IOWA CITY, Iowa — On one side, euphoria. On the other, blank faces.
As redshirt sophomore guard Myles Rice turned to an official and called timeout, Indiana men’s basketball’s huddle reflected the somberness fit for a 19-point second-half deficit. Across the halfcourt line, Iowa’s huddle appeared rejuvenated, instilled with life by a noisy, two-thirds full crowd.
The Hoosiers’ troubles didn’t disappear after head coach Mike Woodson’s talk.
Indiana’s deficit reached 30 points, and the Hoosiers had no answer for Iowa’s barrage of 3-pointers and transition baskets en route to an 85-60 pummeling inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.
After five consecutive wins — three of which came over Big Ten schools — Indiana (13-4, 4-2 Big Ten) looked far too close to the team it thought it ditched in the Bahamas, where it lost two games by a combined 44 points.
“Going into this game, we’d been playing some pretty good basketball,” Woodson said postgame. “When you go out on the road in the Big Ten, you can’t turn it over, you got to rebound with your opponent and you got to make shots. We failed in all three areas tonight. That’s something you can’t have when you go out on the road. We got to be better.”
The Hoosiers had 16 turnovers, tied for their second-most this season, and lost the rebounding battle 37-31. Indiana shot 40.7% from the field and went only 4-for-16 shooting from 3-point range. Iowa, meanwhile, made 54.2% of its attempts and made 11 of 24 tries from distance.
Struggles started early for Woodson’s squad. Indiana scored the game’s first 4 points, but Iowa (12-4, 3-2 Big Ten) scored 15 unanswered. The two sides briefly traded baskets before the Hoosiers pieced together an 18-2 run in just over five minutes.
The Hawkeyes punched back with a 16-0 run, turning a 3-point deficit into a 13-point lead. Indiana had no answer.
Iowa led 43-33 at halftime, with 17 of its points coming off Indiana turnovers. Woodson said he thought his team played solid halfcourt defense, holding the Hawkeyes to 26 points, but couldn’t overcome its self-inflicted wounds.
“When you have 17 points given to them, based on us just hand delivering the basketball, you’re not going to beat very many teams in the Big Ten doing that,” Woodson said. “Good teams like Iowa, you’re not going to get away with that.
Rice said Dec. 29 that Indiana is as talented offensively as anybody in college basketball — but it didn’t consistently show that in Iowa City. The Hoosiers endured three scoring droughts of at least three minutes Saturday night and failed to keep pace with Iowa, which entered the day ranked second in the nation with an average of 89.9 points per game.
“They started from the beginning of the game, turning the ball over,” Rice said about the Hoosiers’ droughts. “That kind of puts in your head like, ‘Now, we have to get those plays back.’ It’s kind of hard to try to do that and be in your same flow, but it happens. We just got to be better from the start and be able to play through all 40 minutes.”
Woodson felt Indiana checked the 40-minute-competition box in the team’s 77-71 road win over Penn State on Jan. 5, but the Hoosiers looked “totally different” against the Hawkeyes.
Indiana, which has enjoyed success running in transition at various points this season, scored only 2 fastbreak points — a stark contrast to Iowa’s 26. The Hawkeyes play at a fast pace, averaging 76.8 possessions per game, the 10th-most in Division I. Conversely, the Hoosiers rank 77th with 73.3 possessions per contest.
Iowa wants games to become track meets — and even if Indiana had the runners needed to compete, it showed too many fatal flaws, starting with turnovers and transitioning into its decisions with the ball.
“I thought our shot selection was terrible tonight,” Woodson said. “They played the matchup zone, which I thought we executed once we got back in it, but then we just (make) one pass and freeze with the basketball, and that’s something that you just can’t do. Not against good teams.”
Indiana struggled with turnovers early in the season, as it eclipsed double figures in each of its first 10 games. But the Hoosiers had seemingly turned a corner. Over their last six games, they had nine or fewer turnovers on four occasions.
Rice said Indiana played uncharacteristically Saturday, and on a chilly Iowa night, the Hoosiers’ issues snowballed after turning the ball over seven times in the first five and a half minutes of the game.
“During the five-game stretch, we were playing really good basketball, holding on to it,” Rice said. “And tonight, we just got a little bit outside of ourselves. It started off slow and it kind of was like an avalanche a little bit. One thing led to another, and it kept on going all night.”
Rice led Indiana with 12 points, and he matched fifth-year senior guard Anthony Leal for a team-high five assists. Sixth-year senior center Oumar Ballo posted 10 points and a team-leading 13 rebounds. Rice and Ballo were the only two Hoosiers in double figures.
Indiana’s starting five tallied 13 of the team’s 16 turnovers. Senior forward Luke Goode didn’t have any turnovers, but Ballo and fifth-year senior guard Trey Galloway had four, Rice had three and sophomore forward Mackenzie Mgbako had two.
Iowa, meanwhile, saw each of its five starters score in double digits while combining for only nine turnovers — four of which came from sophomore forward Owen Freeman.
Woodson said the Hoosiers’ entire roster had a hand in the team’s 25-point loss, its largest Big Ten road defeat since a 28-point drubbing from Michigan State on Jan. 19, 2018. But Woodson particularly singled out Indiana’s starting five as a problem area.
The road doesn’t get easier for the Hoosiers, who host No. 13 Illinois (12-4, 4-2 Big Ten) at 7 p.m. Tuesday inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Fighting Illini will be Indiana’s second consecutive Quad 1 foe — with nine more to come thereafter.
The Hoosiers, by all accounts, are at a crossroads. Woodson said Indiana won’t use its new-look roster, which includes seven new players this season, as an excuse.
How quickly the Hoosiers gel will ultimately determine their opportunity to win at a high level, Woodson said. Indiana, after a 25-point defeat, may need to hasten its process.
“We’ve been playing good basketball,” Woodson said. “I can’t sit here and complain. The last five games, we were very competitive against some good teams. We just got to go back and regroup. The Big Ten’s not going anywhere.”
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.
