Indiana head coach Archie Miller said when things get tough, a team needs players who have been on the floor before. The Hoosiers didn't have many of those players available Saturday against Portland State, and what resulted from that inexperience was a heavy lean on sophomore guard Rob Phinisee, who was on a minutes restriction earlier in the week.
The Rob Phinisee that was on the floor Saturday against Portland State was “a rusty Rob,” Indiana head coach Archie Miller said about his sophomore point guard. He's playing in games more than he is practicing, and at times, it showed.
There were multiple occurrences of Phinisee driving to the rim and being blocked by a long interior defender. He eventually settled at 1-of-7 from the floor, his first field goal not coming until there was just 1:14 left in the game.
But when Miller needed someone he could trust to smother the 27-point performance that Portland State guard Holland Woods shelled out, he turned to his point guard.
“We need Rob,” Miller said. “When we needed to get some things done, he was really able to sit down and guard. In his defense, he's probably practiced one-tenth of what everybody else is.”
It was only four days previous that Phinisee was on a minutes restriction that didn’t allow him to play more than 20 minutes, following a lower abdominal injury that kept him out for most of October. But Phinisee logged 26 minutes on Saturday, 26 tough minutes.
And when it’s tough, Miller said, he needs the guys that have been there before. Because when Indiana was rotating its players, there weren’t a lot of options Miller could turn to in terms of experienced defenders. Al Durham – 28.6 minutes per game last season – was on the floor, along with Justin Smith (24.8), but forward De’Ron Davis (13.7) didn’t fit what the Hoosiers were looking for on defense and forward Race Thompson (7.0) had a career day with 16 significant minutes.
Outside of Phinisee, and with forward Damezi Anderson being held out and Devonte Green still out, those were the only options Miller had from last season’s roster. So, to add perimeter and on-ball pressure, Miller needed Phinisee.
“He's really important,” Durham said after the game. “You see what happened once he got on the defender. He got a stop, he brought energy to us. He lifted us up, lifted the arena up.”
That assignment that Durham mentioned for Phinisee was Holland Woods, who had just hit four consecutive three-pointers to pull Portland State within seven points of Indiana midway through the second half. Miller said he hopes for better perimeter defense moving forward because between Woods and Matt Hauser, Portland State hit eight threes and finished at 50 percent as a team. It was clear what Phinisee’s assignment was – stick to Woods and stop him.
For the most part, Phinisee did. Beginning with a bit of jawing and drawing a technical foul from Portland State forward Alonzo Walker, Phinisee made his intentions clear. Then he stuck to Woods and limited him to just one more score and no more threes.
There was also the inevitable possession when the opposing team’s point guard isolates himself against Phinisee and Phinisee doesn’t allow any lanes or room to find a shot before the guard puts up a bad shot.
There were flashes of what Phinisee can do when healthy and also flashes of a need to improve conditioning after an injury that kept him out of five-on-five action until the exhibition Oct. 29.
But what’s most concerning, Miller noted after the game, is that the defense needed those 26 minutes from Phinisee against Portland State, who yes, presented more challenges than Western Illinois, but probably shouldn’t be pushing the limits of an Indiana defense.
“If we don't get our defense going in another direction here, we're going to experience some really hard moments in games,” Miller said.
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