Indiana trailed by as many as 38 points in an ugly 89-61 loss to Louisville on Wednesday in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Here are five takeaways from the loss to the Cardinals:
Indiana was unprepared and uninspired
It didn’t take long into Wednesday’s game to realize which team was better prepared and ready to compete. Louisville led wire-to-wire in its blowout victory against the Hoosiers. After leading by 10 on two occasions in the first half, the Cardinals blew the game open to start the second half. Once Louisville threw multiple punches early in the second half, Indiana laid down.
Pat Kelsey’s team was sharper in its execution and was the aggressor from the opening tip. Indiana, meanwhile, looked like a team that believed it could just show up and win with its talent.
As the Cardinals pressured the ball and made Indiana’s guards uncomfortable, turnovers began to pile up.
As Louisville got comfortable from the perimeter with its 3-point shooting, the Hoosiers had no answer and no counter punch to the spacing and movement by Kelsey’s team.
Indiana’s performance in its first real test of the season was a nightmare. The Hoosiers were 4-0 to start the regular season. But they had yet to venture out of Bloomington and had played light competition. Against Louisville, the competition went up a notch and Indiana looked unprepared and uninspired.
Indiana’s guards failed to show up
Indiana’s revamped backcourt was viewed as a strength in the preseason. On Wednesday, the Hoosiers got very little from the trio of Myles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle and Trey Galloway.
Rice was the only one of the three who scored. He finished with just three points on 1-for-11 shooting.
Carlyle played only 14 minutes, took just two shots and committed four turnovers.
And Galloway also missed his only two shot attempts, committing two turnovers in 20 minutes.
The trio combined to shoot 1-for-15 and had nine turnovers in 59 minutes. The poor guard play was a major reason Indiana was not competitive in Wednesday’s loss.
The Hoosiers committed 23 turnovers
It was no secret that Louisville thrives on ball pressure and forcing turnovers entering the game.
Indiana, however, was incapable of handling the pressure. The Hoosiers turned it over 23 times for a turnover percentage of 31.9.
It tied the second-highest turnover percentage for the program in a game under Woodson, who is in his fourth season in Bloomington.
The IU guards, most notably Rice, never looked comfortable against Chucky Hepburn, who had seven steals.
Because of the pressure, the Hoosiers never established any offensive rhythm and could not get the ball where it needed to go. Long scoring droughts and wasted possessions were a staple of the second half when Louisville built its 38-point lead.
Louisville shot 71.1 percent on 2s
The prevailing thought entering the game was that Louisville needed to make a high number of 3-pointers to beat Indiana.
The Cardinals hit 10 triples and shot 37 percent from deep. But that wasn’t the difference in the game.
Louisville got whatever it wanted in the paint, as Indiana’s defense offered little resistance. The Cardinals shot 27-for-38 on 2s (71.1 percent) in their win.
It was the first time in five games that an opponent made more than 47 percent of its 2s against Indiana.
Despite being undersized compared to Indiana in the frontcourt, Louisville shot 21-for-32 at the rim.
This was another embarrassing performance in a marquee game for IU basketball
Indiana’s performances against marquee opponents in non-conference play have been underwhelming.
Last season, Indiana lost by 20 to UConn in New York, by 28 to Auburn in Atlanta and by four at home to Kansas. The only major conference opponent IU beat last season was Louisville, which finished the season ranked 185th in KenPom.
In Woodson’s second season, the Hoosiers lost by 22 at Kansas and by 14 to Arizona in Las Vegas. IU did beat Xavier by two on the road and North Carolina by 12 at home in the 2022-23 season.
And in Woodson’s first season, Indiana only played three high-major teams in the non-conference. The Hoosiers lost to Syracuse on the road and beat St. John’s at home and Notre Dame in Indianapolis.
Overall, when the Hoosiers have played elite competition in non-conference play under Woodson, the results have been middling. Wednesday’s loss was just the latest example.
(Photo credit: IU Athletics)
Filed to: Kanaan Carlyle, Louisville Cardinals, Myles Rice, Trey Galloway
