Only drama in Duke’s rout of Indiana came during halftime
With Duke leading Indiana by 23 points late in the second half on Wednesday night, the Cameron Crazies hit the Hoosiers with a three-letter punch to the gut.
“N-I-T, N-I-T,” they chanted.
Worst of all for Indiana is that missing the NCAA tournament no longer seems all that far-fetched after the Hoosiers’ latest defensive meltdown. They shot 50.9 percent from the field, committed only nine turnovers and somehow, someway, still lost 94-74 to the Blue Devils.
Indiana allowed Duke to shoot 52.4 percent because of some familiar issues. When the Hoosiers were in man-to-man, they could not stay in front of the Blue Devils’ guards off the dribble. When the Hoosiers resorted to zone, they failed to close out on shooters spotted up behind the arc and they couldn’t keep Amile Jefferson and Brandon Ingram off the offensive glass.
The previously slumping Ingram found the Indiana defense to be a cure-all, scoring 18 points in the game’s first 14 minutes and finishing with 24 on an array of 3-pointers and driving layups. Matt Jones scored most of his 23 points on jump shots while Grayson Allen tallied 16 mostly on forays to the rim.
Indiana’s high-powered offense actually kept pace with Duke for long stretches of the game, but two dry spells cost the Hoosiers any chance of making it competitive. The Blue Devils opened a double-digit lead late in the first half and stretched it to 20 seven minutes into the second half, draining any drama from one of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge’s marquee games.
A road loss at Duke typically wouldn’t be all that worrisome for Indiana, but the pattern that has emerged is. The Hoosiers barely slipped into the NCAA tournament last season because they couldn’t stop anyone. Then in Maui last week, they were inept again on defense, sandwiching losses to UNLV and Wake Forest around a very unimpressive win over St. John’s.
Some will point to a lack of effort from Indiana at the defensive end, but that’s overlooking the personnel issues that are part of the problem. The Hoosiers struggle to prevent opponents from scoring at the rim or bludgeoning them on the offensive boards because they lack guards quick enough to stay in front of their opponents or big men capable of cleaning up the glass and altering shots in the paint.
Indiana’s leaky defense eliminated any suspense from the game, but there still was drama at halftime. When Indiana big man Max Bielfeldt appeared to accidentally bump Mike Krzyzewski on his way off the floor after the first half, the Duke coach initially took offense to it, leading to a nose-to-nose conversation with Tom Crean before they both left the floor.
Vid from @GameDayCharlie of WTVD as players exit the court for halftime. pic.twitter.com/0oqxZzrOmk
— Joe Ovies (@joeovies) December 3, 2015
Krzyzewski downplayed the situation in his postgame press conference Wednesday night.
K on the halftime bump: “Where I’m from, when you get hit, you do something. But I didn’t do anything about it.”
— Laura Keeley (@laurakeeley) December 3, 2015
More K on the halftime bump: “I didn’t even know what the hell happened, and then boom, I got hit.”
— Laura Keeley (@laurakeeley) December 3, 2015
For completeness on the K halftime bump, said he assumes it was an accident, wants to move on
— Laura Keeley (@laurakeeley) December 3, 2015
The bump will surely receive some postgame attention, but Indiana has far bigger concerns. Either they have to get better on defense, or the Cameron Crazies’ three-letter taunt may come true.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
