The final five minutes of Indiana’s 82-78 loss to Wake Forest Monday night in the first game of the Maui Invitational was filled with less than stellar defense, poor shot selection, a key missed one-and-one free throw opportunity and a head-scratching final play coming out of a timeout.
Basically, this one turned out to be a debacle.
And with under 8 minutes to play, it looked as if Indiana had figured things out enough to advance to play Vanderbilt on Tuesday in the championship semifinals. A 9-0 run, capped by a Robert Johnson layup had given Indiana a 72-63 lead.
IU still led 75-67 after Thomas Bryant hit the second of two free throws with 4:50 remaining.
But that’s when Indiana’s defense went back into a slumber. Wake Forest scored on back-to-back drives to the basket then got a pair of rebound follow shots to fall. Two more drives by Bryant Crawford had Wake Forest on top with 3.2 seconds to play.
In between, Indiana looked bad on the offensive end. The Hoosiers settled time after time for shots.
It started with Yogi Ferrell, a normally adept free throw shooter, missing the front end of a one-and-one with 4:08 to play.
The next time down on offense James Blackmon Jr. missed a 3-pointer with 3:29 to play. After Yogi scored on a left-handed bank shot inside, the Hoosiers were back up by five.
After that it was back to questionable shooting. First, Ferrell misfired on a 3 from the right wing with 2:18 to play. I was just thinking to myself that Ferrell’s streak of consecutive games with a 3-point field goal was in jeopardy and then the senior guard put up that shot. It wasn’t close. It also wasn’t a good look.
Then Max Bielfeldt, with IU clinging to a one-point lead, launched a 3-pointer from the right corner that was an air ball.
IU’s next missed shot was a jumper by Yogi. It was a good enough shot, but it didn’t go down.
Troy Williams had a two shot free throw opportunity with 13.1 seconds to play and IU trailing by one. He missed the first and made the second.
Then after IU engaged in matador defense on the other end once again, IU called not one but two time outs back-to-back (its final two) with 3.2 seconds remaining. That’s when Collin Hartman launched a long pass into the middle of the court that was intercepted and the game basically ended there.
But how can that be your play after two timeouts and a slew of good 3-point shooters on your team? Why not a halfcourt pass to Yogi, Blackmon Jr. or Nick Zeisloft and let them take a few steps and get up a shot?
Why throw a Hail Mary right into the middle of the court?
That one mystified me.
Most Indiana basketball fans believed the Maui Invitational would at the very least give them a better idea of exactly what kind of team the Hoosiers will be in the 2015-16 season.
It was difficult to get a good read having facing Eastern Illinois, Austin Peay and Creighton.
It will still be difficult four days from now when the Hoosiers return to the Mainland.
That’s because the significance of that loss is that IU will now not have a chance to play in a measuring stick game against Vanderbilt, and likely won’t get to face UCLA or Kansas either. Instead, the Hoosiers will be in the loser’s bracket with a likely field of St. John’s. UNLV and Chaminade. IU will play St. John’s Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET.
The only thing Indiana fans can hope for now is that somehow UNLV is able to beat UCLA later tonight. At least then, Indiana would get to go up against a better foe. But that will be a long shot at best.
All in all, this was exactly the worst possible of scenarios for Indiana basketball when the Hoosiers went to Maui.
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now