Lack of offensive production goes deeper than X’s and O’s

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Indiana’s 81-69 loss to Purdue Thursday night left fans, coaches and players with a lot of questions to answer. Archie Miller is now 0-6 against his biggest rival with four of those losses coming at Assembly Hall.

There is no secret to why Indiana lost. They simply did a poor job defending, especially on the three-point line and failed to create any kinds of opportunities for themselves on offense.

This is where the box score does not provide an adequate evaluation of Indiana’s performance. The Hoosiers shot 3-for-18 from three-point range for a miserable 16.7 percent. Sometimes teams have bad shooting nights. The Golden State Warriors will have bad shooting nights. It is an inevitable part of basketball.

However, Indiana’s struggles from three do not come as a result of having an “off day” shooting the ball. The Hoosiers struggled to produce good looks and instead settled for low-percentage shots that were well-guarded. It has been a nagging problem through the duration of Miller’s tenure as head coach.