Who are the Indiana Hoosiers?
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On Saturday night, the Indiana Hoosiers five-game winning streak came to an end with an 85-60 loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The loss was a perfect summary of the Mike Woodson era. Outplayed, outcoached, and struggling to make three-pointers. During the winning streak for IU, they were shooting them more frequently and converting them. On Saturday, the Hoosiers went 4/16. For reference, Purdue just made 19 three-pointers in their 104-68 win over Nebraska yesterday.
Mackenzie Mgbako has now gone back-to-back games without making a three, Trey Galloway’s stat line was one assist and four turnovers, and they have struck out on two of the four transfers.
What Indiana used to be, is what Purdue is right now. Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, Trey Kaufman-Renn, and Caleb Furst are all former Indiana high school athletes that starting for Purdue. Furst has had multiple opportunities to transfer from Purdue but hasn’t because of the standard that has been set by Matt Painter.
Three of Indiana’s starters are transfers. In today’s college basketball that isn’t out of the ordinary, but do those players mesh? With Malik Reneau’s injury, Indiana’s offense has looked more traditional. However, Reneau will be returning at some point.
Indiana has the talent to be a consistent competitive basketball team, but it simply hasn’t been displayed yet. Myles Rice, Oumar Ballo, Mackenzie Mgbako, Malik Reneau, Bryson Tucker, Malik Reneau, Trey Galloway, and Luke Goode are all good players. Even thought Indiana has all the right ingredients, it appears they don’t have the right chef making the meal.
The Hoosiers will have multiple opportunities going forward to prove the doubters wrong. Tomorrow they host Illinois and they still have Purdue, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Oregon on their schedule to pick up some resume wins.
To listen to Jake Query and Jimmy Cook’s thoughts on IU basketball and their conversation with Don Fischer, download the podcast containing the conversation below! You can always listen to the Query & Company from 12pm-3pm on 93.5/107.5 The Fan. You can also watch and interact with the show by going to the 107.5 The Fan YouTube Channel.
