Indiana didn't find a response to Wisconsin when the Badgers stacked 47 first half points against it in the first half Saturday, but when the scenario presented itself in the form of a 15-6 lead by Connecticut Tuesday in New York City, the Hoosiers responded.
After Indiana suffered a 20-point loss to Wisconsin on Saturday, Indiana head coach Archie Miller said the team was pleading with each other during the four-minute timeouts, grasping for any foothold that would offer a response.
That response never came in Madison. An early deficit snowballed into a major deficit by halftime, and the Hoosiers never came close to overcoming the hole they’d dug themselves into.
In New York City on Tuesday, a mirrored opportunity presented itself to the young team on its second road game of the season. Connecticut quickly jumped to a 15-6 lead – similarly to Wisconsin’s 19-4 lead Saturday.
This time, there was a response from Indiana. It wasn’t immediate and not necessarily quick, but the Hoosiers took a 34-29 lead into halftime, rather than a 47-27 deficit it faced in Madison by the end of the first half, before eventually putting the Huskies away, 57-54.
“You need to go through it,” Miller said Tuesday about the loss Saturday. “You don’t need to get drilled the way we got drilled on Saturday. But you’ve got to take that medicine.”
That medicine paid off Tuesday in a game that featured a little bit of everything, from an entire redemption arc for forward Joey Brunk to technical and flagrant fouls on Connecticut and to an entire quarter of the game with just 13 points scored. No Hoosier scored more than nine points.
Indiana needed to fight for an entire 40 minutes for the win in New York City.
It fought through missing 36 of its 57 shots, being out-rebounded 37-34, hitting just two three-point attempts and only scoring 12 points off 22 Connecticut turnovers. Both teams were sloppy, and at multiple points, the bottom could have dropped from beneath either team.
But the Hoosiers didn’t allow this game, on the biggest stage of their nonconference season, to get away from them.
“I thought we grew up this week,” Miller said. “I thought today was a battle-tested type of game where you were going to have to earn it, and we did that. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t pretty. But to find a way to get on that plane tonight after playing in that environment, it’s a good feeling for your guys.”
One player who vindicated himself after taking a lot of heat after Saturday’s loss and throughout the game against Tuesday was Brunk, who struggled against another forward, though Connecticut’s Josh Carlton’s game is much different than Wisconsin’s Nate Reuvers. He surrendered score after score on defense and threw up two shots that were blocked, but he knocked down three straight baskets late in the second half, when shots were becoming more and more difficult to come by, to maintain an Indiana lead.
He finished with just 19 minutes, as Trayce Jackson-Davis moved from the four to the five for about half the game, allowing opportunities for Justin Smith, Jerome Hunter and Damezi Anderson to slot into the three and four spots. Each made plays in a game where Miller said there wasn’t just a single contributor but several key playmakers at specific points.
Even De’Ron Davis, who was rarely seeing more than five minutes per game coming into Tuesday, had flashes of good defensive and offensive play and was more aggressive inside against a physical team.
Rob Phinisee made his return and contributed 13 minutes of highly impactful ball, as each minute he played was filled with his presence up until he made an offensive rebound to replenish the shot clock with just over 20 seconds left in the game and then hit two free throws to seal it.
Connecticut might be the toughest remaining nonconference opponent on Indiana’s schedule, but with the game in the rearview mirror now, nothing gets easier moving forward, as the Hoosiers play Power Five teams until postseason play arrives.
“Every game we play from here on out is going to be like this, so you’ve got to get used to it,” Miller said.
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