Insider: Diagnosing IU's dismal trip to Maui
DENVER — Having traded the sunny shores of Ka'anapali for the snow-covered tarmacs of Colorado's capital, this morning feels an appropriate time to take a deeper look at the last week.
When Indiana departed Bloomington at 4:30 a.m. last Friday, it headed for Hawaii apparently poised to make a statement of national intentions. Seven days later, the Hoosiers limp home with a pair of losses against the kinds of teams against which Big Ten contenders do not lose.
So what happened? How did things go so wrong, and what does it mean for IU's season?
What follows is a mixture of stats and observations from IU's three-game set in Maui, trying to wrap arms around those questions.
TURNOVERS
No issue is more salient than this one.
Speaking after Wednesday's UNLV loss, IU coach Tom Crean said he and his staff would break down all six of Indiana's games, to try to "get a feel for some trends." None should announce itself more clearly than the fact that his team is turning the ball over at a higher rate than it has in either of the past two seasons.
Indiana's turnover percentage in three games in Maui went .189/.235/.288, the last number being the most alarming, obviously. When you turn the ball over on nearly 30 percent of possessions, nasty losses often follow.
What's so concerning about Indiana's turnover problem, though, is that it's hard to explain.
Two seasons ago, the Hoosiers turned the ball over on 21.8 percent of possessions, 330th nationally. The addition of ball-handling guards, plus a renewed ability to space the floor and move the ball smartly, helped that number tumble to 17.2 percent last season, best in Crean's tenure.
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Turnovers aren't the end of the world. Crean's best teams from 2011-13 hovered around 19 percent of possessions ending in turnovers.
But personnel has barely changed from a season ago. If anything, some of IU's biggest turnover producers from last season are gone, and the players who keyed the 2014-to-2015 improvement are still there.
The Hoosiers are playing faster, but not startlingly so. Crean is facing questions about slowing things down, and talking about trying too hard to make difficult passes, when simple ones will do.
We could dedicate an entire post just to turnovers (and I guess I kind of did), but I'm still not sure that would produce a clear-cut answer. They're a clear-cut problem though.
FREE-THROW SHOOTING
This is a twofold problem.
1) Indiana isn't getting to the free-throw line enough. Free throws attempted/field goals attempted is 30.7 right now, 284th nationally. The offseason rule changes regarding defense looked like they would benefit a downhill-attacking team like IU, but they haven't so far.
2) Indiana isn't shooting well from the free throw line, just 62.4 percent as a team. Over three games in Maui, the Hoosiers shot 63.1 percent from the line.
The Hoosiers should be better at both getting to the free-throw line, and converting free throws. Their 10-of-19 performance in the UNLV game was particularly damaging.
THE BIG THREE
Yogi Ferrell, James Blackmon Jr. and Troy Williams were the axis upon which Indiana pivoted last season. The Hoosiers' three leading scorers were their most consistent threats.
In Maui, all three struggled.
Blackmon scored 30 points in three games and committed four turnovers in each. Williams only broke double figures in scoring once, but committed a combined nine turnovers in IU's two losses. Ferrell had the best weekend of the three, and he only broke his scoring average once (22 points against St. John's).
Even on the Internet, there's not enough space to go into what all went wrong for IU's leading trio in Hawaii. But suffice it to say, all three come back from the island in poorer form than when they left.
MOMENTUM, AND BOSSING A GAME
Everything we've talked about to this point has been rooted in stats. But to the naked eye, one of IU's biggest problems in Hawaii encompassed all of the above.
In the Wake Forest loss, Indiana pushed its lead to nine points with 7 1/2 minutes left, then scored six more points the rest of the way.
When IU rallied from its early hole to tie UNLV at 46-apiece, the Hoosiers had momentum firmly in their grasp. Their next six possessions went: turnover, missed 3-pointer, turnover, turnover, missed layup, missed 3-pointer. They would go nearly four minutes without scoring after evening the game.
Even against St. John's, when Indiana appeared ready to pull away, a critical empty possession would allow the Red Storm back in.
Again, all of this ties into some of what we discussed above. Waste fewer possessions with turnovers, and you're more capable of staying on top of a game. Improve shot selection, and you can say the same. More consistency from your best players gets you there as well.
When the Hoosiers left for Maui, to turn an English phrase that translates well to basketball, they looked fit and firing. By the time they flew home, they just looked ill. There's no one reason for that startling transformation, and likely as not, no quick fix either.
But with Duke up next week — and a non-conference resume now sorely lacking in heft — Crean's own self-inspection needs to yield results.
Quickly.
Follow Star reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.