Indiana Basketball: 5 takeaways from regular season

5. Hoosiers not sold on defensive identity

One of the major knocks on Archie Miller through two and a half seasons has been the lack of identity for his teams. None more than this season.

When the Hoosiers were struggling to score, the defense would usually take a hit. Coming from a coach who excelled on the defensive end while at Dayton, it was head-scratching to see why these rosters weren’t buying into his defensive scheme.

At times this season, we saw just how good Indiana could be defensively. Whether it was against Michigan State, Ohio State or Penn State, amongst others, the Hoosiers finally showed what they could look like when defending.

Unfortunately, they still have yet to buy-in.

With Indiana’s inefficiencies on the offensive end, it has been crucial at times to be able to get multiple stops in a row in order to keep the game within striking distance. Unable to do so, that’s how these seven-to-nine point deficits balloon into 15 points just like that.

Indiana has the athletes, the versatility and the skill to be a terrific defensive team and be able to cause fits for opposing players. It just needs to be done consistently and have all 13 players buy-in.