My Two Cents: Indiana's Goals Can't Be Reached Without Consistent Perimeter Shooting

Trey Galloway and Tamar Bates lit it up from three-point land on Wednesday night, helping the Hoosiers rack up 11 three-pointers in the win over Nebraska. It's their third double-digit game from deep this season, and it's the key to any long-term success for this team. It won't work otherwise.

Tom Brew | Dec 8, 2022

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Indiana Hoosiers

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — We've seen it, so we know it's real. Seen it several times so far this year, actually. It is possible that Indiana's basketball team can knock down perimeter shots at times.

Just not all the time.

We've gotten a good snapshot of the good and the bad in the past five days. The Hoosiers were brutal from the field in their first loss at Rutgers on Saturday, but then they were making everything — or so it seemed — in an impressive 81-65 Big Ten win over Nebraska on Wednesday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.

The Hoosiers hit 11 three-pointers on Wednesday night in the win over Nebraska. It was the third time in nine outings that they've hit 10 or more in a game. (Bethune-Cookman and Jackson State were the other two.) For comparison purposes, Indiana hit 10 or more threes only FOUR TIMES all of last season, in 35 games — and NEVER three times in any nine-game period.

It's games like Wednesday that validate just how dangerous this team can be. The naysayers in Hoosier Nation — and there are a lot of them — will want to argue that Nebraska isn't any good either, but tell that to No. 7 Creighton, a trendy Final Four pick that got beat at home by the Cornhuskers on Sunday.

In other words, I won't let the negative nellies out there take away from Wednesday's win, because there were a lot of great things that happened in that game.

Start with Trayce Jackson-Davis, of course, who had the third triple-double in Indiana basketball history vs. Nebraska. He had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists and did a terrific job of making good — and quick — decisions out of the incessant double teams.

It was a career night, in a lot of ways.

"He's skilled enough to do the things that he's doing on the floor, and the fact that he's been double- and triple-teamed, he's got to sacrifice the ball,'' Indiana coach Mike Woodson said after Wednesday's win. "There's nowhere to go with the ball but to get it out and try to find open shooters.

"Tonight we were really good in that area, and we made shots tonight. Life it pretty damn good when you can make shots when your best player is being double-teamed. We watched enough tape on Nebraska, and everybody is going to start playing more zones and double-teaming him. Hey, there's nothing you can do about that. You've just got to make sure that the spacing is correct, guys are cutting properly, and the ball has got to come out. It just can't stick. I thought tonight we got the ball moved around and guys had some good looks, and they knocked them down.''

Indiana guard Trey Galloway (32) shoots against Nebraska on Wednesday. He made 7-of-10 shots, including four three-pointers, and had a career-high 20 points. (Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports)

The No. 14-ranked Hoosiers are 8-1 now, and they've been mostly good on the offense end, scoring 77 points or more in all eight wins. The one loss, of course, was an offensive disaster at Rutgers, losing 63-48 in the lowest-scoring game in the Woodson era.

The Hoosiers ''couldn't hit the ocean,'' and only Miller Kopp played well, hitting five three-pointers. The rest of the team was 1-for-16 from deep. They missed a lot of mid-range and short shots, too. Jackson-Davis, doubled and tripled constantly, found open shooters — but they didn't hold up their end of the bargain.

The blame for the loss goes much more on shooters simply missing open shots than it does on the scheme itself. Woodson had to reiterate that once again on Wednesday night.

"We had nine wide-open shots in that (Rutgers) game, two missed lay-ups to go with those nine missed shots,'' Woodson said. "So there were good looks. We just didn't make them.''

Indiana made 11-of-25 three-pointers on Wednesday, and they did it with their two best perimeter shooters — forward Miller Kopp and point guard Xavier Johnson — not doing much at all from deep. Kopp, who leads the team 19 made threes, was just 1-for-5 from beyond the arc, and Johnson went 0-for-3. He's just 1-for-11 from deep in his last three games.

Junior Trey Galloway and sophomore Tamar Bates stepped up in a big way on Wednesday. Galloway made 4-of-6 three pointers and had a career-high 20 points. His previous high was 13, which he's done twice, including his very first game as a Hoosier back in 2020.

He also became the sixth different Hoosier to score 20 points or more this year, which says something about their potential firepower. Jackson-Davis has done it three times, Kopp, Bates, Johnson and Race Thompson have all done it once.

"The good thing is getting him back healthy, because he works,'' Woodson said of Galloway. "I have no problems with that kid. He works his butt off on the floor. In practice, he gives you effort. It spills over in the game. Tonight he was reckless. Defensively he was great, and he made shots, which was kind of nice to see.''

Indiana guard Tamar Bates (53) shoots the ball while Nebraska guard C.J. Wilcher (0) defends. )Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports)

Bates was 5-for-8 from three on Wednesday, and scored 19 points. He also made four threes in the Jackson State game, but was 0-for-3 from deep against Rutgers and just 1-for-7 from the field.

Those two making shots makes Indiana a completely different team.

"Just overall they did a great job,'' Jackson-Davis said of his teammates helping him get those 10 assists by making shots. "Just getting the ball and especially Miller, Scoop and Trey, hitting big shots after big shots and then Race and Scoop cutting to the basket, that was big, too.

"Overall I think it was just a great response from the Rutgers game. I thought we had a lot of movement that we didn't have in our last game. It was a way to respond, and yeah, that's that.''

It sure is.

Now the Hoosiers need to take that shooting touch on the road, something that they haven't been very good at for the most part the past several years. Indiana plays No. 10 Arizona on Saturday in Las Vegas, and they'll need at least eight threes to win that game.

The following week it's a trip to No. 6 Kansas, in a Phog Allen Fieldhouse environment that's about has tough as it gets.

We have seen Indiana make shots, and Kopp, Johnson, Galloway and Bates have all had some good shooting nights.

That needs to continue these next two Saturdays, and into the Big Ten season as well. I still think this Indiana team can beat anybody if they can just make perimeter shots.

We've seen it done several times already this year. Now they just need to keep it up.

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