Indiana basketball ‘still searching’ for offensive identity as inconsistent play headlined start to season

BLOOMINGTON, Ind — There was expected to be some growing pains offensively with seven new players coming together and playing different roles in a different system. In Wednesday’s season-opening win for Indiana basketball, that was the case.

Much of the offseason talk revolved around the quickness and pace of this team — vastly different from any other team under Mike Woodson. He wanted this group to play fast, push the pace and get out in open space. While they flashed its ability to do so, those were limited segments, with often times more bad than good.

One thing that didn’t change from season-to-season, however, was the stagnant half court offense at times. While Indiana scored 80 points, and 42 in the first half, it was tied up at 27-all at the 4:48 mark of the first half. This was after Indiana scored just three points across five minutes, leading to a 10-3 run for SIUE.

You can go back further, too. Indiana had 20 points at the 12:42 mark. So, over an eight-minute stretch, Indiana scored just seven points and was outscored 18-7 in that span.

Following the 80-61 win, Woodson didn’t shy away from his reaction to the offensive struggles.

“Don’t know. Still searching,” Woodson said when asked about his team’s offensive identity. “I do know we can score the basketball. Certain guys haven’t really made shots like I thought they would. They’ll start falling eventually.”

Part of the contributing factor was the inability to keep the ball off the floor. Indiana had nine first-half turnovers and 16 for the game. It was turning the ball over on a quarter of its possessions the entire night. Part of that was due to careless mental mistakes, other times was the offense just going in one speed.

“I think just getting and finding and being comfortable with new rotations that we really haven’t had yet,” IU senior guard Trey Galloway said. “In practice, just getting those game-like reps and doing everything at game speed is going to be huge for us.”

While it’s just one game — the early returns are promising in some regards. Indiana ranked 102nd last year in average possession length and after Wednesday — as most teams have now played at least one game — Indiana ranks 51st, according to KenPom. On the flip side, IU ranks 220th in turnover percentage after its first game.

The mixed bag resulted in Indiana basketball shooting 52.6 percent from the field 37.5 percent from three and totaling just 12 fast break points — a three-point deficit in that regard. But those numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Mackenzie Mgbako led all scorers with a career-high 31 points on 13-of-17 shooting and was clearly the go-to option throughout the entire game, saving Indiana on numerous possessions.

“I thought he was the only one that truly played pretty good offense tonight,” Woodson said. “I mean, I thought we came out with great intentions. The ball moved early. We just got stale from an offensive standpoint in terms of moving the ball, making the extra pass. This team was able to hang around. A lot of that is because we just didn’t execute.”

Indiana did end up seeing four players in double-figures — none of which super efficient getting there outside of Mgbako. IU’s bench was also outscored 26-8 — six of the eight points coming from Trey Galloway.

“This is only our third game together. My second game. Everyone else — It’s coming together, doing it at game speed. It shows. It’s a different game when you’re out there on court,” Galloway explained. “I think continuing to get better in practice and trust in each other and keep building that trust within each guy, it’s going to help us.”

There were times, however, when Indiana was clicking on all cylinders — with multiple players stepping up and converting offensively. And, as both Mike Woodson and Trey Galloway emphasized postgame, this team has a lot of weapons — it’s about figuring out how to use them all when there’s only one ball in play.

“I think just a lot of the weapons that we have,” Galloway said. “There’s so many guys that can do so many things. Like I said previously, it’s going to be a lot of guys’ nights. We’re going to have to sacrifice that all season. I mean, if one guy is really playing well, we got to be unselfish and find them.

“I think we’ll continue to get better as we get into the season and keep growing together. I think just with that being said, we got to continue to do it every day in practice and continue to find each other. Like I said, we got so many weapons that can create for others and create for themselves.”

Indiana takes the floor on Sunday against Eastern Illinois — with a power-four matchup against South Carolina looming just nine days from now.

SEE ALSO: Quick Hitters — Key takeaways from the Indiana basketball 80-61 season-opening win over SIUE

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