INDIANAPOLIS—With 18:41 left in the second half, Indiana cut the Oregon lead to two. With 15:12 left, IU cut the lead to one. With 12:18 left, it cut the lead to two, and with 7:33 left, the Hoosiers cut it to two once more.
Each of these instances presented an opportunity for the Hoosiers to make their run and take the lead, but each of these chances came and went, passing Indiana by as Oregon responded to Indiana's pressure every time.
Then came the larger opportunity: a chance to effectively clinch an NCAA Tournament berth. Indiana had momentum following its win over Ohio State, meaning the Hoosiers could have been locked into the field of 68 with a victory over the Ducks.
Just like every opportunity during the game, Indiana's shot to end all discussion of whether it belongs in the tournament was missed, as its 72-59 loss to Oregon puts Indiana's at-large chances further into question.
This all came down to executing in the game itself, and the Hoosiers simply didn't, as they proved they could get it close but didn't have the same energy that resulted in their win over the Buckeyes just five days ago.
"There's a lot of times where even today there's just some missed execution opportunities that we had," Trey Galloway said. And he's right, as the Hoosiers missed chance after chance down the stretch, resulting in their elimination from the 2025 Big Ten Tournament.
The second-round matchup between Indiana and Oregon was hard-fought and tightly contested for well over 30 minutes, but in the end, Indiana crumbled. The Hoosiers went on a five-minute, 29-second scoring drought after they cut the Ducks' lead to two and simply fell apart in the game's most crucial stretch.
"I think when we go on our little scoring droughts, it's definitely just execution where you've got to go out there and execute the play at a high level," Malik Reneau said postgame, adding, "We failed to do that in a couple of spots, and they got steals, blocks, et cetera, and they came down court and was able to execute on their side."
During Indiana's scoring drought late in the second half, it turned the ball over twice and missed all six shots from the field, coupled with two missed free throws from Anthony Leal on back-to-back possessions.
These small missed opportunities culminated into the larger one: a missed chance to wrap up an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but the Hoosiers simply couldn't get over the hump.
"The way they defended tonight and forced us to make plays inside, which I thought we got the ball inside and had opportunities, but we just came up short," Mike Woodson said postgame, highlighting that Oregon gave them chances in the paint, but Malik Reneau and Oumar Ballo didn't capitalize at times.
Reneau scored 19 to lead the Hoosiers, but he shot just 8-of-15, with the vast majority of those misses coming around the rim. Ballo had eight points but shot just 4-of-11 from the floor, again with several misses coming in the painted area.
This was a main contributor to Indiana's missed opportunities, but that wasn't all, as Indiana struggled from beyond the 3-point line all game long, and it could have certainly used one down the stretch.
Indiana made just 4-of-16 3-pointers throughout the contest, and only two of those came after halftime, giving IU a 2-for-7 mark in the second half—one simply not good enough to mount a comeback.
"We had a lot of open, easy looks that we normally make, and we didn't. Then 50 percent from the free-throw line, we didn't shoot the free throw well, same thing from 3. It's just being able to make shots and shoot them with confidence," Galloway said.
In addition to the missed layups and 3-pointers, Galloway mentioned free throws—an area of the game that allowed Indiana to win against Ohio State, but missed shots at the line led to the Hoosiers' downfall against the Ducks in Indianapolis.
These free throws were the ultimate missed opportunity, as Leal left four points on the line—four crucial points that could have changed the game drastically. Instead, it allowed Oregon to capitalize and pull away.
"Then we regroup, we came out after the half, and we were back in the ballgame. It's just the little things. We missed two front ends of a one-and-one, a two-possession game, those are huge. They come down, and they make us pay for it on both possessions," Woodson said postgame, and he couldn't have been more right.
The Hoosiers had chances—several of them—but each time they cut the Oregon lead to within two, Indiana couldn't find it within itself to fully close the gap.
When it came down to it, Indiana didn't execute well enough and left too many chances on the floor, as missed shots at the rim, from 3-point range, and from the free-throw line plagued the Hoosiers.
Oregon is a good team, and it made plays down the stretch, but the brunt of this loss feels self-inflicted. Indiana had an incredible home crowd-like atmosphere, but it didn't use it to its advantage when it could have made a run at a victory.
With a win here, Indiana would have likely secured an NCAA Tournament spot, but because of the missed opportunities against Oregon, Indiana's fate hangs in the balance. It will have to wait on what the rest of the country does in the next three days to determine if the Hoosiers will be dancing or not.
For this second-round game of the 2025 Big Ten Tournament against Oregon, it was a little like a microcosm of the season as a whole. The Hoosiers were right there but couldn't get it done when they had the opportunity to turn things around.
"We know that we should be a tournament team. There's a lot of opportunity for that. I think just those crucial losses that we had that were just so tight, one-possession games," Galloway said.
While this one didn't end as a one-possession game, it falls into the long list of games that the Hoosiers had an opportunity to win—games that may keep Indiana out of the NCAA Tournament when it's all said and done.
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