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Indiana responded to a disappointing home loss to Purdue with their biggest win of the season on Thursday night. The Hoosiers, behind a solid defensive effort and balanced attack, knocked out the Iowa No. 4 81-69 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The victory, which provided a major boost in IT ranking, moved the Hoosiers to 9-6 overall and 4-4 in conference. Here are five takeaways from the victory over the Hawkeyes:
• Indiana ends country’s most powerful attack: Iowa’s offensive numbers entering Thursday’s game at Iowa City were staggering.
The Hawkeyes were in the top ten with 1,203 points per possession in the conference game. Their last five wins have come with an average margin of 15.4 points. Iowa finished second in the conference in field goal percentage at 56.8 and averaging 85.7 points per game.
But Indiana made Iowa ordinary in Thursday’s upset victory.
The Hawkeyes have scored just 1.01 points per possession, a season low. Iowa have made just 5 of 23 of their 3-point attempts, their second worst performance of the season in terms of marks and percentage (21.7). In the second half, Iowa went more than 11 minutes without a basket.
After closing in on overtime road losses to Florida State and Wisconsin, the Hoosiers finally broke through against an elite opponent away from Bloomington. In those losses, Indiana fell back late and missed opportunities to close winnable games. Thursday in Iowa City, Indiana did not give in once it took the lead in the final seven minutes.
• Phinisee, Durham shine and provide a secondary boost: Trayce Jackson-Davis consistency has been a mainstay for the Hoosiers this season. The second-year forward averages more than 20 points and nine rebounds per game in conference. In Indiana’s last six games, Jackson-Davis has scored 21 or more points five times.
What was lacking was consistency from Indiana’s upper class guards, Al Durham Jr. and Rob Phinisee.
In Thursday’s loss to Purdue, Phinisee and Durham combined for just eight points on 3 of 10 shots. In Iowa City, the duo took the opportunity to relieve some of the pressure on Jackson-Davis.
Phinisee delivered his best game of the season, finishing with 18 points, three assists, three rebounds, three steals and no turnover in 32 minutes. He largely outperformed Jordan Bohannon, who failed to score in more than 33 minutes.
Durham was only 2 of 6 off the pitch but was a bright spot on the free throw line where he knocked down nine of his 10 attempts. Durham had 14 points and like Phinisee, did not commit any turnover.
• Indiana seems to have cured its revenue problems: For the seventh consecutive game, Indiana had a turnover percentage of 17.4 or less.
To get a sense of how big an improvement is, the Hoosiers have had a 20.1 or more turnover percentage in four of their first six games this season against a big major competition.
In Thursday’s win over the Hawkeyes, Indiana posted eight season-low turnovers for an 11.7 turn-around percentage, its third lowest score of the season. IU’s ability to take care of the ball, coupled with a hot shot performance from the perimeter (8 of 17), put the Hoosiers through another bad night of free shooting (21 of 35).
Miller’s goal for his team in terms of revenue per game has been a moving target. Having started with a goal of 12 or fewer turnovers earlier in his tenure, he’s spoken of 10 or fewer per game to start this season. Most recently, Miller has proclaimed that he would like to see seven to eight or fewer turnovers per game. On Sunday, the Hoosiers hit the target and left Iowa City with their most important win of Miller’s tenure.
• Hawkeyes secondary scoring options fail: In our preview of Thursday’s game, one of the keys listed was Indiana in finding a way to slow down Joe Wieskamp or Jordan Bohannon:
The reality with Garza is that he’s going to fill out the stats sheet regardless of what the defense throws at him. His season low is 16 points and he already has six games of 30 points or more. Iowa becomes unstoppable when its side options like Bohannon and Wieskamp produce with Garza. The Hoosiers have had a lot of trouble stopping Bohannon over the years, but they’re going to have to find a way to slow him down or slow Wieskamp down to be successful.
As ESPN’s John Gasaway artfully pointed out this morning on TwitterIndiana’s work on Bohannon has shown what can be accomplished when one of Iowa’s side options is handcuffed offensively.
Garza still managed his season average with 28 points, but the Hoosiers gave him 22 field goal attempts and nine free throws to get there.
The key was to silence Bohannon, who got 0 for 9 on the pitch. In Iowa’s previous five games, Bohannon averaged 17 points and 4.4 made 3s.
• Could this victory change the trajectory of Miller’s tenure? In the aftermath of last Thursday’s loss to Purdue, it was fair to wonder if Indiana was going to be able to turn a corner this season, Archie Miller’s fourth at Bloomington.
A win doesn’t solve everything, nor does it change the fact that Indiana still has a lot of work to do to make it into the NCAA tournament this season, but beating one of the top five teams on the road is a major boon to the CV. IU.
Indiana jumped 15 spots in NET ratings this morning, a significant boost in a metric that weighs in March. It was Indiana’s first Quad 1 win of the season and immediately turned the conversation off of Purdue’s loss.
With a shaken schedule from Rutgers, who have lost five straight games, to Bloomington on Sunday, Indiana now has the opportunity to gain momentum as they enter the toughest part of their schedule.
Filed at: Aljami Durham, Archie Miller, Iowa Hawkeyes, Robert Phinisee, Trayce Jackson-Davis
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