He spun the ball on his right hand. He bounced it once. He bent his knees. He missed. And then he missed again.
With 8:23 to play in the second half, Indiana men’s basketball sophomore guard Kanaan Carlyle left the free throw line still without points. He wasn’t alone — the rest of the Hoosiers’ guards were also scoreless as the team faced a 74-40 deficit to the University of Louisville in Wednesday afternoon’s game at the Imperial Ballroom in Nassau, Bahamas.
And by the end of Indiana’s 89-61 defeat in its first of three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis, the guards’ numbers weren’t much better.
Carlyle didn’t score in 14 minutes. Neither did fifth-year senior Trey Galloway across 20 minutes of action. The same is true for sophomore Gabe Cupps, who played only six minutes.
The Hoosiers’ lone bucket from any of their four primary guards came from redshirt sophomore Myles Rice, who made a 3-pointer with 6:39 remaining in the game — and only after the ball hit the back of the rim, landed on the front, rolled backward and finally dropped. It was also after he missed his first 10 shots. He was removed from the game on the ensuing whistle.
Fifth-year senior Anthony Leal, making his season debut, scored 5 points in four minutes of garbage time to lead all of the team’s guards.
Indiana’s perimeter players — guards and small forwards — finished Wednesday’s game 9-for-43 shooting from the field, which head coach Mike Woodson said won’t win many college basketball games.
“Offensively, we had nothing from a perimeter standpoint,” Woodson said postgame. “And (Louisville) had a lot to do with it because of their physicality. We can’t complain and not play through it — we’ve just got to get a little tougher.”
Indiana’s quartet of Rice, Carlyle, Galloway and Cupps went 1-for-18 shooting from the field and 1 for 6 from distance. They dished three assists but turned the ball over nine times.
Cupps and senior center Langdon Hatton, who played a combined 10 minutes in the game’s closing moments, were the only Hoosiers without a turnover. Seven players had at least two.
After Indiana’s most recent win, a 69-58 triumph over the University of North Carolina at Greensboro on Nov. 21, Woodson expressed displeasure in his team’s selfishness after recording only 14 assists. He thinks they should record between 20 to 30 assists per game.
The Hoosiers not only had fewer assists (10) against Louisville but went from 14 turnovers to a season-high 23. Woodson said the two go together.
“It's tough — you only have 10 assists because you turn it over 23 times,” Woodson said. “Those opportunities, you give yourself a chance to score, and we just didn't do that. Twenty-three is just way too many. I mean, you're not going to beat very many teams in college basketball doing that.”
Woodson noted the Hoosiers entered Wednesday at a reasonable turnover level, averaging 13 per game. It ballooned against Louisville, and Indiana’s offense fell quietly as a result.
“You’ve got to take care of the basketball if you're going to score,” Woodson said. “And 23 times, we didn't get opportunities to do that because we hand-delivered it to our opponent. So, we’ve just got to come back and get better in that area and get our guys making shots and feeling good.”
Indiana’s 23 turnovers were tied for third-most during Woodson’s four-year tenure and the most since an 84-62 loss to the University of Kansas on Dec. 17, 2022. The Hoosiers’ 28-point loss to Louisville was tied for their largest regular season loss under Woodson.
Dating back to the 2022-23 season, the Hoosiers have played four Power Four teams on neutral courts. They’re 1-4 in those games, and each of their losses have been by 14 or more points. Three were by 20-plus. Their lone win was Nov. 20, 2023, and came via an 8-point survival over a Louisville squad that went just 8-24 and fired head coach Kenny Payne after the season.
The Louisville team — led by new head coach Pat Kelsey — Indiana faced Wednesday was far different than the one it saw last season. The Hoosiers, meanwhile, looked much as they did one year prior — an underperforming backcourt and an offense reliant on winning in the paint.
Indiana had 29 points at halftime, 24 of which came from junior forward Malik Reneau and sixth-year senior center Oumar Ballo. Sophomore forward Mackenzie Mgbako scored the other 5 points. Even with only three players scoring points, the Hoosiers trailed just 37-29 at the break and trimmed their deficit to 6 points on the first possession of the second half.
That was as close as Indiana could get. Louisville punched, and punched and punched some more, surging to a lead as large as 38 points. The Hoosiers never responded. Woodson said he needs to get his team, which didn’t lead at any point Wednesday, more prepared from start to finish.
Unfamiliarity with seven new players isn’t an excuse, Woodson said. Instead, Indiana was out toughed and simply had nothing for Louisville. The loss goes beyond schematics, he said.
Reneau agreed, noting the Hoosiers had a great scouting report entering the game. The players merely didn’t execute.
“It was a lack of focus toward the scout we had and not giving it our all when we were on the court,” Reneau said postgame.
Woodson thinks Indiana can fix its perimeter play. After all, Rice, Carlyle and Galloway have each had flashes this season. But how fixable is effort and attention to detail?
Perhaps only time will tell with the 2024-25 Hoosiers.
“I'm not going to let us forget this game, because this was embarrassing,” Woodson said. “You’ve got to give Louisville credit because they played their butts off. But we didn't play Indiana basketball.”
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa) and columnist Mateo Fuentes-Rohwer (@mateo_frohwer) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
