My Two Cents: Tough Schedule Accelerates Learning Curve for Indiana

The cupcakes were taken away from Indiana's nonconference schedule, but all the meat and potatoes remained. It was more than enough to have them well prepared for a brutal Big Ten schedule that starts Wednesday.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Well, that was fast.

Indiana's nonconference basketball schedule is already over. Just seven games was all it was, a condensed list because of the late start this season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That was the bad news, but at least there were two good things to come out of it. First, the Hoosiers got all seven games in, which is an accomplishment in itself, and they also learned a lot thanks to the toughness of the 25-day gauntlet

''I think we have the information we need, and we've got to keep getting better,'' Indiana coach Archie Miller said. ''We got to keep getting more guys involved in the game. It's been tough because I think early on, we were playing some really high-level, intense games against good teams and we aren't able to just massage guys in and out.

''But I'm here to tell you, I just don't know how we'll go through a Big Ten season without everybody on our team being able to contribute every game.''

That's saying a lot, especially since Indiana basically has a 10-man roster. Two scholarships have gone unused for the second straight year and starting center Joey Brunk still hasn't played because of a back injury. Freshmen Anthony Leal and Jordan Geronimo didn't play at all in Indiana's 68-60 win over Butler on Saturday, and young freshman point guard Khristian Lander only played two minutes.

Seven-man rosters don't usually survive the brutality of the physical Big Ten schedule. And that means these freshmen are going to have to make contributions. It's called learning on the fly. 

Indiana has learned a lot through seven games, with impressive wins over Providence, Stanford and Butler, expected wins over Tennessee Tech and North Alabama and two losses to No. 11 Texas and No. 15 Florida State.

Here's what we've learned about the Hoosiers so far. 

Learning about toughness

Indiana took a punch in the mouth in that Texas loss, and didn't really have a response. The result was a 22-point beatdown that was really the only ugly game all season. The response didn't come until a day later, when pride was on the line and they responded with an impressive victory over Stanford.

What this team had to learn was overcoming adversity DURING a game. We saw that Saturday in the win over Butler. The Hoosiers were getting pushed around inside – ''manhandled'' was Miller's word – but they answered with a punch of their own. They got after it on the boards and on the defensive end, and in a long 18-minute stretch, Indiana outscored them 38-14.

That's domination – and that's an in-game response.

"To start the game, we weren't ready for the physicality. They were a much tougher team than us in the first half,'' Miller said of Butler. ''We just had to really come together at halftime. There wasn't a whole lot of X's and O's, but it's one of those things where you have to find a way to dig yourself out of it. I thought we challenged ourselves and I thought our guys really were disappointed in the way that we played, and I thought in the second half we came out with a much better approach. Our attitude was much different. It started on the defensive end.

''We were able to get stops throughout the course of the game. That helped us get some easy ones. And thought in general Race Thompson answered the bell in the second half and gave us another presence inside and around the basket along with Trayce (Jackson-Davis). That was important.''

Winning with defense

The Hoosiers have been much better on the defensive end so far this season, and they really got after during that cold stretch for Butler, where they shot just 5-for-27, a mere 18 percent. 

That's how Indiana is going to win games in the Big Ten.

''They were able to post one-on-one, and they took advantage of our lack of help and our lack of physicality,'' Miller said of Butler's first-half domination. "They were able to do what they wanted, move where they wanted. They rebounded the ball physically. We couldn't post the ball. We couldn't get it inside. At the end of the day that's why the game felt funny for us.

"I thought we changed that in the second half. We were able to do a much better job of being tougher inside, and we also did a much better job of giving correct help when we needed to. The bottom line is they didn't shoot any uncontested lay-ups in the second half. In the first half, they shot a lot of uncontested lay-ups. We made a lot of hard plays, and guys were coming up with loose balls. I thought very early in the first four minutes of the second half, we got our confidence going because we were able to get some stops.

Erasing their mistakes

One thing that was most impressive about this team was answering the bell against pressure after that bad loss to Texas. A week later, when Florida State played that same pressure defense but only with even-longer guys, Indiana handled it well. 

They lost in overtime to Florida State, but they would have won that game if they had just been able to get a rebound in the closing minutes. And Florida State is damn good.

They learned from the Texas loss and responded. And they've learned about team rebounding since then. Without Joey Brunk, it's hurt the most on the boards. We still have no idea when – or even IF now – Brunk will return. So until then, the Hoosiers need to find a way to not get dominated on the boards, and limit their turnovers.

''We have to rebound the ball by committee and we have to do a much better job of it,'' Miller said. ''We're going to have to do a great job of not giving up easy baskets inside. We have to do a better job of continuing to be creative there. And I think on offense, it's our turnovers. We continue to have five or six plays right now in our last two or three games that lead to turnovers. We can't play with 15 turnovers and win in our league.

"We've got to do a better job of executing, a better job of taking care of it. But all in all we're as battle tested as probably any team in league in terms of understanding what it's going to take for us to be successful.

Attacking first quarter of schedule

And now comes the Big Ten schedule, 20 games in 67 days in the best and toughest league in the country.

It starts Wednesday with a home game against Northwestern. Coaches like to break seasons into quarters, and so do I. Here's Indiana's first quarter in the Big Ten:

• Dec. 23 – Northwestern at Indiana
• Dec. 26 – Indiana at Illinois
• Dec. 30 – Penn State at Indiana
• Jan. 4 – Maryland at Indiana
• Jan. 7 – Indiana at Wisconsin

The Big Ten is really good this year. Two teams (Iowa and Michigan State) are in the top-five of the Associated Press poll this week. Four others (Wisconsin, Illinois, Rutgers and Ohio State) are in the top-20 and Michigan is No. 25. That's half the league right there.

Indiana and Minnesota are receiving votes, too. There are no nights off, in other words. 

Miller has faith that Indiana's defense will show up every night, but they are going to have to be more efficient on offense. 

''The more we can stop our team from taking tough challenged two-point shots where we land on the ground, and the more we can spray the ball and move it and share it, the better our team is going to be.'' Miller said. "You're going to see  we have guys that are going to be able to step up and make more shots.

"I'm happy with our team. We've just got to keep getting better. We have a coachable group. They're in it for the right reasons. We've worked hard. We haven't had Joe all nonconference and guys have stepped up, and we're going to need more guys to continue to step up and develop.''

That means the freshmen will need to make an impact. They've been relatively quiet so far, but this team can't win long-term without them.

''I keep telling these guys as we keep going that we are going to need them. As you guys know, we play in the fiercest league in college basketball this year. It's going to start up very quickly, and the mental challenge it's going to take to get through it is real 

"There's no real time off, and it's something that we're going to have to be ready for.''

This first quarter is critical, because it includes three home games against teams in the bottom third of the pecking order. Indiana has to win all three of those games for it to be a successful quarter. And stealing one of those road games would be nice, too. Unlikely, but nice.

Bring on the gauntlet.

Related stories on Indiana basketball

• SECOND HALF SURGE LEADS INDIANA: The Hoosiers clamped down on defense in the second half and pulled away from Butler to win 68-60 in the Crossroads Classic in Indianapolis. CLICK HERE
• SACRIFICES MATTER: Indiana's players are doing everything right to be able to play every game this season, with early morning testing and not leaving their apartments other than to practice and play. It's worth it, they say. CLICK HERE
• INDIANA SCHEDULE: Here is Indiana's complete schedule, including links to all the game stories this far, plus Tom Brew columns. CLICK HERE