INDIANAPOLIS — IU head coach Archie Miller had seen enough.
He got up from a knee — quickly turning around to his assistant coaches to get their thoughts — and then gave junior guard Al Durham the signal to call a timeout.
For the fourth straight game, IU had been punched in the mouth and was struggling to recover.
Miller was in shock Saturday as he just watched the University of Notre Dame cut down IU’s 12-point lead to just five in less than three minutes.
Against Wisconsin, the Hoosiers weren't able to battle back as they got run out of Madison, Wisconsin. Against the University of Connecticut, Nebraska and now Notre Dame, IU was able to do just enough to squeak by yet again with a 62-60 win.
“Well, we're fortunate to be sitting here in the winner's circle,” Miller said.
Even though IU escaped from Indianapolis unscathed, the Hoosiers showed that they are a two-sided team and they displayed both sides against the Fighting Irish.
In the first half, IU looked close to being the team we saw dismantle then-No. 17 Florida State University earlier in the season . IU dominated the boards early with a 12 rebound advantage. The Hoosiers also shot 46.7% from the field and held the Fighting Irish to only 27.6% shooting in the first half.
The Hoosiers showed balance through the physical play of junior center Joey Brunk — who was two points shy of a double-double in the first half — and speed in transition with its smaller lineup of freshman Trayce Jackson-Davis and junior forward Justin Smith in the frontcourt.
While some of IU’s primary scorers struggled to start the game, its depth shone through as freshman guard Armaan Franklin picked up the slack leading the game with nine points.
When the horn sounded for the start of the second half, the Hoosiers showed the bad.
“We really struggled there for a good portion of the game in the second half,” Miller said. “For a while we looked like a good team, for a while we looked like we weren’t.”
IU seemed to stop doing everything that allowed them to build its 11-point halftime lead and reverted back to its horrible style of play seen against Wisconsin and Nebraska.
Brunk, who was nearly unstoppable in the first half, became irrelevant in the second half as he managed to score only one point and grabbed just three rebounds.
Sophomore guard Rob Phinisee, the hero of last year's Crossroads Classic, was the biggest headache for Miller as he continued his abysmal play going scoreless in the game with only two assists.
IU’s run and gun offense that allowed them to drive into the lane and get easy buckets turned into one player dribbling for 20 seconds as the other four players on the court just stood around.
If two people watched only one half of the game, each would have two very different projections for IU.
The first half made the Hoosiers seem like a national power that could compete against any team in the country. The second made it seem as if IU would be lucky to even get an invite to the National Invitation Tournament.
Each game feels like a coin flip to find out which version of the Hoosiers will show up. Some days we might get to see the version that wowed everyone against FSU, but the ugly version that showed up to Wisconsin has been landing face up quite often.
