No truer words were ever spoken! Indiana University’s men’s basketball team continues to both tease and frustrate its fans, defy the experts, and surprise just about everyone. This team cannot decide its identity—whether it’s a contender for B1G title, whether it has the talent to be selected for the NCAA tournament, and whether it wants to preserve their coach’s reputation with basketball aficionados. In the last weeks of regular season play, I.U. has established itself as a true “bubble team.” They have won 4 of their last 5 games including a blow-out win over Purdue. And with two games remaining (Oregon on-the-road, Ohio State at home) they have a chance to determine their own future.
Two more wins would have great significance. Finishing the regular season on a winning note may just be enough for IU to get a better seeding for the B1G tournament. Going deep into the tournament would also go a long way toward moving IU out of the “bubble team” category into an invited participant in the NCAA tournament. Who knows, it may even get I.U. a decent seeding that could get us a win.
Everything seemed to change for the better after Coach Mike Woodson announced his plan to retire at the end of the season. For some reason, the play of several players has improved greatly. Some of the credit for that improvement has to go to inferior opponents with limited talent. Some B1G teams simply are very good at making I.U. look like world beaters. Saturday against Washington, is a case in point. Washington is firmly seated in last place (18th) in the B1G. They missed shots, made turnovers, and didn’t rebound, and I.U.’s defense gave them fits. They actually made I.U. look good.
Trey Galloway, Anthony Leal, Luke Goode, Malik Reneau, and Oumar Ballo have all improved their games considerably since Woodson’s announcement. Contrary to what I said in a recent blog, as the season has progressed this team overall has improved, especially late after Woodson announced retirement plans.
One reason may be because Woodson has abandoned his NBA-style coaching routine of putting bench players in during the last 8-10 minutes of the first half. Platooning substitutions at I.U. with these players has always led to poor shooting and rebounding, and low scoring giving the opponent the opportunity to build a lead. That routine lost several games for us because the bench just couldn’t maintain a lead built by the starters. He’s playing his best players more minutes, now, which I think leads to more consistent play.
Malik Reneau was a beast against Washington. He was able to score at will because Washington’s defense could not guard him. Trey Galloway and Anthony Leal are making fewer turnovers, now, and when they have the ball I don’t worry as much about careless passes. Galloway’s 3-point shooting and driving for layups have improved as well. Luke Goode has finally begun hitting 3’s like he did at Illinois. Getting more playing time has helped his confidence. Oumar Ballo has obviously been coached because his aggressiveness under the basket has led to easy layups-ups and dominance in the paint.
Myles Rice and Mackenzie Mgbako are frustrating enigmas because of terribly inconsistent play. Mgbako may be in the doghouse because of it. He’s still the guy you want at the free throw line at crunch time even though his 90+% FT average has recently dropped to 83%—he was 0-4 vs. Penn State. Rice, who was last season’s PAC-12 freshman-of-the-year at Washington State, has struggled with the B1G’s more physical level of play and hasn’t lived up to the hype.
I.U. has only two regular season games remaining. Winning both and a good B1G tourney run would greatly help their NCAA tournament chances. Two weeks ago I thought there was no way Indiana could make the tournament, but now, with the right circumstances, I think there’s a good chance they could.
