“We didn’t give ourselves a chance tonight”: Turnover bug buries Indiana basketball in blowout loss to Iowa

While there have been many flaring concerns from Indiana basketball this season, turnovers have been a key issue.

Indiana’s offensive struggles drowned the team early on Saturday night as the team gave up 16 turnovers in the 85-60 loss to Iowa.

Troubles arose at the start of the game for Indiana, as Iowa continuously found ways to capitalize on Indiana’s turnovers, taking a double digit point lead going into halftime.

Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson analyzed the frustrating mistakes from the program.

“They (Iowa) scored 43 (in the first half), and 17 of those came from our turnovers. Good teams like Iowa, you’re not going to get away with that.”

After allowing 12 turnovers in the first half, Indiana was unable to recover, shooting 11-of-34 from the field in the second half, while connecting on just one-of-eight three point attempts.

Indiana point guard Myles Rice explained how the high amount of turnovers in addition to the poor shooting performance made the team dig themselves into a deeper hole as the game continued.

“Tonight we just got a little bit outside of ourselves. We started off slow and it was kind of like an avalanche, one thing led to another and it kept going on all night.”

Woodson’s team has been giving opponents extra offensive possessions constantly throughout the season.

Indiana’s 16 turnovers against Iowa tied the team’s second most turnovers in a game this season. Indiana had previously allowed 16 turnovers to both SIUE and Miami Ohio, while allowing 23 turnovers to Louisville. 

The conference loss sets Indiana’s overall record at 13-4, holding a conference record of 4-2. With the loss, Indiana is now tied with #13 Illinois for fourth place in the Big Ten. The two teams will clash on Tuesday night at Assembly Hall.

Rice gave insight from a team aspect of what the group has to figure out going forward.

“We just got to be better from the start and be able to play all the way through all forty minutes.”

Rice was Indiana’s leading scorer in the loss, totaling 12 points on 4-of-11 field goal shooting and 1-of-2 shooting from three, adding in one rebound, five assists, one steal and three turnovers in 36 minutes of action.

Woodson discussed what his team needs to do going into Indiana’s big conference matchup on Tuesday.

“We just got to go back and regroup because the Big Ten is not going anywhere. We got Illinois coming in here soon. We got a couple days to prepare for them.”

Tipoff is set for 7:00 PM ET on Tuesday.

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