The opening minutes of the game have defined IU men’s basketball over the past few months. The Hoosiers start games slowly, missing shots and putting a lot of pressure on the defense to contain their opponent long enough for the team to find its rhythm and climb out of the hole they’ve often found themselves in.
“Faster out of the gates means you have to be a more confident group to start,” head coach Archie Miller said Tuesday. “I think our offense contributes to the slower start more than our defense. I think it puts a lot of pressure on our defense to start the game, getting back in transition and having to start by getting stop, after stop, after stop is hard against good teams.”
Miller said the team is very apprehensive to start the games and just hopes for things to go well, which has led to some of their struggles early. So when a few easy shots don’t go in to start the game and IU misses a handful of early layups, the lack of confidence and doubt starts to snowball as the team falls behind.
In each of the Hoosiers’ last three games, the team has trailed by at least 13 points in the first half, forcing them to play catchup for the majority of the game. Against Iowa and Northwestern, IU was able to overcome its slow start and win. But against Ohio State, IU was never able to overcome the early 21-6 deficit, losing by 19 points.
Miller said as the game goes on, IU slowly is able to build its confidence and that’s why they’ve been able to climb their way back into contention. He said the Hoosiers go through a feeling-out period at the beginning of the game, and that uncertainty is where the lack of confidence stems from. It takes IU until nearly the midway point of the first half to get comfortable and gain the confidence needed to mount a run.
Despite IU’s slow starts, Miller maintains he has no plans to change the starting lineup.
“You want me to pull Trayce out of the starting lineup for missing a couple of free throws or an easy one to start the game?” Miller said. “To me, we have to get him more of a confidence level to start the game, and I think that will help us more than anything.”
As IU tries to focus on building its confidence to start the game and get off to a faster start, it will face a Minnesota team only a half-game behind them in the Big Ten standings.
Miller said the Golden Gophers have some of the best quality wins in the country having beaten two top-five opponents — No. 3 Michigan and No. 4 Ohio State — along with a win over No. 11 Iowa.
Minnesota is led by one of the best point guards in the country, junior Marcus Carr, who is averaging 19.4 points, 5.2 assists and four rebounds per game.
On his radio show Monday night, Miller said IU is going to have to keep Minnesota out of transition and force Carr to work in the half-court if they are going to contain him. He also mentioned how effective junior guard Rob Phinisee was last season guarding Carr — holding him to 12 and 6 points respectively in the two meetings — and the importance of forcing someone else on Minnesota to beat them.
The Golden Gophers’ other two offensive weapons are juniors Liam Robbins and Gabe Kalscheur.
Robbins, a 7-foot forward, will be a tough matchup for the Hoosiers, who have played a smaller lineup this season following the injury to senior forward Joey Brunk, and struggled to defend tall versatile forwards. Robbins is a consistent scorer in the low-post, knocking down nearly 50% of his shots, and has the ability to stretch the floor averaging 2.4 3-pointers per game.
Kalscheur is a driving guard who can create his own shot and knock down 3-pointers at a reliable rate. Despite having his worst offensive year, the junior guard is still averaging 9.2 points per game while dishing out 1.4 assists and grabbing 2.5 rebounds per game.
“They’re a very good team,” Miller said. “They’re very good offensively, very good in transition and we got our work cut out for us on Wednesday.”
