NASSAU, Bahamas – When Indiana basketball trailed by more than 30 points against Louisville to open the Battle 4 Atlantis on Wednesday, head coach Mike Woodson stood, arms on his hips, before taking a seat on the bench for the remainder of the game . Meanwhile, Louisville first-year head coach Pat Kelsey continued to bark orders and instructions to his team.

In an 89-61 game whose final score grossly underestimated the actual outcome, Woodson’s Hoosiers looked hopelessly unprepared and unable to make crucial adjustments. With two games left to play in the next two days, this raises concerns about how competitive Indiana will be in completing the neutral-site tournament.

“It was beyond any plans,” Woodson said after the game. “As a coach, I need to do a better job of preparing this team to start, and I’m talking from start to finish.”

Louisville opted to start smaller and more peripheral than usual – although Kelsey later admitted that starting big man James Scott didn’t start because he was late to shootaround – and Woodson stuck with his usual two-man lineup. When Oumar Ballo was tagged out by Chucky Hepburn, leading to a layup on the first possession of the game, it was a bad omen of what was to come.

Hepburn and Louisville’s guards had chained Indiana’s backcourt, and the Hoosiers’ size was the only offensive factor keeping them alive. Despite the size advantage, Indiana still struggled to keep up with the Cardinals, even in areas where its only advantage should have been evident. For example, Louisville pulled ahead early against the Hoosiers with four offensive rebounds on one possession.

It was clear early on that Kelsey and the Cardinals had a plan of attack on how to shut down the Hoosiers: create space on the field, get out in transition and control the tempo of the game. Defensively, Indiana should be prevented from gaining transition momentum.

“We just thought our advantage was that we had space on the field, we could play with a lot of pace and we could create offense that way,” Kelsey said. “You know, every team is going to play to their strengths.”

On the contrary, Woodson and the Hoosiers tried to play to their strengths and relied on the post offense. But even when it became clear that adjustments were needed to compete with Louisville, the approach didn’t change.

Despite looking outmatched and being outplayed in almost every area of ​​the game, Indiana still managed to go into halftime only trailing by 8 points. Woodson had a chance at halftime to regroup and figure out how to keep up with Louisville or slow them down. Spoiler alert: It didn’t happen.

The Hoosiers scored first to open the half, but in no time an 11-0 Louisville run ended the game. One run after another and it became too late for Indiana to stop the bleeding. With seven minutes left, the biggest concern was not to lose by 40+ and embarrass yourself on national television.

Indiana’s four-guard rotation resulted in a score of 0 for 18 with eight turnovers before a 3-pointer from Myles Rice bounced generously off the rim and into the goal. Outside of Ballo and Malik Reneau, the Hoosiers shot 9 for 43 from the field. The team went 4-for-19 on layups and finished with more turnovers (23) than field goals (21). Whatever you decided on the Indiana statistic, it was so pathetic it didn’t even seem possible.

And through it all, Woodson’s only response was that the team “didn’t play Indiana basketball” and needs to learn from its mistakes and prepare for tomorrow. While he at least took responsibility for the result and was aware of his responsibility to prevent another similar performance, he had no explanation for how the team was overwhelmed, outwitted and outplayed.

Even Reneau — who was the Hoosiers’ lone bright spot with 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists — could only cite a lack of execution.

“We had a great scout going into the game,” Reneau said. “We just didn’t execute Coach Woodson’s game plan, especially on defense. It was just because we didn’t focus on the scout we had and we didn’t give it our all on the field.”

Wednesday’s result marks four consecutive dubs of more than 20 points in Woodson’s last four losses in a neutral site game. When the lights were brightest in a square setting — even though there was a clear majority of Hoosier fans in Atlantis — the Hoosiers didn’t show up in any way.

With No. 3 loser Gonzaga and 3-1 West Virginia up next, Indiana has some serious evaluation to do. One game won’t define this team’s season and the direction it goes, but that will only happen if some adjustments are made. And based on Wednesday afternoon, when it became clear that adjustments were needed, there’s no guarantee what will happen next.

(Image credit: IU Athletics)

Submitted to: Louisville Cardinals