BASKETBALL

Indiana basketball has its true identity — toughness. And now ‘everybody is all bought into what we want to do’ going into postseason play

Indiana basketball has been able to rely on toughness over the last month to win close games and did so again on Saturday.

Published

7 hours ago

March 9, 2025

Alec Lasley

Indiana basketball has been able to rely on toughness over the last month to win close games and did so again on Saturday. (Mandatory Credit: Robert Goddin-Imagn Images)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana basketball has been able to rely on the fans inside Assembly Hall nearly every home game. Whether it’s to lift them up when needed, or continue to pour it on when IU’s looking to put the game away. In Saturday’s 66-60 win over Ohio State, however, it was the opposite. The fans were the ones who needed lifting up and something to cheer for — and IU provided exactly that.

After a lethargic and emotionless first half that had a four-point deficit after 20 minutes, Indiana saw itself down 10 with 12:12 remaining — a critical 12 minutes that would likely determine its spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Then, the identity that Indiana had formed over the last few weeks — which was nowhere to be found in the first half — was found; toughness. Indiana guard Anthony Leal had a layup putback on a second chance opportunity, followed by a Malik Reneau block on the other end of the floor, then an offensive rebound and made three by Trey Galloway. A quick 5-0 run provided exactly what the 17,000+ fans inside Assembly Hall needed to be rejuvenated and do what they do best — cheer.

Anthony Leal — who always finds himself in the middle of the action — had the moment that flipped the game even more. After a made layup by Malik Reneau to cut the lead to four with 8:23 remaining, Leal drew an offensive foul on OSU guard John Mobley on the inbound pass, later upgraded to a flagrant foul. Leal went to the line and drained both free throws, followed by two more free throws from Luke Goode later that possession. In just a short amount of time, the game was tied, seemingly because of the little things IU was doing, and the toughness it found.

“Something that I tried to emphasize to the team early in the season when we were going through our scoring ruts was it doesn’t matter how much we score, how well we shoot,” Goode said after the win. “We should still be able to win games when it’s ugly.”

Winning ugly is what Indiana did, and how it finished off the Buckeyes.

Ohio State would go on to make just 1-of-11 shots to close, including missing its final six shots, leading to just 32.1 percent from the field in the second half. Indiana held Ohio State without a made field goal for the final 5:55 of the game. In that time, IU outscored Ohio State 15-8.

“For us to be in a must-win game for our postseason hopes, first, Senior Night at home, too, and to come out and play the defense we did. It’s a testament to how much we’ve grown as a team together,” Goode said. ” … We’ve always known we have what it takes in the locker room. We have the guys with the right mentality, and coaches have really put a lot of trust in us; a lot of times in the huddles we’re calling the plays, helping Coach out and telling him what we see.”

While Indiana relied on its defense, the play of the game came from none other than senior guard Trey Galloway — a pull-up 30 footer with 1:25 left in the game and four seconds left on the game clock. It was a broken play — one very similar to a shot that went against Indiana just a few days earlier against Oregon. This time, IU was on the right side of such a big shot.

It stretched the lead to five and was the dagger Indiana basketball needed.

“I didn’t believe that. I said to myself out loud, I said, “Oh,” and then “s-h-i-t,” and I was pretty, you know, happy, because it was a big shot,” Goode said. “I feel like some of the games we’ve lost earlier, other teams have hit big shots against us. You think Maryland. You know, you think Purdue with Trey Kaufman jumping up from the free throw line. It was good to see one of them go down for us.”

Indiana basketball now has won 5-of-7 to close the year — with wins over three NCAA Tournament teams. Why? Falling back on the toughness that it had showed periodically, but not consistently enough throughout the season.

But March hits different and makes players different. This Indiana group is now a team — and all coming together for one common goal.

“When we have a collective effort from everybody involved, coaches, guys that are in the rotation, out of the rotation, walk-ons, it all comes together to be something good. Since that moment, we have all come together really well,” Goode added. “We all have a common goal now. I think everybody is all bought into what we want to do, and you know, we’re reaping the benefits now.”

“I mean, yeah, just the season, they are always so long, and like things — there’s times where things look worse and looked like everything is just not going your way, and there’s times where you feel like you’re on top of the world. And so the good teams are able to balance that and able to stay even keel,” Galloway said. “We’ve done a great job of that recently to be able to bounce back from big wins or bounce back from big losses. And so we weren’t doing that early on in the season, and now we’re starting to figure that out. And it’s helping us and we’re winning games.

“So we’ve just got to stick to that, and be ready to go because we’re not done yet. That’s a big win but we are going to the Big Ten Tournament, so we’ve got to focus on that.”

So, with the common goal agreed upon. The identity of the team solidified. And, now the pressure of making the NCAA Tournament seemingly off their minds — a team that is playing their best basketball of the year enters postseason play with one thing in mind; taking all the lessons from an up-and-down season and attacking their goals that are still ‘right in front’ of them.

“We hope to start playing our best basketball right now because this is when it really counts going into the Big Ten Tournament and March Madness,” Leal said. “For us, it’s learning from those little things and knowing our goals are all still right front of us.”