Key takeaways from the Indiana basketball 77-68 win over Winthrop

Indiana basketball wrapped up non-conference play on Sunday afternoon with a 77-68 win over Winthrop — now turning its attention to Big Ten play the remainder of the season.

It was another lethargic effort for Indiana and much like its game against Chattanooga last time out, a late second half run to pull away.

Indiana is now 10-3 overall and 1-1 in Big Ten play.

Here are the key takeaways from IU’s win on Sunday.

3 point shooting performance worst of the season: The biggest question mark around the Mike Woodson era has been shooting and this year is no different. Sunday, however, was the worst shooting performance of the season for Indiana basketball and has been part of a terrible stretch over the last five games. Indiana was just 1-of-20 from three against Winthrop, brining its total over the last five games to 24-of-107. In those games, IU has been outscored by 39 from three. On the season, Indiana is now shooting 30.6 percent from three.

Myles Rice is the engine of this team: This has been a point for much of the season thus far but Mike Woodson continues to fail in this area. There is a major difference in how Myles Rice plays when he has a good game vs a bad game — and it starts with his aggressiveness in terms of a score-first mentality. When he’s attacking to score this team is at its best. But, there are too many times that he has been ‘forced’ into being a pass-first point guard. That’s not who he is. His offense opens up his playmaking and that starts with his ability to score the ball. He showed that again on Sunday, finishing with 18 points on 7-of-13 from the field. He scored at the rim, in transition, got to the foul line and did so efficiently.

Langdon Hatton deserves minutes in regular rotation: After combining for just 40 minutes this season, Hatton saw increased time on Sunday due to the absence of Oumar Ballo from the lineup. Hatton finished with seven points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in 26 minutes. His energy, activity and consistency on both ends of the floor was significant and a major reason why Indiana came away with the win. He made even more small plays that won’t end up in the box score. After today, his role needs to expand and if nothing more he needs to see regular rotation minutes moving forward for Indiana basketball.

Continued concern around this team and its preparedness going into games: Mike Woodson has had enough time over his tenure to fix this issue and this issue alone. Yet, too many times does Indiana come out in games looking unprepared and nowhere near ready to play. Sunday was no different. Indiana failed to bring the needed energy and effort and put itself in a tough situation most of the afternoon. Indiana’s defensive intensity continues to be a major issue and that was no different on Sunday, either. It continues to be the messaging from the staff — four years in — and it isn’t working. It is game in and game out that Indiana struggles against inferior competition and needs a late run to put the opponent away. Sunday’s win was eerily similar to last time out against Chattanooga. What makes it worse? Mike Woodson said after the last win how discouraged he was by the recent performances and how there was a lack of transfer to games from practice and film. There needs to be some change because IU won’t be able to slide by in these types of games come Big Ten play.

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