Indiana earned its biggest win since defeating Florida State in early-December by beating No. 11 Michigan State on Thursday, and it did so by staying true to itself, despite so many opportunities to stray away.
Since the beginning of December, Indiana’s tournament resume has largely been carried by a win over Florida State, after the Hoosiers shot the current KenPom.com No. 16 team out of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. But in big games since that win – at Wisconsin, at Maryland, even at Rutgers – Indiana has come up short.
While the worst loss on the schedule so far is to No. 35 Arkansas after a second-half meltdown, but Indiana’s best win since beating Florida State was against a then-No. 11 Ohio State team that has lost six of its last seven games.
Indiana, after avoiding all of the potential snares throughout the first two-thirds of the season, changed all of that Thursday by defeating No. 11 Michigan State, who led the Big Ten with a 6-1 conference record, 67-63, to add another feather to its cap.
And it did it with a team effort tied to its truest identity.
“We found a way to gut it out,” Indiana head coach Archie Miller said. “Struggled from the foul line again, which is disappointing. But we were able to make enough plays.”
There have been plenty of games when Indiana needed to gut out games and every play mattered. Games like its win against Connecticut, its win against Notre Dame, its win against Northwestern and its overtime win against Nebraska. But, while Michigan State had opportunities to win Thursday, including Cassius Winston’s potential game-tying layup in the final seconds, Indiana never seemed to lose control.
There were moments where the offense bogged down and ball movement was stagnant, which has become familiar with most Indiana contests this season, but those were fewer and farther between than usual. And on the uncharacteristic side, Indiana didn’t have many empty possessions, turning the ball over just eight total times and ending many possessions with missed free throws rather than ill-advised shots.
Ultimately, it was the collective decision to stay the course with the frontcourt that won the game.
“There's no more important number to our team than rebounding. It's not just this game,” Miller said. “It's huge for this team all year. This team has to rebound. With our size and to be successful, how we have to play who we have, rebounding is essential.”
There were opportunities for Indiana to get away from the advantage it had on Michigan State inside. The Spartans hit their first five three-point attempts of the second half, and the Hoosiers struggled to find their own scores. Another version of this Indiana team would have responded with threes of their own, but Indiana continued to get inside Thursday.
“We didn’t jack up shots,” Miller said.
Instead, Indiana tied the game at 51-51, ironically on an Armaan Franklin three following nearly three minutes of scoreless basketball and then continued to push the ball inside. Joey Brunk and Trayce Jackson-Davis both led Indiana in scoring, with 14 and 12 points respectively, and Indiana out-rebounded Michigan State 31-29, including 10 offensive rebounds that resulted in 11 second-chance points. The Hoosiers attempted just 12 three-point shots.
That’s been the way Indiana has won its games this season – with ball movement and finding shots inside and riding the playmakers. Al Durham, who connected on a buzzer-beating three to end the first half, hit a wide-open three to go up 63-60 and scored on a tough drive late in the game, made the plays Miller was hoping to get out of his backcourt Thursday and was rewarded with the final few minutes of the game.
“I felt at the end of the game, he was the most comfortable in having the aggressiveness to make a play to get to the basket and score,” Miller said.
The bundle of what have been come to be known as Indiana’s trademarks this season was what propelled Indiana to its win in Bloomington on Thursday, leaving no doubt which team played the better game, and now a 30-point game by Devonte Green isn’t carrying Indiana’s strongest tournament selling point.
There are factors, like homecourt advantage and the vortex that is a road game in the Big Ten this season, that should not be left out of the conversation, but a win like Thursday’s win should leave Indiana with more confidence as it proceeds into one of the toughest 12-game stretches in the nation and searches for Big Ten win No. 10 down the road.
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