COLUMBUS, Ohio — Trailing 74-76 with just over a minute remaining in overtime, Indiana men’s basketball was in desperate need of late-game heroics. The Buckeye faithful were out of their seats. Ohio State had just erased a 10-point Hoosier lead to send the game into overtime.
It was the Buckeyes’ matchup to lose.
In front of the thundering Value City Arena crowd, redshirt sophomore guard Myles Rice drove to the basket and released a layup while barreling into the deafening student section. Freshman center Ivan Njegovan blocked it.
After sixth-year center Oumar Ballo controlled the loose ball, he looked to one teammate — senior forward Luke Goode. As quickly as the pass arrived in Goode’s hands, it left them. He rose up from the right wing, releasing the orange ball into a backdrop of scarlet and gray.
The roar of the crowd subsided as Goode’s game-winning 3-pointer struck the white chords of the net. Swish.
Goode’s decisive score topped off a career-high 23-point performance that powered Indiana past Ohio State 77-76 during a shootout Friday night in Columbus. The veteran played the best game of his career when Indiana needed it most.
He had no other choice.
The Hoosiers were coming off a pair of 25-point losses. They were booed off their own floor after a 94-69 defeat to Illinois, Goode’s former team, on Jan. 14.
Following the loss, Goode went to the podium alongside fifth-year senior guard Anthony Leal to field questions. After admitting to a lack of toughness, effort and intensity in the performance against the Fighting Illini, Goode responded to the jaunts of supporters.
“To all those fans that were booing and are so negative on social media, just don't switch sides,” Goode said. “We will get this thing turned around. We all got the confidence in our teammates, got the confidence in our coaches, so stay on this side when we start being successful again.”
His comments added even more discourse to a social media space littered with complaints about the program. A multitude of users pressured the sentiment, questioning the accountability of Goode and the rest of Indiana’s roster.
Others took his words as a criticism of the fanbase, believing that he was villainizing supporters who were simply showing their displeasure with the product on the court.
In a post on X, Goode clarified his postgame remarks.
“My teammates and myself appreciate each and every fan that supports the program throughout the ups and downs,” Goode said in the post. “I was addressing the loud minority that are negative regardless of outcome.”
That wasn’t the end of it.
He then responded to a now-deleted X post from former Indiana basketball player and radio personality Dan Dakich, calling Dakich the “joke of the town.” Once again, he faced backlash for the comments.
The vocal reaction from Goode after the unprecedented loss was understandable. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he dreamed of wearing the Cream and Crimson in the historic college basketball grounds of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
He spent three years at Illinois for that dream to come true, all for the Fighting Illini to send Hoosier fans to the exits before halftime. Goode was confident the Hoosiers could right the quickly sinking ship and didn’t hide it. Now, he had to prove his claim.
The Hoosiers entered as 7.5-point underdogs to the Buckeyes according to ESPN, who were coming off two-straight 2-point losses to Associated Press Top 25 teams. Indiana, meanwhile, was without two key pieces, junior forward Malik Reneau and freshman forward Bryson Tucker.
Ohio State held the early advantage and took a 6-point lead into halftime. However, in the second half, Goode began to heat up. He made three 3-pointers in a five-minute span, pushing the Hoosiers into the lead.
He also capped off a 9-0 Indiana run with a contested fade away midrange jumper, one which yielded a wide grin from Goode on his jog back to the defensive end.
Even after the Buckeyes tied the game at 71 with less than a minute remaining, Indiana looked to him. The Hoosiers ran a play designed for Goode to take a shot from the top of the 3-point line, but it didn’t fool the Buckeyes. Goode was forced to drive to the rim where he missed the go-ahead layup.
His confidence didn’t waver. The same confidence that sparked his comments after the Illinois loss. The same confidence that fostered his response to Dakich. The same confidence he showed when releasing the game-winning shot.
“He knocked some shots down for us, some big shots,” head coach Mike Woodson said. “We needed every one of them, because they were huge that he made.”
On top of his play on the court, Goode was an outspoken leader throughout the back-and-forth affair. Late in the second half, he and fifth-year senior guard Trey Galloway had a miscommunication off a screen that resulted in an Ohio State 3-pointer. Afterwards, Goode held Galloway accountable.
The two veterans got together after the subsequent whistle and discussed the play, both putting the tension at rest and solving the issue, so it didn’t happen again.
“I’ve kind of taken it upon myself the past couple days,” Goode said regarding his leadership. “I’m fortunate enough to be on a couple teams that have won at a high level in the Big Ten in the past, and I’m trying to bring that here, and that winning mentality here.”
In his last season with Illinois, Goode was a part of a Brad Underwood coached team that went 29-9, reached the Elite Eight and finished sixth in the final AP Poll. Indiana hasn’t finished that high in the AP Poll in over a decade.
Goode knows what a winning locker room looks like because he was in one. After the Illinois loss, he understood changes needed to be made — and they were. As a result, Indiana made the necessary plays down the stretch to break out of its two-game rut.
“It’s huge,” Goode said about the importance of the victory. “Get back in the win column, that’s all we care about. We’re really focused on winning, and we got one tonight.”
For the Hoosiers, it's a crucial step closer to salvaging a season that seemed lost one game prior. As for Goode — he aired out his confidence for the world to see and delivered with a career-day against Ohio State.
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.
