Indiana Basketball: Five Takeaways From The 2018-19 Season

1. Injuries

There is no question that injuries shouldn’t make or break a season, but in Indiana’s case, they played a major role.

Before games even got underway it was Jerome Hunter who got the injury bug, ultimately missing the entire season with a leg injury.

Hunter was a a four-star prospect ranked 59th in the country according to 247Sports Composite rankings. An athletic wing who could score in multiple ways, his shooting touch and versatility is what Indiana missed the most.

Moving into the season, Race Thompson, Devonte Green, Zach McRoberts, Jake Forrester, De’Ron Davis and Rob Phinisee all missed multiple games with different injuries.

Not only were all of those players expected to be in the rotation, but at least four of them were expected to be major contributors.

The injury that effected the team the most though, was the Phinisee concussion he suffered in late December. Sitting at 12-3 at the time he returned, he was never fully over the side effects until early-to-mid February, but at that point the Hoosiers had lost seven of eight games and were in the midst of losing 12 of 13 games.

Another important injury that most seem to just forget about is that of Zach McRoberts.

Though he is not someone who will light up the box score, he does all the little things in the game and just flat out makes winning plays.

When Indiana went through that losing streak the main thing they lacked was hustle, effort and intensity, something the McRoberts automatically brings every night.

Taking away a six man bench and having only two players available on a given night is not a recipe for success.