Despite the ability to play with Louisville through the paint, Indiana was unable to match the same production from the perimeter in last Saturday's 71-62 loss at the KFC Yum! Center with a 0 for 12 performance from 3-point range in the second half.
IU head coach Archie Miller acknowledges his team isn't shooting the ball up to its potential, but he's also not letting it or any single shooting performance linger over the Hoosiers during practice this week as they prepare for Saturday's game vs. No. 18 Notre Dame (2:30 p.m. ET, FOX).
"As of right now, I don't think our team is shooting the ball as well as we can, but you're not going to dwell on it very much," Miller said Monday during the Big Ten head coaches teleconference. "If you get those same looks moving forward on Saturday, you have to take them and you have to feel like they'll go in."
Overall, the Hoosiers shot 5 of 23 from 3-point range in the loss to the Cardinals last week, their worst shooting performance from beyond the arc this season.
In fairness, Louisville presented a somewhat unique challenge for Indiana with its length. The Cardinals' average height of 78.7 inches, or roughly 6-foot-6, puts them at the sixth-tallest team in the nation, according to KenPom, and with that height comes greater length than most teams have on their roster.
"I think Louisville did a great job of challenging shots," Miller said. "They used their length and bothered us. Some of them obviously were good looks that just didn't go in."
Through 10 games, Indiana has shot 33.3 percent or lower from 3-point range in seven of those contests. It attempts 18.6 shots from distance per game but only makes six. Its 3-point shooting percentage of 40.1 currently ranks 319th out of 351 Division I teams nationally, per KenPom.
Although the Louisville game was well below those season averages for IU, Miller remains optimistic that those shots will eventually start to fall.
"I think some of the shots against Louisville were challenged," Miller said. "I think they do a really good job with their zone, with their changing defenses, with their length, of putting pressure on some of the good looks with great length. At the same time, it wasn't like we were shooting wide-open layup threes that didn't go in.
"Some of them were challenged, but at the end of the day, we're going to make some of those shots and I think we will as time moves forward."
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