The Indiana Hoosiers struggled down the stretch at Minnesota, surrendering an early lead and getting dominated on the boards in a surprising Big Ten opening loss to the Gophers. It wasn't the way the previously unbeaten Hoosiers wanted to start conference play.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Indiana will play 20 Big Ten basketball games over the course of the next three months, so making too big a deal out of just one game is a bit of a stretch. But make no bones about it, the Hoosiers' 73-64 loss at Minnesota on Wednesday was wildly disappointing.
No. 22-ranked Indiana had started the season so well under first-year coach Darian DeVries, winning its first seven games — albeit against a soft schedule. Minnesota, meanwhile, is the consensus worst team in the 18-team Big Ten. The Gophers have already lost four games — two by double digits to mid-majors San Francisco and Santa Clara — and have lost point guard Chansey Willis Jr. for the season.
But none of that seemed to matter on Wednesday night in the conference opener for both teams. Indiana blew an early 7-point lead, got outrebounded 40-25 and shot just 29 percent from three-point range. It was a complete recipe for disaster, with the exclamation point being the tough loss to the locker room while jubilant Gophers fans stormed the court after the win.
Sure, it was Indiana's first loss, but it was also very tough for the Hoosiers to swallow.
"I thought overall it was a little disappointing," Indiana coach Darian DeVries told reporters after the game. "I thought defensively we'd been pretty good all year, but I thought we just gave up a lot of clean opportunities for them tonight, some layups and some open threes.
"And then offensively we just kind of let their physicality bog us down a little bit, and we didn't get the type of quality shots we'd been getting and were accustomed to getting. ... We just weren't able to get it going again in that second half. They kept fighting, kept competing, but we came up short."
Indiana was just 8-for-27 from three-point range, just 29.6 percent on the night. They also were just 12-of-20 from the free throw line. Leading scorer Tucker DeVries scored only nine points, the second time in three games he's failed to reach double-digits. He was just 3-for-13 shooting, and was hounded by Minnesota defender Langston Reynolds all night.
Tayton Conerway led the Hoosiers with 18 points, and Lamar Wilkerson added 15, though he was just 5-for-14 from the field.
Minnesota's defense was physical and aggressive all night, and forced the Hoosiers out of their comfort level. Wilkerson had only one first-half basket and DeVries, who was averaging 17.9 points per game coming into the night, got very few open looks.
DeVries admitted that the Hoosiers did a poor job of adjusting to what Minnesota threw at them. on a night where they needed a Plan B offensively, they didn't have one.
"I think they did a good job being physical with Tucker and Lamar, making catches tough, making the opportunities for them to come off clean challenging," DeVries said. "Like I told the team, we have to do a better job as a staff of figuring out, OK, here's how we're going to get guarded from these two guys, and still be able to utilize everybody else by how they're guarding them, so that will create opportunities for those guys, but also find ways to get them free and get them open."
The Hoosiers led 29-22 with 4:02 left in the first half, but wouldn't score a field goal the rest of the half. It was tied 33-33 at the break.
Minnesota built an eight-point lead midway through the second half at 53-45, but the Hoosiers clawed back. When Wilkerson hit a three with 2:00 left — just his second of the game — Indiana was down by just three at 65-62.
That was their last made basket of the game. They missed their last five shots down the stretch, getting some good looks but unable to knock any of them down.
"We got to the rim, but we just didn't convert. There are just a lot of little things that matter in winning," DeVries said. "Free throw box outs and some things like that, making free throws, a lot of things that we've done really well for the most part this year.
"When you're in conference play, in games like that, those possessions are so golden, so you've got to value every little aspect of the game in basketball. There were a couple out of bounds plays where we missed some assignments. Those one, two, three baskets, they matter. That's something hopefully we'll really be able to take from this."
The Hoosiers' other December Big Ten game is Tuesday night against Penn State in Bloomington. There are also two massive nonconference games the next two Saturdays, taking on No. 6 Louisville this weekend in Indianapolis, and No 18 Kentucky on Dec. 13 in Lexington.
There are plenty of things to clean up for those three critical mid-month games. The Hoosiers, who have to play small based on their roster construction, were outrebounded 40-25 and gave up 10 offensive rebounds.
That's too many extra opportunities. It came back to haunt them Wednesday night, and could happen again. This one was tough, however, because it snapped the Hoosiers' nine-game winning streak over the Gophers, dating all the way back to Feb. 16, 2019, when Archie Miller was the IU coach.
The Hoosiers' 64 points were a season low, 25 points below their season average.
"They were being physical with us, and it was a tough loss,'' said Indiana forward Sam Alexis, who had 10 points off the bench. "We'll have to be better.''
Yes they do.