Hoosier Weaknesses Exploited in Loss to Cardinals

Well, that ended badly. While Hoosier fans can be proud of the effort that the Cream and Crimson displayed tonight against the Cardinals, this game certainly opened eyes to the glaring weaknesses this team has. Sure, no one in the country, outside of a few uber optimistic Indiana fans, expected the Hoosiers to win this game. While the final score of 94-74 was pretty lopsided, those who watched would likely agree that the game was much more competitive than that. That being said, fans need to worry about what IU doesn’t have; a quality big man, and a decent defense. Rick Pitino’s squad exposed Indiana’s weaknesses to a T. In a game that was billed as Indiana’s offense versus Louisville’s defense, Louisville’s defense stole the show forcing the Hoosiers to commit 19 turnovers, and turning most of those into points on the other end.

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Indiana did continue it’s three-point shooting brilliance to keep up with Montrezl Harrell and the Cardinals game that appeared to be living up to the hype in the first half. The ball movement was superb, shooting was lights out, and Hanner Mosquera-Perea came out to score 8 points in five minutes to pace the Hoosiers. And before you ask, yes, that Hanner. The Hoosiers were playing Louisville, the #4 team in the country, even Steven. The only blemish, the several minutes of sloppy play while Yogi Ferrell sat the bench caused the formation of a few more gray hairs, as Louisville gained a 15 point lead.

The Hoosier long-range bombers would not let up so easily however, as a barrage of Hoosier three-point shots whittled the Cardinal lead down to 5 by halftime.

Two minutes into the second half, and the Hoosiers took the lead. Then the wheels fell off. As feared, Louisville’s size and defensive pressure begin to wear down the Hoosiers. Hanner came back down to earth with a thud, the Cardinals’ defense forced turnovers like they’ve been doing all year, and Montrezl Harrell, well he was Montrezl Harrell. Only five of his 21 points tonight were not scored from dunks.

Harrell is the kind of guy you want on your side in a bar fight, and I say that in a good way. The young man has a bright future in the NBA. Not only is the talent there, he seems to have a toughness and tenacity about him that teams covet in a power forward. The best compliment I can give him is I wish he was a Hoosier.

A loss like this makes fans rant, rave, curse, and maybe even break a few things (been there, done that.) If you watched the game, you likely did plenty of that. Tonight was a solid dose of reality. While Indiana played a solid game, likely their best game of the season, they lost to a better team; a better team that exposed their weaknesses. This wasn’t a question of being out coached, or out hustled. This was an elite team beating a decent team with flaws. You saw tonight what Indiana lacks. A good coach with size exploited it. Is this a foreshadowing of what is to come during the Big Ten Season? Possibly…

Taking a look at the numbers, Indiana barely outshot the Cards 47% to 45% for the game, yet 19 turnovers, and 24 offensive rebounds allowed by the Hoosiers led to 17 more shot attempts for Louisville for the night. Were there missed block outs? Sure. We’re there some bad decisions? Yes, but Indiana isn’t going to suddenly get bigger. While we knew that going into the season, seeing that flaw get exploited like it was tonight really puts things in perspective.

Tonight, Indiana allowed three 20 point scorers. That can’t happen if they want to return to the tournament this year. Defensive awareness simply isn’t what it needs to be with this team. Perhaps it’s youth, but other young teams, namely, dare I say it, Kentucky, seem to play some of the best defense we’ve seen in years.

Indiana will get better as the season progresses. This team has all kinds of talent, and will continue to improve, but tonight you saw what an elite post player, and a strong rebounding team can do against the Hoosiers. Tom Crean’s job will be to find a way to keep it from happening again in the future, and try to improve on a defense that ranks near the bottom of the Big Ten. How successful he is with that project will ultimately determine this team’s fate.