Indiana Basketball: 3 takeaways vs Ohio State

Offensive Struggles Are Concerning

They say, “Offense wins games, but defense wins championships.”

That statement fails to control for the potential factor that a team like Indiana can’t score under nearly any circumstances. When your offense plays as poorly as Indiana’s, it’s hard to win much of anything.

The Hoosiers wasted one of their better outside shooting performances (58 percent from three) on a game where nothing else clicked offensively. The box score numbers don’t look exceedingly grotesque, but nearly every offensive possession was painful to watch. Whenever a bit of momentum would get ramped up, the Hoosiers would immediately choke it out by making unforced errors. Missed layups and poor passes were plentiful in this game.

Archie Miller said in his postgame press conference that he would need to make some changes to the offense in order to start seeing some results. The current lackluster results are due to several factors.

Archie Miller’s offense is predictable and easy to stop, and it doesn’t use the strengths of his players.

I’ve grown to love Joey Brunk because of his effort and leadership, but I’m not convinced that he needs post touches as frequently as he gets them. While some good does come from it, if Joey Brunk leads your team in shots taken for a game, it doesn’t give me a great deal of confidence for the outcome. He is often forced to begin backing his man down from 10-15 feet, draining seconds from the shot clock before getting to the low post, where he can actually do something.

The same could be said for Trayce Jackson-Davis. At this point, Jackson-Davis doesn’t have a reliable low post repertoire. He should score the vast majority of his points off of high post touches and pick and rolls, where his superior speed and quickness at his size gives him an advantage. A faceup at 15 feet will oftentimes result in him torching his man with a rip through and getting to the basket. Catching the ball after rolling to the rim allows him to use his momentum to propel his massive frame at anyone unfortunate to be standing underneath the rim.

However, in the offense’s current state, Jackson-Davis is almost never put in a position to use these skills. His physical gifts are neutralized in the low post, where he is forced to rely on finesse more than power and speed.

As for the backcourt, they’re not the most talented players on the team, but they are capable. Their lack of aggressiveness makes for few opportunities for both themselves and the big men. Driving with the intention to score is scarce. Watching the Auburn vs. Kentucky game later that day reminded me of what an aggressive backcourt looks like, and made me realize how far away Indiana is from that kind of success.

In order to remedy this huge issue, it has to be equal parts coaches and players. Archie Miller has done a poor job of constructing an offensive system that utilizes his player’s strengths over the last two years. We saw it last year with Romeo Langford, and we are seeing it again this year.

But the players also need to do a better job of working to get a good shot. They have as much effort and chemistry on offense as a pickup team. There’s no element of team basketball. Indiana ranks 173rd in the country in assists. The Hoosiers all play pretty good defense, but when your whole roster is at the very best above average on offense, then there is no way to succeed on offense without playing team basketball.