Indiana men’s basketball traveled to the Bahamas knowing its toughest nonconference tests were this week. The No. 14 Hoosiers miserably failed their first test, losing 89-61 against Louisville in the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
This game was never going to be a walk in the park for IU (4-1). Louisville — in its first year under head coach Pat Kelsey — is severely better than the team that went 8-24 last year. But the Cardinals still entered the day unranked in just their fifth game with a squad made up of entirely new players, yet they looked multiple tiers better than IU on Wednesday.
IU was fortunate to trail by just eight points going into halftime. The halftime break could’ve served as a time for the team to regroup, hone in on its gameplan and beat the less talented Louisville team. Instead, Louisville came out on an 11-2 run to take a 17-point lead, and the Hoosiers showed no resistance throughout the second half.
“They came out at the very beginning, and they punched us, and we didn't respond, and it didn't get better throughout the ball game,” said Indiana head coach Mike Woodson. “And as a coach, I got to get this team more ready to go, and I'm talking about from beginning to end. … We just got to get a little tougher.”
Games of this nature have become common in Woodson’s time as Indiana’s coach. This is the third year in a row that Indiana has suffered a double-digit neutral court loss in the regular season. (Indiana suffered two losses of those losses in 2023-24.) The Hoosiers often lose concentration and fail to regain it to get themselves in ball games.
In past years, Indiana suffered these defeats against some of the best teams in the country. But this Louisville team doesn’t project to be that. Sure, the Cardinals may be better than preseason projections foreshadowed, but there’s not a world where they were supposed to beat Indiana this badly. Louisville led by 38 points at one point in the second half.
IU’s offense was a mess in this game, and its guards played a large factor in that. IU’s three primary ball-handlers — Myles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle and Trey Galloway — combined for three points on 1-of-15 shooting. Those three guards also combined for nine of IU’s 23 turnovers in this contest.
“I mean, you're not going to beat anybody that way,” Woodson said of the poor guard play. “And then you compound them with 23 turnovers … I mean, you're going to beat very many teams turning it over 23 times.”
After a year when Indiana didn’t get much from its backcourt, Woodson and his staff emphasized guard play by getting Rice and Carlyle from Washington State and Stanford, respectively. Games like this are when Indiana needs those guards to match up with opposing guards, but Indiana didn’t meet that challenge in the backcourt.
Indiana’s guards didn’t only struggle offensively, but they constantly got beat off the bounce and allowed Louisville to get a barrage of layups and open 3s. Although Indiana had the clear size advantage with Malik Reneau and Oumar Ballo in the paint, the Hoosiers were outscored 43-20 in the paint, largely because their guards couldn’t stay in front of Louisville’s.
“It was just a lack of focus towards the scout we had and not giving it our all when we was on the court,” said Reneau, who had a game-high 21 points.
In a season where the Big Ten likely won’t have many (if any) great teams, a strong showing in The Bahamas was necessary for IU. IU’s only power-conference opponent outside of this tournament was South Carolina, a 3-3 team that the Hoosiers beat 87-71 on Nov. 16.
IU won’t get many chances against top-notch opponents, and it just got steamrolled by one that might not make the NCAA tournament. Even after this loss, what the Hoosiers do in the loser’s bracket of the Battle 4 Atlantis looms large. IU will play the loser of West Virginia and No. 3 Gonzaga at 2:30 EST on Thursday. These next two days will be resume-defining.
Indiana must look within after being exposed against Louisville on Wednesday. For the security of Mike Woodson’s job and this team’s NCAA tournament hopes, Indiana must put an end to blowouts of this nature.
