Indiana basketball played ‘selfish’ in its lethargic win and has ‘a lot to clean up’ with stiffest test of season on the horizon

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Thursday night was the final lineup for Indiana basketball before heading to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis. Unfortunately, despite a win, it was a lackluster performance that left the fans, coaches and players wanting, and needing more.

The main theme that continues to arise under Mike Woodson’s leadership is the inability to put together a full 40-minute performance. In Thursday’s win, it was more than just that, however — it was again the lack of a killer instinct and the frequent mental mistakes that plagued the Hoosiers.

“It was competition tonight. That team came to play, we didn’t. That’s college basketball,” Woodson said following the 69-58 win over UNC-Greensboro. “If you’re not — it’s on me. I thought we came out with great intentions. We were up 19-3 when I started subbing, and that was after guys had played a deep seven, eight, nine minutes straight, and once they got rolling, we gave them hope, and they played a solid game all the way through.”

Thursday night’s win did begin on a high note. It was 21-5 and then 36-20 leads for Indiana in the first half — both of which were moments that IU could’ve easily put away the Spartans. Instead, it was the opposite. UNC-Greensboro first used a 14-3 run over a seven-minute span to cut into the IU lead. Then it was a 7-0 run to end the half.

After halftime it was more of the same, however. The Spartans got off to a 13-3 run to start the second half to tie the game at 40-all with 15:57 remaining. At that point, Indiana was scoring just .976 points per possession and had 12 turnovers. It was anything but pretty for a team that was looking to head into the holiday on a high note before facing the stiffest competition yet.

“My whole theme has always been we take it a practice at a time and a game at a time and see where it leads us, man,” Woodson said. “But tonight, I’ve got to give this Greensboro team a lot of credit. They played — I thought they played harder than we did. We didn’t play hard, and that’s unacceptable. That’s on me.”

While effort was undoubtedly a problem for Indiana basketball, it was more than just that.

Indiana’s inability to create easy offense was once again on display. The lack of playmaking was as well. Just one game prior, it was IU’s ability to lean on the back’s of its dynamic perimeter players. That wasn’t the case on Thursday.

It was ‘selfish’ basketball, as Woodson put it.

“As a team we had 16 assists. That’s awful,” Woodson aded. “I mean, it’s awful. With this team, we should average between 20 and 30 assists. So the play tonight, the way we played offensively tonight was selfish as hell, to me, and that’s something that just can’t be because we have enough guys on this team that can make basketball plays. We’ve just got to be unselfish and sacrifice the ball for the sake of the team and good things will happen. The ball will end up in the right guys’ hands.”

On the night, Indiana finished with 16 assists and 14 turnover. After three good nights shooting the ball, IU turned in a 5-of-19 performance from three and just a 41.7 percent outing from the field. Myles Rice and Bryson Tucker combed for 34 points on 13-of-23 from the field. The rest of the team? 35 points on 12-of-37 from the field.

“We’ve had some good moments, we’ve had some bad moments. Against really good teams, you’re going to have to have a lot of good moments to die away the bad moments if you’re going to be a good team, and I think we can, but only time will tell. I’ve just got to keep working with this team to get them where I want them, but we’re not there yet.

“You saw how we threw the ball in the half-court setting all over the place. We made some passes tonight that had no chance of being completed. These are things that we can all work to get better. I’ve got to just push us in that direction to get better.”

Indiana basketball now has its sights set on a three-game stretch against high-caliber opponents in the Bahamas. It’s going to be the make-or-break stretch for Indiana in its non-conference state.

After Thursday’s performance — Mike Woodson knows his team has a long way to go in a short amount of time.

“We’ve got to go and clean this game up before I start thinking about the Bahamas,” Woodson stressed. “Louisville is the first game, but we’ve got to clean this game up and have a tough practice tomorrow, get ready for Louisville that way. But we’ve got to figure out this game and all the things we did wrong and didn’t do.”

SEE ALSO: Key takeaways from the Indiana basketball 69-58 win over UNC-Greensboro

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