Thoughts about A 73-64 loss to the Golden Gophers:
A sparse Barn crowd. A Minnesota team dealing with injuries, losers of three straight games.
It didn’t matter.
Welcome to the Big Ten, new Hoosiers.
Niko Medved and the Golden Gophers had a plan to slow down Indiana’s offense. At the rim, you deny the rhythmic three-point looks of Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries and make sure they don’t kill you as they drop back. Coexist with others, like Tayton Conerway, and shoot them.
Also live as the Indiana bigs get opportunities against your depleted frontcourt, one-on-one. Keep the score low, the pace slow. Play hard, give maximum effort and see how it goes.
While Indiana scored on its first six possessions and effectively countered Minnesota’s defensive strategy, the Hoosiers scored on just eight of their final 23 possessions in the first half. Indiana has looked fluid, comfortable and in control offensively for much of the season. But as this game went on, the Hoosiers looked anything but. Assets stagnated. Little came easy. The Minnesota crowd went along with it and Indiana seemed to wither under the spotlight of its first real road game of the season.
The Hoosiers responded to Minnesota’s physical style early in the second half, going hard to the rim and looking for mistakes. The problem was that the free throw shooting just wasn’t there. Reed Bailey was fouled early and went 1-for-2. Not much later, Wilkerson fouled out and went 1-for-2. Conerway then missed two in a row. Next up was Bailey again, who made 1-for-2. Then Sam Alexis missed two in a row on a trip. These all came in the first seven and a half minutes of the second half, with Indiana making just 3 of 10 from the line. The Hoosiers finished the game 12 of 20 (60 percent) from the charity stripe.
After Alexis missed free throws, Minnesota went on a run. Isaac Asuma hit a 3-pointer to tie the score at 43. Cade Tyson followed with a 3-pointer of his own. A third 3-pointer during this stretch at 9:25 from Jaylen Crocker-Johnson put the Golden Gophers ahead by eight points, 53-45. The Hoosiers cut it to two points on a DeVries 3-pointer in transition after Wilkerson’s steal at 7:49, but that was as close as they got the rest of the way. Minnesota increased the lead to 10 with 4:08 remaining. Indiana made a play for it by going to a full press that confused the Golden Gophers a bit. And Wilkerson found some success with cuts en route to 15 points. But the Hoosiers couldn’t get enough shots to fall to pull off the comeback, cutting the deficit to three points with 2:00 to play before settling for a nine-point loss.
The Hoosiers scored just 0.97 points per possession on the season, a season low. Their effective field goal percentage of 47.3 was the second-lowest of the season so far. After stepping up about 3 seconds late to try to get back in, Indiana also finished just 8 of 27 (29.6 percent) from 3-point range. Minnesota turned the ball over on 24.2 percent of its possessions, helping Indiana commit 22 fewer turnovers.
Bailey turned in just a 1-of-5 performance with four rebounds in 20 minutes of action. Aside from his performance at Kansas State, he has struggled with physical offensive play this season. Sam Alexis fared better off the bench with 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting, hauling in three boards in 19 minutes.
This won’t be the last time Big Ten opponents challenge Indiana’s frontcourt and supporting cast to beat them.
For one night it worked.
For the season? Indiana needs to figure it out.
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
See more: The minute after, Minnesota Golden Gophers
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