Offensive inconsistencies were a major headline for No. 14 Indiana men’s basketball entering the 2024 Battle 4 Atlantis. Despite opening the season with four straight double-digit wins, a periodically stagnant Hoosier attack overshadowed quality defensive play.
Indiana entered Wednesday afternoon’s Battle 4 Atlantis opener against the University of Louisville with the 30th-ranked scoring defense in Division I, only allowing 61.2 points per game.
The Cardinals nearly totaled that in the second half alone.
Louisville scored 52 points following the intermission and sprinted to a massive 89-61 win over head coach Mike Woodson’s Hoosiers inside Imperial Arena in Nassau, Bahamas.
“(Defensive) has kind of always been our signature and we just didn't have it tonight,” Woodson said postgame. “From ball screens to ball movement we just took nothing away.”
A perimeter-oriented Cardinal offense instilled by first-year head coach Pat Kelsey came into the matchup attempting 34 3-pointers per game, the fifth most in Division I. It was no surprise that Louisville’s game plan was to attack from beyond the arc. The Hoosiers knew it — they couldn’t stop it.
Kelsey’s squad shot 41.2% from deep on 7-for-17 shooting in the first half, as Indiana failed to play cohesive defense. Screens — both on and off the ball — routinely led to open looks for the Cardinals as the Cream and Crimson failed to adhere to defensive fundamentals. Lack of communication and mistakes in individual assignments plagued the Hoosiers.
The most glaring example of Indiana’s poor defense was a 41-9 Louisville run that spanned over 12 minutes in the second half, stretching a 6-point Hoosier deficit to 38 points. Contrary to the first half, the Cardinals offense did most of its damage during the run inside the paint.
Louisville finished the game with 48 points in the paint, 34 of which came in the second half.
“We got to do better defensively,” Woodson said. “We just got out-toughed, and that’s unacceptable to me.”
It’s unfair to point the figure fully at the Hoosiers’ defensive effort without acknowledging the quality offensive performances from a committee of Cardinals. Senior guard Chucky Hepburn finished with a team-high 16 points to go along with 10 assists and seven steals, while fifth-year senior forward Kasean Pryor’s 14-point performance included numerous difficult makes inside the paint.
Still, Indiana can certainly be blamed for giving Louisville countless opportunities in transition with the help of a season-high 23 turnovers. Missed shots happen — they certainly did for the Hoosiers — but rarely do missed shots lead to fast break chances. Turnovers, on the other hand, tend to provide just that.
Hepburn headlined a Cardinals’ defense that totaled 15 steals, many of which directly led to easy layups in transition.
“Tonight, we went backwards,” Woodson said, “and we got to go forward.”
Nothing proved that sentiment more than countless examples of Hoosier guards scurrying back on defense due to a jumped passing lane or loose ball handling.
Indiana won’t be blessed with time to regroup and solve its defensive miscues as it faces No. 3 Gonzaga University on Thursday afternoon. Although Indiana would like to follow the classic sports adage of having the memory of a goldfish, Woodson understands the importance of remembering mistakes so that they can be ironed out.
“You can’t run from it,” Woodson said. “I’m not gonna let us forget this game because this was embarrassing. We didn’t play Indiana basketball.”
This is the second year in a row the Hoosiers have lost a game by 28 points, as they were defeated by Auburn University 104-76 on Dec. 9, 2023, last season.
Tip-off for Indiana’s matchup with Gonzaga will be at 2:30 p.m. Thursday inside Imperial Arena. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
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.
