Sophomore forward Trayce Jackson-Davis looked up at the scoreboard as the clock ticked down and mouthed the word “f---.” Sophomore guard Armaan Franklin draped a towel over his head as he walked toward the tunnel and off the court. The few clusters of Hoosier fans allowed to attend sat in near silence while the Purdue fans cheered.
Another edition of IU versus Purdue closed inside Assembly Hall, but the result became stale. The Hoosiers’ losing streak now rests at eight against the Boilermakers, and head coach Archie Miller has yet to find his elusive first win against the team’s in-state rival after Thursday night’s 81-69 defeat.
While so much in the world has changed, IU’s performance against Purdue has remained the same.
“It is not a fun thing, losing to a team that many times in a row,” Franklin said. “It gets kind of old, you know. We want to be the team to change the culture about it, rewrite the story. We wanted to do that tonight, but unfortunately, we did not make enough plays, did not make enough shots.”
Related: [IU men’s basketball suffers eighth straight loss to in-state rival Purdue]
None of the problems the Hoosiers ran into against the Boilermakers were new for Miller’s team. Perimeter shooting has stalled IU’s offense all season. Long scoring droughts have been commonplace within the program for a few seasons. And defending the 3-point line has been a problem for the Hoosiers since January.
At this stage in the season, both IU and its opponents know what the team’s deficiencies are. It’s just a matter of whether the Hoosiers can overcome their shortcomings more than their opponents can exploit them. Purdue attacked those shortcomings, and IU had no clue how to defend itself.
IU’s defense was lost in the first half, chasing shooters all over the court as Purdue made seven of nine 3-pointers while shooting 54.2% from the field. Four different Boilermakers connected from beyond the arc in the first half while three players were perfect from the field.
It didn’t matter whether Miller tried his larger lineup with junior Jerome Hunter at the small forward position or if he played small-ball leaving Jackson-Davis as the lone forward. They were never able to disrupt Purdue’s shooters.
“We had no real answer defensively,” Miller said. “To be honest with you, they could pretty much do whatever they wanted to do. We had no answer.”
Offensively, IU struggled to keep up with Purdue’s perimeter barrage.
The Hoosiers shot just 3 of 18 from beyond the arc and weren’t able to lean on their free-throw shooting to offset the lack of 3-pointers, making 16-of-29 attempts from the charity stripe.
IU’s only consistent offensive production came from its forwards in the paint as Jackson-Davis and junior forward Race Thompson were able to carve out space down low at the end of the first half and early in the second. Jackson-Davis finished the game with a team-high 25 points and Thompson scored 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting.
With a little over 13 minutes remaining in the game, IU cut what was once a 12-point lead down to just 1-point, but was never able to make that crucial stop to grab hold of the momentum in the game.
When the team’s offense is struggling, Miller said IU has to be able to string together stops on defense and return to its early-season form as a team that could rely on defense to win games.
“Offense is hard,” Miller said. “They shoot the ball really well so your defense has to be good and tonight it wasn’t.”
The same problems keep popping up for IU this season as the team struggles to find its footing in the Big Ten. Against Purdue, those problems seemingly have lasted for four years and have yet to change.
If the Hoosiers want to climb the standings in the conference and have a chance at the NCAA Tournament, they need to find a quick fix for their multitude of problems and forge a new identity before it’s too late.
