Indiana dismantled by Penn State 68-63: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
By Edward Koton
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There is no better way to describe this basketball game than with a gif of Cleveland Brown falling from the top of a building in a bathtub.
Nope. No better way.
After Indiana played its best basketball game of the season against Michigan on Tuesday, there is no more appropriate way to follow that effort up than with its worst game of the season.
The worst part of it all was the fact that it wasn’t even justified.
Tom Crean has earned my praise throughout this season, but last night he seemed to lose touch of his basketball team. Every now and then your basketball team is going to have a bad shooting night, and every now and then your team’s best player is going to have a bad night. When those coincide together it’s hard to win basketball games, but against a team as poor as Penn State you should still be able to make the adjustments to get you the win.
Indiana had its worst shooting output for the season at 36.2% and Yogi Ferrell was an atrocious 3 for 12 from the field. Coming into this game, the matchup to watch was Indiana’s ability to shoot the ball from behind the arc against a rather porous Penn State perimeter defense. 270th in the country to be exact. Unfortunately, Indiana just didn’t have its shooting stroke. I’ve said this before and I will say it again, it’s ok to have bad shooting nights. This Indiana basketball team is too versatile to just simply get shut down on offense when the three point ball isn’t falling.
The simple adjustment is to feed the ball down low to one of the best offensive big men in the country.
Thomas Bryant should not be considered an afterthought. He’s not just some silly freshman. He is the basketball player that is supposed to be able to bail you out of games like this.
Unfortunately, Tom Crean seemed too attached to his gameplan to even consider straying away from it. Even when Indiana found itself in the bonus with over 12 minutes left in the game, Tom Crean still refused to stray from his gameplan. Indiana shot 10 three pointers after they entered the bonus, and only took eight free throws.
THAT’S JUST BAD BASKETBALL
THERE IS NO LOGIC TO THAT STRATEGY
Why? Just why? It’s so simple and easy to figure out from the naked eye. If every fan at home can notice the problem, why can’t a paid professional?
Then on the defensive side of the ball, it seemed that Indiana had no chance of handling Penn State’s physicality. Brandon Taylor was able to dismantle anything IU threw at him, scoring 24 points, shooting 50% from the field and grabbing six rebounds. Not to mention the fact that Taylor scored 11 of his 24 points with less than 10 minutes left in the game.
When Indiana played zone, the defense remained too loose and allowed kick-out after kick-out.
When Indiana played man, no one could guard Taylor other than OG Anunoby.
Unfortunately, we found OG Anunoby on the bench during too many critical defensive possessions.
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This game was horrendous for Indiana, and the refs probably had an even worse game.
The refereeing was inconsistent and pedestrian. Some of the calls in this game were scary bad, including a crucial Thomas Bryant travel with a minute left in the game, but you can’t harp on them.
Indiana should not have even been in this situation to begin with.
In big games such as Michigan, Tom Crean is quick to pull the trigger and make adjustments. Against lesser opponents he is more reluctant and seems to just assume that his basketball team will figure it out. Tom Crean can’t afford to be reluctant to change when IU plays both #5 Iowa and #10 Michigan State next week.