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In the first 20 minutes of Indiana's first game against St. Francis, Pennsylvania, the Hoosier echoed what some of the fans thought about the tournament: what's the point?
IU was banned from the NCAA tournament for two days and was playing without rookie star Romeo Langford, who had a back injury during the Big Ten tournament defeat against Ohio State on Thursday. The Hoosiers had a lot of play in the first half, but all of the prospects indicated a lack of energy, focus and discipline.
Indiana too often ignored his traditional 3 second offensive series early in the shot clock, and the return to defense was a common occurrence in the first half. The red flash scored 17 quick break points in the match, including 14 in the first period.
UI head coach Archie Miller said the first half continued the UI's defensive regression to close the regular season and the Big Ten tournament.
"I do not think we played very well on defense as a team here in this last game, maybe three, we kind of let down our guard," said Miller. way to regain that level of defense confidence, that level of tenacity in defense, that we sometimes managed in the second half, but we will need it from the jump of the ball to advance. "
At halftime, Miller said that it was inappropriate to repeat jokes that he had later joked during the press conference. But his message about the adjustments was clear: to increase Juwan Morgan's involvement.
In the first period, the senior scored seven points on a 3-on-6 line with three rebounds in 12 minutes. It was not his lowest production of half, but certainly not the level at which IU needed him next to Langford.
After intermission, the Hoosiers cautiously followed Miller's direction. Morgan opened the second period with a 10-second lay-up. His next bucket, another layup, gave Indiana his first lead of the second half at 43-42, at 17:46. This would be the last lead change of the game.
IU continued to feed Morgan, and Morgan continued to dominate. He made it clear that the Red Flash was ill-equipped to prevent it. He missed no goal in the second half, equalizing his seven attempts, and scored 21 points for a total of 28 points.
The head coach of Saint Francis, Rob Krimmel, hopes his great men will have learned something by playing against Morgan.
"(Morgan) knows how to play angles," Krimmel said. "You could say that he's well trained, you know, can play with his strength, but I think it's a good thing, though, to see for our players in the post. they can learn from someone like that.Also hard as it is in the moment, these are things as coaches, we can go back and say, hey, see how he did it.
Al Durham, who scored 22 points, did not hurt IU. He was one of the few Hoosiers players to have been productive and stuck in the first half (I would also throw Devonte Green in this category), and he improved his game in the second half, like the rest of the game. team.
But with or without Langford – who, Miller says, would not have played even though Indiana was playing an NCAA game on Tuesday and was staying day-to-day – IU would not be able to dominate a team in just half of the rest of the game. tournament. the way he did on Tuesday.
If the Hoosiers bring the same intensity and concentration as in the first game against Saint Francis in their next game against Arkansas, they may not be able to recover as quickly.
Filed under: 2019 National Invitational Tournament
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