Is a change to the starting lineup coming for IU basketball? Mike Woodson says everything is on the table

BLOOMINGTON, Ind — With the season in a downward spiral following back-to-back 25-point losses, IU basketball head coach Mike Woodson didn’t rule out making a change to his starting lineup the next time out.

“You got to continue to work. I got to make some changes,” Woodson said. “We haven’t been getting off to a good start in terms of who we been starting.”

Indiana, who gave up 60 first-half points to Illinois en route to a 94-69 loss on Tuesday, is -38 in the first half in the last two games combined. In addition, it’s been five games since the Hoosiers have led at halftime — which was a seven point lead over Rutgers after trailing by double-digits.

IU basketball has been without starting forward and leading-scorer Malik Reneau over the last four games as he recovers from a knee injury suffered in the first half against Rutgers.

Since the Rutgers game Indiana has seen its scoring dip by nearly eight points a game, with its defense is allowing 10 more points a game.

“Sure, we do miss Malik. He’s a big piece to the puzzle,” Woodson said. “But I got to put guys in there that I think is going to get us off to a good start and see if we can maintain it over a 40-minute ballgame. We can’t (these past) two games, and these were embarrassing games for us, determine our season. We still got a long way to go, a lot of Big10 games left. I just got to get us better prepared and ready to play.”

Since Reneau went down with his knee injury, Indiana went with Myles Rice, Trey Galloway, Luke Goode, Mackenzie Mgbako and Oumar Ballo as the starting unit. While Ballo has shined with just one big on the floor — averaging 18.2 points, 12.2 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in the last five games — others has severely struggled. Mgbako has scored just 10 combined points in the last three games, shooting 3-of-24 from the floor and 0-of-11 from three. Trey Galloway is just 3-of-13 from the floor in the past two games and has six assists to six turnovers.

Indiana travels to Ohio State on Friday looking to regain some momentum and flip the script after the last two performances.

“I think it’s just understanding how hard winning is and what it requires and you have to be able to sustain punches, remain composed, and take the runs because it’s a game of runs,” IU guard Anthony Leal said. “We have to get better in that department and just remaining composed, staying true to our scout and our offensive concepts and the things we have had success with in the future. It can’t be done in spurts. It’s got to be able to be done when it gets tough.”

SEE ALSO: What’s next for IU basketball after ’embarrassing and unacceptable’ new low?: ‘We got to lock in and look in the mirror’

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