has to create for himself through post-ups, a skill he doesn’t have consistently.
Before the season began, the main apprehension was how the team would adjust losing playmaker Yogi Ferrell. Who would take the reins?
Associate head coach Tim Buckley said he expected the players to adjust playing without Ferrell. The Hoosiers would have even better ball movement and even better cutting.
That has obviously not been the case in the past few games. The team, watching and hoping that one of the ball-handlers will make something out of nothing, still undergoes its moments of malaise.
The problem is that Yogi Ferrell has been replaced by Ferrell knock-offs.
Instead of distributing and running an offense, the guards are always looking to score.
Being able to create for oneself is a fine attribute to have, but when it’s being done every play by the backcourt, it leads to what we’re witnessing — a loss followed by a loss followed by a loss.
That will have to change against Illinois, or Saturday’s game may be the latest in a long line of losses for the Hoosiers.
gigottfr@indiana.edu
@gott31
