Indiana's loss to Maryland "stings" now, will in retrospect too
As Indiana searched for its second straight win over a top-25 opponent in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to carry momentum into a two-game road stretch, the Hoosiers dropped the ball in the final six minutes, particularly the final two.
Because of that, Indiana will look back on the loss as one that got away come Tournament time.
Indiana’s offense, for the most part, had begun to find its footing after its near-loss to Northwestern, with a hiccup at Rutgers, head coach Archie Miller said last week. There seemed to be a cohesion in the offensive and defensive efforts that had seemed like the same polar ends of two magnets before the home win over then-No. 11 Ohio State.
Indiana looked as good on offense at Nebraska as it had since beating Florida State in November, and Sunday, against No. 17 Maryland, Indiana showed more of that offensive potential.
Minus stronger defensive play, nearly everything that has come to be known about this Indiana team was evident against Maryland, as Indiana weathered the storm of threes rained down by Maryland in the first half, recorded just its 14th turnover against two of the better defensive teams in the conference and found ways to get inside when some things weren’t going its way in the first half.
But what seemed almost uncharacteristic about the way Indiana handled itself against Maryland was not coming out with the win when it owned a six-point lead inside the final two minutes.
And the Hoosiers will likely wish they could have the game back when they look back on the schedule in February because of it.
“We did enough to win the game. We also did enough to lose it there at the end,” Miller said. “Tonight's one of those ones you're going to think back on, and it's going to really, really sting.”
The only loss that compares to the Maryland loss is the Arkansas loss, when Indiana surrendered the game in the last eight minutes after dominating the rest of the 32 minutes. While neither loss is a bad loss, they both guard Indiana from two good wins, wins the Hoosiers might need come Selection Sunday.
The fact that the Maryland loss was preventable is what will separate Sunday’s loss from others.
“Lack of communication down the stretch,” sophomore guard Rob Phinisee said about what went wrong Sunday. “I know there were a couple of mishaps that happened with ball screen coverage where they got a couple of open rolls. Really, we just have to settle down on defense and lock up.”
To breakdown the lapses in communication, Jalen Smith’s final bucket to give Maryland its late lead resulted in a high screen by Smith, who broke for the bucket afterwards, while Trayce Jackson-Davis and Devonte Green doubled Anthony Cowan. Justin Smith was not aware of Jalen Smith and was late in cutting him off, giving Jalen Smith an easy bucket.
Miller broke it down to the final 3:39 of the game – the time after the media timeout, when Indiana had a 71-67 lead. He noted that a team needs to be “tough-minded” when in that situation, but Indiana broke from its efforts in communication and hit only one of its final five field goal attempts.
It dates before that final timeout as well. Indiana had been shooting 63 percent from the field leading up to the moment it built its eight-point lead. Once Trayce Jackson-Davis hit his fadeaway jumper off the glass to bring the score to 60-52, the Hoosiers began struggling to score – going 6-of-19 (32 percent) from the floor the rest of the way.
“That's when you've got to really execute,” Miller said. “That's when you've got to know time and score. That's when your communication has got to be at its finest. Little things that on Thursday night kind of went well didn't go well for us in that last 3:32.
“A lot of learning can go on in that. There's a lot of situations in that last 3:32 that obviously we could have been a lot better. When our offense plays the way it did tonight in the sharing of the ball, the ball movement. To score 76 points and have 22 assists and only six turnovers at home and lose, it's a little bit befuddling.”
There were improvements made that likely would have been highlighted had the sudden loss not undermined them. Jerome Hunter - 12 points, 3-of-6 from three, four rebounds in 27 minutes – recorded the best game of his career in multiple facets. De’Ron Davis logged a good 13 minutes, with three assists, with Trayce Jackson-Davis in foul trouble and Race Thompson unavailable. And Devonte Green had his best game – 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting – offensively and defensively since his measured play against Ohio State. The Hoosiers’ three-point shooting (47 percent) was lights out as well.
Those are all significant signs of growth that shouldn’t go unmentioned for the future of Indiana in 2019-20.
But in moving forward into two consecutive road matchups, moments like the final six minutes of gameplay have often defined teams in Big Ten seasons. The Hoosiers come to a fork in the road, where one path leads toward the 34 minutes of strong play traveling to State College and the other leads toward a three-game losing streak, given the difficulty shown in winning on the road in the Big Ten.
----
• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals
• Like us on Facebook.