Five takeaways from Indiana’s loss at Northwestern
Indiana led by six at halftime, but was outscored 54-39 in the second half in a 79-70 loss to Northwestern Wednesday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The loss dropped the Hoosiers to 14-6 overall and 5-4 in Big Ten play.
Here are five takeaways from the loss to the Wildcats:
Indiana’s second-half defense was non-existent
Through 20 minutes, Northwestern managed just 25 points on 30.8 shooting from the field. Indiana was in a solid position and led the Wildcats 31-25 at halftime.
However, as Northwestern began the second half with an offensive punch, Indiana had no answer defensively. It took the Wildcats less than four minutes to flip a six-point deficit into a two-point lead.
Indiana continuously lost Ty Berry – who had 11 first-half points – on the perimeter. The fifth-year senior went 4-for-7 on 3s in the final 20 minutes. Four different Northwestern players made 3-pointers in the second half and the Wildcats shot 9-for-14 from distance in the second half.
Northwestern scored 54 points in the second half on 20-for-32 (62.5 percent) shooting. The Wildcats scored 1.688 points per possession and scored on 23 of their 32 possessions in the final 20 minutes.
“Our communication from a defensive standpoint was lost the second half,” Mike Woodson said postgame. “Our switches, we weren’t together on switches, where we were connected the first half and they made us pay for it.”
Turnovers help fuel Northwestern
One of the keys to the game for Indiana was taking care of the ball. Entering Wednesday’s contest, Northwestern’s opponents were turning the ball over an average of 14.2 times per game.
The Hoosiers turned the ball over eight times in the first half, but they were fortunate that the Wildcats only managed four points from those mistakes.
That good fortune changed in the second half as Indiana’s turnovers helped fuel the Northwestern offense. IU’s carelessness with the ball – the Hoosiers had nine turnovers in the final 20 minutes – led to 17 points for the Wildcats.
For the game, Northwestern won the points off of turnovers battle, 21-19.
Indiana’s starting guards, Myles Rice and Anthony Leal, combined for eight of the team’s 17 turnovers. Oumar Ballo, Mackenzie Mgbako and Trey Galloway had three turnovers each.
The two-big lineup makes its return
Indiana junior forward Malik Reneau, who had missed the last five games with a knee injury, was available to play for the first time in three weeks.
Wearing a knee brace, Reneau didn’t look like himself in the 11 minutes he played. The Hoosiers were outscored by 11 points with him on the floor. He shot 0-for-6 from the field and managed just two points on a pair of free throws.
Rather than using Reneau as a backup to give Ballo a break, Woodson chose to play the duo together for 15 possessions.
According to Synergy Sports, the numbers with both players on the floor were not encouraging. With Ballo and Reneau playing together, Indiana scored .53 points per possession. And defensively, the Hoosiers gave up 1.58 points per possession with the duo on the floor.
How Woodson chooses to utilize the pair moving forward is an open question. But on Wednesday, it was clear the Hoosiers were out of sorts defensively with Ballo and Reneau on the floor together.
Even when healthy, Reneau can’t match up defensively with forwards on the perimeter. That often puts Indiana into difficult defensive situations and leads to favorable looks for its opponents, which was certainly the case against Northwestern.
Indiana’s 2-point field goal percentage is last in the Big Ten in conference games
Woodson’s offense is designed to produce favorable looks in the paint. The Hoosiers take a low volume of 3-point shots, focusing on getting the ball inside and trying to get to the free-throw line.
After ranking first in the conference last season in 2-point field goal percentage – 53.3 – Indiana is last through nine league games this season.
The Hoosiers went 15-for-37 (40.5 percent) on 2s against the Wildcats and are now shooting 47.7 percent on 2s in Big Ten games.
Over its last seven Big Ten games, Indiana has shot better than 50 percent on 2s just once, the USC game on Jan. 8.
Indiana made up for its poor shooting inside the arc on Wednesday by going 9-for-20 on 3-pointers, but how often will that happen moving forward?
Woodson continues to search for answers
The opening question was straightforward in Woodson’s postgame press conference Wednesday night.
“What do you think is holding this team back, right now, from playing kinda cohesively for a full, you’ve talked about having stretches, but for a full 40 minutes?”
Woodson did not offer specifics as to what’s holding the Hoosiers back.
“I wish I knew. I’m still trying to figure it out,” Woodson said. “I know we got Malik back, and we knew we weren’t going to play him very many minutes tonight. But we had a hell of a defensive half, and then we come out and give up 54 points and we pile on the turnovers. I mean, it was just a bad combination. We just didn’t play well in the second half.”
Indiana is 20 games into the season in year four of Woodson’s tenure and, according to the veteran coach, is still trying to figure out how to play cohesively for 40 minutes.
Later in the press conference, Woodson was asked if he was concerned about IU’s lack of connectivity defensively at this stage of the season.
“No. I mean, you can never get worried,” Woodson said. “There’s too many games still left. We play a good game on the road and beat Ohio State, and then come here and got an opportunity to win a game and we let it get away the second half. You gotta give them credit. They played their butts off in the second half, and we didn’t.”
With the regular season now 65 percent over, Indiana does not have much time to turn things around.
(Photo credit: Northwestern Athletics)
Filed to: Northwestern Wildcats