Indiana Trampled, Dazed and Confused by Illini
By Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports
After an 85-60 loss on the road to the Iowa Hawkeyes Saturday Night the Indiana Hoosiers followed it up with an embarrassing home loss to the #21 Excel H Sports Ranked Illinois Fighting Illini 94-69 Tuesday Night at Simon Sjkodt Assembly Hall. Indiana has lost all five games by double digits and it’s the 27th time since Mike Woodson has been Indiana Head Coach the Hoosiers have lost by double digits in four seasons. The Hoosiers are 76-46 under Woodson with three winning season and two NCAA Tournament Appearances. The Hoosiers missed out on the NCAA Tournament a season ago and did not accept any other postseason tournament bids. 23 of the defeats have been by 15 points or more and when you see the same results over and over again it’s the way the losses happen than the amount wins the Hoosiers have had in Woodson tenure and for a team that was picked to finish second in the Big Ten Preseason Polls Indiana keeps showing a lot of lackluster performances throughout the season.
This trend hasn’t always been prevalent. During the 2021-22 season, Woodson’s first with the Hoosiers, only five of their 14 losses were by double digits, with four by 15 or more. But over the last two seasons, IU has had more losses by 15 or more (six in 2022-23, seven in 2023-24) than single-digit losses, and all five defeats so far this season are above that 15-point margin. Fans booed Woodson during pre-game introductions Tuesday Night and the Students started the “Fire Woodson Chant “during the first half as Illinois outscored the Hoosiers 60-32 in the first half. The fans booed the team heading into the locker room and started hitting the exits at halftime after seeing IU down 28 points at halftime which is the largest home deficit in the last 25 years.
The game started with three lead changes as the team traded baskets but once Illinois went up 7-6 with 17:54 left in the first half Illinois took control and never looked back. The Illini went 21-43 from the field for 48%, 8-19 from three-point range for 42% and 10-12 from the free throw line for 83%. Illinois outrebounded the Hoosiers 29-18 in the first half as the Fighting Illini had 10 offensive rebounds and Indiana had just 4 offensive rebounds. Freshman Kasparas Jakucionis and Sophomore Tomislav Ivisic combined for 34 first half point which is 2 more than the Hoosiers scored in the first half. Jakocionis who missed the last two games with a forearm injury scored 19 points on 6-10 shooting 3-6 from three-point range and 4-5 from the free throw line with 4 assists and 3 rebounds. Ivisic scored 15 points on 6-8 shooting and 3-5 from three-point range with along with 8 rebounds, 2 assists and a block. Illinois 60 first half points is the most in a road game in the last 25 years.
Indiana was 13-34 from the field for 38% in the first half. The Hoosiers were 0-6 from three-point range and 6-8 from the free throw line for 75%. The Hoosiers had 18 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 block and a steal. Oumar Ballo scored 10 points and had 5 rebounds. Ballo, Luke Goode and Myles Rice combined for 22 of the Hoosiers 32 first half points and no one else had more than 2 points in the first half. The Second half did not get any better for the Hoosiers trailed by 16 with 13:30 left in the game 64-48 and Illinois increased the lead to 30 points at 81-51 with 7 minutes left outscoring Indiana 27-3 in that stretch. Indiana missed 13 three pointers before Trey Galloway knocked down the first with 5:50 left in the game.
Indiana was out of control as tempers flared with 2:24 left when Luke Goode was called for a foul that led to some pushing and shoving and Myles Rice was called for a flagrant one foul and Oumar Ballo was ejected for his reaction and standing up for his teammate. Indiana outscored Illinois 37-34 in the second half but the first half deficit was too much to overcome. Luke Goode who played three seasons at Illinois before transferring to Indiana said he talked to the Illinois staff after the game (about the scuffle). Said he was only trying to give a hard block out, had no bad intentions.
Illinois had four players in double-figures with 22 points from Kylan Boswell along with 21 points from Kasparas Jakucionis. Tomislav Ivisic scored 17 points and 11 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season. Lafayette, Indiana Native Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn added 12 points off the bench. Tipton, Indiana Native and University of Evansville Transfer Ben Humrichouser scored 7 points and pulled down 5 rebounds and Jake Davis who played at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis did not score in 19 minutes as he had 2 rebounds, and an assist and Morez Johnson Jr. pulled down 10 rebounds to go with 5 points. Illinois finished the game 30-75 from the field for 40%, 11-32 from three-point range for 34% and 23-26 from the free throw line for 86%. The Fighting Illini pulled down 51 rebounds, dished out 14 assists, 5 steals, 1 block, 34 points in the paint, 22 bench points and committed 17 turnovers.
Oumar Ballo led Indiana with 16 points and 15 rebounds for his 5th double of the season and the fourth in the last five games. Luke Goode scored 13 points against his former team, Myles Rice added 12 points and Trey Galloway scored 10. The Hoosiers finished 25-65 from the field for 38%, 4-18 from three-point range for 22%, and 15-18 from the free throw line for 83%. The Hoosiers pulled down 37 rebounds, 14 assists, 3 steals, 1 block, 26 points in the paint, 14 bench points and committed 11 turnovers.
Illinois improves to 13-4 and 5-2 in the Big Ten as The Illini have beaten the Hoosiers for the second time in the last 10 meetings at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and hand the Hoosiers their first home loss of the season now 11-1 at home and 2-4 away from Bloomington. Indiana leads the all-time series 96-93 as Indiana is 58-32 against Illinois all-time in Bloomington. This was the most points that the Hoosiers have given up at home since 93 Points to Ohio State in 2009 and the second most points by an opponent since 2007 when Penn State scored 102 points in 3 overtimes. Indiana lost to Wisconsin 78-46 on February 25, 2010, when then Indiana head coach Tom Crean was ejected in that game.
This is the first time since the 2008-09 season that the Hoosiers have lost back-to-back games by 25 points. “We’re not playing tough enough, we’ve been coming out and teams’ kind of punk us, in a sense.” Luke Goode said after the game. Indiana Head Coach Mike Woodson was booed during pregame introductions and the boos continued during the game and he addressed that after the game. “Well again, I love our fans. I respect our fans. But it’s up to me to get our players to play at a high level. That’s my job, and I’m going to continue to work in that area and hope our fans will stay in there with us.” Indiana will travel to Ohio State on Friday as Hoosiers hope to turn things around with 13 regular season games left and the Hoosiers are facing adversity and still believe they can turn this thing around. “We got embarrassed. We know that. We have to represent this jersey better, to all the fans who were booing, being negative on social media, don’t switch sides. Stay with us” Luke Goode said after the game. Indiana 13-5 overall and 4-3 in the Big Ten as the Hoosiers are in free fall and the bottom fell out on Tuesday Night.
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