Indiana Hoosiers Basketball: Juwan Morgan Steps Up Against UT Arlington
Officials stopped play for the final media timeout, and Juwan Morgan began yelling at the IU bench as the team huddled up.
The senior forward didn't like that the Hoosiers' 20-point lead had dwindled to 10, and he made sure his teammates knew how he felt.
"I was saying we've got to pull this out; we're playing for each other right now, nobody else but us, and I think we really started playing for each other," Morgan said. "I think we got lackadaisical, and they were just taking the ball from us. They were just making whatever they wanted doing whatever they wanted on the offensive end. I was just trying to rally the guys together, get them together to really just start fighting, just pull that dog out of everybody."
He ultimately took it upon himself by backing up his words with his own actions.
The senior forward's team-leading 23 points and 10 rebounds propelled IU to a 78-64 win over UT Arlington at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, coming up big down the stretch.
Morgan accounted for 8 of Indiana's final 15 points, scoring four of his own and assisting on two of IU's baskets. En route to his second double-double of the season and 11th of his career, he helped Indiana close the game with a 17-1 run after UT Arlington had cut the lead to one.
Even with IU finishing the game playing just five scholarship players due to injuries, Morgan would not let that be an excuse.
"If it gets to the point where we have to play five people 40 minutes a game, then that's what we'll do," Morgan said. "Our bodies are in condition well enough to do it, but if it comes to it then that's what we're going to do, and we'll fight as hard as we can."
Morgan felt personally responsible for putting Indiana in challenging situations against Arkansas because of his foul trouble, so he vowed to do better.
On Tuesday night, he came through with his promise.
"He filled the stat line up tonight, and he didn't even play with the group he's normally accustomed to play with," IU head coach Archie Miller said. "He was with Justin and Fitzner. We've never even practiced with that lineup before. So to his credit, he was able to hang in there. He's smart.
"But some of these games, right here, when things aren't going real well, you need your aces to kind of stick their head out and say let's go. And I thought he did that: Three blocks, three steals, four assists, six offensive rebounds. Big baskets. He was good."
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