Indiana traveled to College Park to play No. 15 Maryland for its second conference road game after being dominated by Wisconsin in Madison early in December. After a promising start, the Hoosiers stalled and dropped another road Big Ten contest.
Maryland loads the paint on defense
Indiana was able to get inside early in the first half and find one-on-one matchups that maybe weren't favorable, such as Joey Brunk on Jalen Smith, but that worked in the Hoosiers' favor anyway.
Brunk went directly at Smith twice and scored, and Indiana's guards even hit a couple driving layups as well. Brunk brought down a rebound over 7-foot-2 freshman Chol Marial and put it back up for a shooting foul.
Maryland is one of the best shot-blocking teams in the country – No. 31 in total blocked shots – and are the 14th-best defense in the paint, allowing just 42 percent of opponents' two-point shots to convert. So the success inside seemed to be short-lived.
It sure was. Maryland began to help its inside defenders and really pack the paint defensively, and the Hoosiers scored one field goal in the last 9:30 of first-half gameplay.
The Indiana offense was buried in mud by the end of the first half, scoring just 20 points and allowing Maryland to finish on a 17-4 run.
The Hoosiers didn't get much more going in the second half either. They were able to put up more points in the paint than thir six in the first half, but it still wasn't passable. The game quickly got out of hand, as the Hoosiers began to lose traction,
Eventually, there was no resistance on either end of the floor for Indiana.
Indiana kept off the line
Maryland is one of the better teams in the country in terms of keeping its opponents off the free throw line, and it did that Saturday in College Park as well. Indiana attempted just six in the first half. For a team that ranks top-10 in the country in percentage of points from the free throw line, staying off the line was crucial in the way Maryland defended Indiana.
Trayce Jackson-Davis, who leads the charge for the Hoosiers at the free throw line, also hit foul trouble early in the game, which clearly affected his tendency to be physical and aggressive inside. Sometimes, that aggression from Jackson-Davis is the only energy Indiana has on offense in some stretches. That energy wasn't there Saturday.
Trayce Jackson-Davis hits early foul trouble
There hadn't been many cases when Trayce Jackson-Davis hit early foul trouble in 2019, but the freshman forward recorded two early fouls and sat for much of the back-end of the first half, recording just 11 minutes before halftime.
His absence made it pretty clear how losing Jackson-Davis to foul trouble will hurt Indiana this season.
Without Jackson-Davis, there were several lineups that were unfavorable for the Hoosiers, lineups that included De'Ron Davis and Damezi Anderson on the floor at the same time and paired Race Thompson with other role players in the back court.
That put a lot of pressure on Davis and Thompson to score, and when those opportunities came, neither stepped up.
Energy sucked out of Indiana midway through second half
Shades of Indiana at Wisconsin entered the fold around the 10-minute mark of the game. Indiana was being outworked for rebounds and made senseless turnovers that fed a 19-4 run. The energy, that allowed Indiana to keep the game close throughout much of the second half, was completely drawn from Indiana as the game got out of hand.
Race Thompson passed the ball to no one in particular deep in Indiana's back court. Armaan Franklin dribbled the ball off his foot. Devonte Green hurt Indiana more than he helped. Transition plays turned into Maryland drunks. And eventually, nearly every Indiana offensive possession was affected by a front court Terrapin.
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