With a stern look on his face and a crumpled stat sheet in his hand, Archie Miller settled in for his postgame press conference following last week's home loss to Michigan.
“Right now we’re an entire group that does not have the confidence,” Miller said. “It’s not one guy. It’s our team. Our team doesn’t have confidence right now.”
That lack of confidence can be shown in a variety of metrics from IU’s six-game losing streak, ranging from poor 3-point shooting to a lack of consistent scoring from freshmen guards Romeo Langford and Rob Phinisee.
But it’s a nonquantitative element, the mental aspect of repeatedly getting off to slow starts and losing games, that players like senior forward Juwan Morgan are seeking to address ahead of Wednesday night’s game at Rutgers.
“It’s just a matter of people getting inside their own heads,” Morgan said. “I think that’s where the camaraderie amongst the five on the court needs to kick in. And even if they’re missing shots, we can’t let that affect our teammates’ effort and energy.”
While sluggish starts on offense and defense have plagued IU in recent defeats, it’s been a continual issue for the Hoosiers this season.
Mundane nonconference meetings in November against the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of California, Davis were both tight contests. But IU was still able to earn victories despite second-half surges from both opponents.
That role has been reversed in recent weeks, as it’s been the Hoosiers who have found themselves desperately trying to claw back in the second half of games against the likes of Nebraska, Purdue, Northwestern and Michigan to no avail.
“We have to be able to fight,” Morgan said. “I just keep telling the guys that whenever you get hit, you can’t just give up. If one guy is fighting, all five of us are fighting, and that needs to be the way it’s going from here on out.”
Increasingly though, it seems IU will use a limited rotation of players to accompany Morgan on the court. Just six players played meaningful minutes in the second half of the Michigan loss, with Morgan, Langford and Phinisee joined by sophomore forward Justin Smith, senior guard Zach McRoberts and sophomore guard Al Durham.
Four of those six players are underclassmen. Additionally, McRoberts has been a limited scoring threat this season, totaling 15 points in 274 minutes played.
“We’re feeling sorry for ourselves at times during the game, and you can’t do that,” Miller said. “You have to play through it, and part of that’s growing up.”
That limited rotation of players trusted by Miller to help return IU to its winning ways doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon. Freshmen forwards Jake Forrester and Damezi Anderson, along with sophomore forward Clifton Moore, have all played sparingly in conference play.
For better or worse, the Hoosiers look set to rely on a small cast of players to try and turn their season around. With 11 Big Ten games left to play, time is limited for those players to regain the confidence and swagger which once defined this IU team.
“There’s nowhere to go,” Miller said. “You just move on to the next step, try to figure it out, and you’ve got to find a way to get some confidence in yourself.”
