Indiana head coach Archie Miller has stood by his 11-man rotation since the beginning of the season, but with recent struggles and a sense of stasis with the development of the roster, Miller said following the Hoosiers' 66-62 win over Northwestern on Wednesday that changes will likely come to the playing time philosophy.
Wednesday night’s close win over a depleted Northwestern team in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall could be the last time Indiana uses its 11-man rotation.
Since September, when Indiana head coach Archie Miller and his players addressed the media to begin their 2019-20 season, Miller has emphasized that he believes all 11 scholarship contributors deserve time on the floor in every game, but for the first time this season, Miller backed off his staunch support of the strategy.
“I don't necessarily know right now if the 11-guy rotation is going to work,” Miller said after the 66-62 win. “I just don't know necessarily if that's the best thing, moving forward, if we're not going to get all 11 heated up and playing as hard and as unselfish as we possibly can.”
The seed of a change in philosophy was planted for a few reasons, but chief among them was the change in energy when certain lineups are on the floor at specific points in the game, Miller said.
At the under-12 timeout with 11:04 left in the game and down 50-40, Miller subbed in players that were showing promise on the defensive end of the floor, he said, and those players were Rob Phinisee, Al Durham, Justin Smith, Joey Brunk and Trayce Jackson-Davis.
With Northwestern pushed against the wall in foul trouble, Indiana took advantage after a sloppy showing for the first 75 percent of the contest. The Hoosiers climbed back into the game after a 10-0 run between media timeouts, and Miller, for the most part, stuck with the players he had on the floor, as Devonte Green was left on the bench to close out the game.
Green played for 20 minutes, missed all six of his shots and hit one of his two free throws to contribute one point, as he continues to slide offensively. And Al Durham piled up 16 points on 11 made free throws, while Jackson-Davis totaled a game-high 21.
But it’s more than just production. It’s energy on the floor and sorting out ways to put players in position to grow together, Miller said.
“Moving forward, we need to know what we're getting,” Miller said. “We can really take some of the confusion out by not worrying about playing – we just play as many guys as we need to play to win the game and who is playing the hardest, because you're not going to be able to compete against Ohio State or anybody, if you're still standing in the same conversation.”
Miller said he wants to potentially constrict playing time as a motivating tool, so players are fighting to get better in order to be on the floor. He used ball movement as an example. Indiana has steadily decreased its assists totals in each of the last three games – 14 versus Notre Dame, 12 versus Arkansas and seven at Maryland. It had 11 against Northwestern.
If players aren’t moving the ball, they will be removed and replaced with players who will move the ball, Miller said.
“When you're fighting to pass and everybody on the team and on the bench and in the locker room knows it's the thing we need to do better and we're talking about it a lot every day and the ball won't move, people look around and say, ‘Why isn't that happening? We just worked on it,’” Miller said.
To begin the game Wednesday, Indiana was moving the ball well offensively and began the game hitting its shots. It swelled its lead to as many as 10 points and scored 20 points – its first-half total at Maryland on Saturday – in less than seven minutes.
Then substitutions stunted that momentum, as the Hoosiers began to get sloppy with the ball, turning it over 11 times before halftime, and went five minutes without a field goal before surrendering its lead and going into halftime trailing 34-31.
But when Miller practice the shrinkage of his rotation throughout the second half, Indiana leveled out with much more consistency than its shown in recent games, which is what Miller said he’s hoping for in the near future as the Hoosiers tread deeper into Big Ten play.
“Very concerned with our group right now, just in terms of where our minds are and what we're about,” Miller said. “With a team like ours, with as many guys as we have trying to play and do things, we could really use a shot in the arm, in terms of some consistency, so they're playing more.”
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