IOWA CITY, Iowa — Why did Indiana basketball’s winning streak end at five Saturday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena?
Starting point guard Miles Rice said his team’s 85-60 loss to Iowa was due to an “avalanche” of mistakes.
Trouble started right away, as the Hoosiers acted like they were allergic to basketball. They surrendered the lead on six of their first nine possessions, and sloppy play set the tone for the rest of the night.
Indiana University’s starters were largely responsible, accounting for 13 of the team’s 16 turnovers, matching the team’s season high against Eastern Illinois on Nov. 10.
“It’s in my head that I have to get that play back, and it’s kind of hard to do that and get back into the same flow.”
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January 11, 2025. Iowa City, Iowa, USA. Indiana Hoosiers guard Myles Rice (1) controls the ball with Iowa Hawkeyes guard Josh Dix (4) during the first half at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Required Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
Why Indiana Basketball’s loss to Iowa wasn’t due to effort
It wasn’t IU’s first slow start to the season, but coach Mike Woodson didn’t feel his team’s effort (or lack thereof) was the problem Saturday night.
He outlined three areas in which IU was lacking — “When you go into a game in the Big Ten, you can’t turn it over, you’ve got to rebound your opponent, and you’ve got to make shots” — and he spent a lot of time. In a short post-game press conference, he lamented the team’s sloppy play.
“I thought we got off to a slow start, but I thought the second unit came in and got us back on track,” Woodson said. “But if we just handed them the basketball and they got 17 points, we’re not going to beat a lot of teams in the Big Ten that do that.”
“I thought we played pretty solid in our half-court defense, but we allowed 26 points and they scored 43 points, 17 of which were off turnovers on our part. Like Iowa. If you’re a good team, that’s more than enough.”
Indiana University’s reserves helped the team get back from a 23-13 deficit midway through the first half. The Hoosiers briefly took the lead on a fast-break dunk by Bryson Tucker with 8:03 left in the first half, interrupting a 13-0 lead.
Iowa responded with a 16-0 run and never trailed after regaining the lead. Woodson tried to slow his team’s momentum with a timeout after IU committed three consecutive turnovers, but nothing worked for the Hoosiers.
Indiana University shot 40.7% from the field (32.4% in the second half) and made 4 of 16 3-pointers. The Hoosiers’ only 3-pointer of the second half came with 39 seconds left in the game.
The Hoosiers (37-31) went out for the first time since losing to Gonzaga.
“Our last road game was against Penn State and I thought we were competitive from start to finish,” Woodson said. “We looked totally different tonight and you don’t play games like that on the road. I mean, you always have to put yourself in position to have a chance to win a basketball game, and tonight we didn’t give ourselves a chance. I wasn’t given that.”
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January 11, 2025. Iowa City, Iowa, USA. Indiana Hoosiers guard Myles Rice (1) goes to the basket against Iowa Hawkeyes forward Seydou Traore (7) and forward Price Sandfort (24) during the first half at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Drive. Required Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
Indiana basketball hopes lose to Iowa as an outlier
Woodson was surprisingly calm during his postgame press conference as he actually explained his team’s struggles to reporters. It might have been different if Indiana had won five straight games, four of which were in the Big Ten.
“We’ve been playing good basketball,” Woodson said. “We can’t sit here and complain. Our last five games were very competitive against some teams, so we had to go back and regroup.”
Rice followed his coach’s lead.
“I don’t think we played like us tonight. For those five games, we played really good basketball and held on to it. I think we got a little bit out of ourselves tonight.”
Was this a bump in the road? Or is this the beginning of a negative spiral? In Indiana, you won’t have to wait long to determine which version is the real deal.
The Hoosiers’ loss to Iowa was the first of 11 straight games against Quad 1 opponents. Five of his opponents during this period are currently ranked in the top 25 in the USA TODAY sports coaches poll.
“We have to go back and regroup,” Woodson said. “The Big Ten isn’t going anywhere. We’ll be in Illinois soon. We have a few days to prepare and practice starts at 5 o’clock tomorrow.”
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for the Bloomington Herald Times. You can follow him at X @michaelniziolek Click here to read all of his articles.
This article originally appeared in the Herald Times What went wrong for IU basketball in loss to Iowa? It was an ‘avalanche’ of mistakes
