Todd’s Take: Indiana Shows Fans There’s Still Reason To Believe
On Friday, I wrote a column asking Indiana fans what they wanted from the rest of the season.
Given how out-sized negativity can be around Indiana men’s basketball – especially when things aren’t going well – I wondered what the response might be. Given the vitriolic comments we sometimes get on social media from some of our most innocuous stories, I wasn’t confident the response from Indiana fans would be entirely positive.
However, to my pleasant surprise, most fans (many of whom are likely part of the silent majority who don’t make a habit of complaining about every little thing on social media) still want the Hoosiers to salvage something from this season.
Coming into Sunday’s game against Purdue, Indiana was 15-11 and 6-9 in the Big Ten. Definitely not a strong position from which to launch a last-gasp NCAA Tournament bid, but given how weak the NCAA Tournament bubble is, not a lost cause either.
It was good to know that the fans want the best for the Hoosiers, that the resignation hasn’t set in so much that people want to throw in the towel.
The more germane question as far as whether Indiana could actually pull themselves out of the fire was whether they believed they could do it, and more importantly, whether they could put together a sustained period of good execution to make it happen. No. 13 Purdue was going to be the biggest test the Hoosiers had left to prove whether they could or couldn’t.
By halftime, it looked like the same old Hoosiers. Indiana started well and took a 17-11 lead, but prosperity and the Hoosiers are two great tastes that don’t seem to taste great together. The Hoosiers seemed to rest on their laurels, allowing the Boilermakers to use a 17-4 run to take a 37-25 halftime lead.
Students in my neck of the woods at Assembly Hall booed loudly. It seemed Indiana was headed to a fifth Big Ten home loss. The narrative seemed the same from the season’s other disappointments. It was the same old, same old.
I’ll be honest, I had given up on the Hoosiers in my own mind. I began to mentally prepare to write a column criticizing how Indiana continually failed to protect its own house in the Mike Woodson era. I’d seen this movie before, and there had been little evidence over the course of the season to suggest that the plot was going to change.
Luckily, the players felt differently. Down 12 and with little to give Indiana fans to believe in at that point, the Hoosiers got started on rebuilding the faith.
It started innocently – a Myles Rice second-chance 3-pointer on Indiana’s first possession. Purdue’s first offensive possession is where the die was cast.
Purdue point guard Braden Smith – the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year – made a bad pass that was stolen by Anthony Leal. He fed Trey Galloway for a fast break bucket, and the Purdue lead was down to seven with less than a minute elapsed.
In Assembly Hall, Indiana fans recognized the moment and began to get loud. That alone shouldn’t have made the Boilermakers wilt, and sure enough, it wasn’t just the re-energized crowd that knocked Purdue on its heels.
Rice guarded Smith up the floor after Indiana possessions. He was in his beard.
Rice made Smith fight for every inch up the court. It was a huge distraction to the junior guard as turnovers began to come in waves. Smith had five of his six turnovers in the second half – four of them in the first 10 minutes of that half.
“I think it really all started with Myles and his ball pressure. Obviously, Braden (Smith), when he’s comfortable, he’s one of the best in the country. So you’ve got to make it tough on him, and we really did a great job of that by setting the tone in the second half,” Galloway said.
Even when Rice didn’t force a turnover, he slowed Smith down. Purdue could not effectively run its half-court defense, and the Boilermakers melted down.
Indiana would go on to score a whopping 17 points off turnovers in the second half. Combine that with Purdue’s 1 of 10 start from the field in the second half? The result is a 28-3 Indiana run – a decisive blow that flipped the script on the game, and perhaps, Indiana’s season.
“When we got down and we were at halftime, it was the same thing. Just go out there and put your all out on the floor and let’s see the results, and it came out our way. So congrats to my teammates and me,” Indiana forward Malik Reneau said.
Better still, Indiana didn’t let up. After that supernatural surge to start the second half, and Indiana inevitably slowed down a bit, there was a nervous vibe inside Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers have squandered advantageous positions before. Could they do it again?
The Hoosiers answered that question the right way. Purdue twice got the deficit down to 10, but could make no further headway. Indiana finished a dominant half and got a much-needed Quad 1 victory.
Indiana has had fight in other games this season – including the five-point loss at Purdue on Jan. 31 – but the Hoosiers were missing something in crossing the finish line with a victory.
Indiana proved to its fans that it can control a game and that it isn’t always going to get in its own way when the chips are down.
“I really like how we responded in the second half because that’s what we’ve been doing all year is just fighting. We’ve been in these games and we’ve been in big-time games where we haven’t closed them out,” Galloway said.
“But we’ve continued to keep fighting and that’s all you can ask for, and it’s going to pay off. Just got to keep the momentum and keep moving forward,” Galloway added.
It’s one game, one very important game that will help Indiana’s resume, but still one game. Indiana can’t squander the good it achieved on Sunday with a home loss to Penn State on Wednesday.
That’s a mission for another day. For now, Indiana can enjoy the spoils of a victory that they always thought was in them. An effort that demonstrated that they haven’t given up on their goals, no matter how long the odds might be to reach them.
Now the fans have even more cause to believe in the Hoosiers a little bit, too.
