Indiana Basketball: Hoosiers turn in lackluster performance in loss

Indiana basketball struggled tremendously in their first game of the new year, losing 75-59 at Maryland in extremely embarrassing fashion.

The Hoosiers played a decent first eight minutes of the game, and after that it was anything but as Indiana basketball fell 75-59 to Maryland.

It became clear early on that attacking Maryland’s Jalen Smith was a priority for Archie Miller. Joey Brunk scored Indiana’s first four points of the game on two straight post ups, using a nice hook shot and smooth up and under to get by the defending Smith.

The Hoosiers held Maryland to 3-of-15 from the field before the under-12 media timeout. There were some loose balls which went Maryland’s way due to a lack of effort from the cream and crimson, but they played solid defense other than that up to that point. Things looked to be going fairly well for the Hoosiers.

However, things turned in the next few minutes. IU allowed Jalen Smith to get rolling a bit, letting him connect on two threes in rapid succession. Maryland took the lead and extended it from there.

The Terrapins went on an 11-0 run during a four-minute stretch before Archie Miller called timeout with 5:18 left in the first half. Indiana had missed seven of their last eight shots and looked lifeless on offense. They were unable to change this momentum before halftime and went to the locker room trailing 28-20.

Despite making the smart move to emphasize running the offense through the post, it didn’t provide abundant results in the first half. They shot a mere 28 percent from the floor and lacked aggressiveness. The ball movement was pretty good, but no one was willing to make an aggressive move and be a playmaker.

Indiana was able to slightly remedy their shortcomings in the beginning of the second half. They cut the Maryland lead to three with 14:18 left in the game, but it would soon get out of hand once again for the Hoosiers. Unforced turnovers, missed shots, and lazy basketball caused Indiana to stagnate and Maryland took advantage, growing the lead to 11 by the 12:22 mark.

With Indiana continuing to struggle on both ends for all the same reasons, and the deficit soon ballooned up to 30 by the 3:44 mark.

There weren’t a lot of bright spots for the Hoosiers in this game. Joey Brunk finished with nine points and 10 rebounds, but even he played poorly at times.

Trayce Jackson-Davis had issues scoring and turning the ball over, and finished with just seven points and five rebounds.

Devonte Green was basically a non-factor until garbage time minutes. He finished with 18 points, yet 13 of those points came with under 3:30 left in the second half. By that point, the game was long over.

This road performance from Indiana adds another ugly, unacceptable loss to an ever growing pile of the same kinds of humiliations.

Archie Miller needs to reorganize his squad and prepare to rebound versus a poor Northwestern team on Wednesday, January 8th.