By Matt St. Charles
It was the second straight massive weekend of Indiana sports, and it played out exactly the way the first one did.
Last Saturday, IU won the Big Ten Football title, while the basketball team got manhandled by Louisville just five blocks down the street in Indianapolis. Tonight, Fernando Mendoza received the Heisman Trophy in New York as the basketball team crumbled dramatically in the second half inside Rupp Arena and lost to Kentucky, 72-60.
Truth be told, it was an ugly game for both sides. The atmosphere in Lexington was tense, and IU was able to take care of business in the first 20 minutes, going into the half up 39-32. The Hoosiers held Kentucky to 32% shooting from the field and 11% from 3.
But as the Wildcats came back out of the locker room with their hair on fire, they exposed all of Indiana’s weaknesses.
For one, IU was too reckless with the ball, and Kentucky took advantage, forcing 18 total turnovers and scoring 23 points off of them. The main offensive catalysts, Tucker DeVries and Tayton Conerway, each had four.
12 of those Hoosiers turnovers came in the second half, swinging the momentum into Kentucky’s favor. On the flip side, UK turned the ball over just four times all night.
“Live-ball turnovers against them are really hard,” Darian DeVries said. “Because now, they’re out in transition, playing in space…We left our feet a few times, got on our heels, and didn’t play as disciplined as we needed to. The crowd got cranked up, and that’s when you have to really dig in–your screens have to be better, and you have to play off of two feet more.”
Kentucky just valued the basketball more, and that even extended to the backboard.
14 Wildcat offensive rebounds and 18 second-chance points fueled the sputtering UK offense that jumped up to 43% from the field after the break. Mouhamed Dioubate had 12 total rebounds, seven of which were offensive.
Even though Kentucky’s offense struggled, Indiana gave its opponent too many chances. It hasn’t played well together so far this season, but Mark Pope’s team cost $22 million for a reason–there’s too much talent there to give them extra possessions.
“We are not a thing of beauty right now,” Pope said. “Actually, that’s not true, because the relentless force was beautiful. But there’s not a lot of pretty offense out there…We had four turnovers, which is incredible, because we didn’t make any shots, right?”
Yet all those Hoosier sins–turnovers and rebounding–could’ve been washed away by adequate shotmaking. That was especially absent Saturday night.
The offense, as a whole, was stale. Lamar Wilkerson was in foul trouble most of the night, and Kentucky made it hard to drive to the basket, which led to a lot of late-shot-clock 3s or forced shots in the paint. Along with the turnovers, that resulted in 34% from the field and 17% from 3 for the Hoosiers.
“To be honest, making and missing shots tonight wasn’t our problem,” Tucker DeVries said. “Certainly, I didn’t shoot it that great, as a team, we didn’t shoot that great, but with that being said, there are areas we need to be a lot better at as a group. If we were able to, especially in the second half, execute in some of those areas, that would’ve made up for some of those shooting habits or miscues.
“The good thing is we get a good week here before we play again to really dial in on some of those areas that we’ve lacked in the beginning of the season.”
Indiana will have to use this week and its next two games with Chicago State and Siena to really diagnose its issues before Big Ten play really gets rolling in the new year. This kind of loss should bring about a great sense of urgency for the Hoosiers going forward.