BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA - JANUARY 25: Brandon Johns Jr #23 and Ignas Brazdeikis #13 of the Michigan Wolverines defend the shot of Justin Smith #3 of the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall on January 25, 2019 in Bloomington, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Indiana Basketball: Lack of Bench Production for the Hoosiers by Jonathan Rothschild

In what appears to be a broken record, The Indiana Hoosiers started slow and conceded 17 unanswered points to open the game.

The Assembly Hall crowd roared satirically when guard Al Durham was fouled and converted both free throws to put the Hoosiers on the board more than seven minutes into the game. The game was unfortunately over from the get-go.

Despite the tough first 10 minutes, the Hoosiers outplayed the Wolverines to end the first half and bring their deficit down to 15.

In the first half, Ignas Brazdeikis led Michigan with 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting.

The Hoosiers went on a 11-5 run to start the second half and closed the gap to 10 but that was the closest they came in the 23 point loss.

The Hoosiers looked stiff which is a side effect of the now six game losing streak.

As Coach Archie Miller stated in his press conference

“Right now we’re an entire group that does not have the confidence. It’s not one guy. It’s our team. Our team doesn’t have confidence right now…our team in general right now is soft, and we’re also for whatever reason right now scared, and you can just tell by the way that we played.”

46 points were scored by the Hoosiers tonight.

This total is the lowest recorded at Assembly Hall since February 25 in 2010 against the Wisconsin Badgers; a game in which Indiana scored 45 points. The only difference is that in 2010, the team was on severe probation and only allotted 9 scholarship players. That forced Tom Crean to scrap together a team as compared to where the team is now with a top 10 player in the country as well as a potential NBA draft pick in Juwan Morgan on their roster. This is also the first time since the 2010-2011 season that the team has lost six straight games.

Looking back on November 14 of this season, Indiana recorded a 23 point win over No. 12 Marquette in a game that Indiana scored 96 points. If you told any fan that night the Hoosiers would be on a 6 game losing streak and lose by 23 to Michigan at Assembly Hall in a January game, they would likely laugh at you.

Tonight Indiana shot at a 27.6 percent clip on 16-for-58 shooting. They repeated their recent woes from beyond the arc and at the stripe as well.

From behind the arc, the team shot a putrid 3-for-20. This brings them down to 25.3 percent shooting from beyond the arc in Big Ten play. From the stripe, Indiana went 11-for-20.

The only Hoosier in double digits was Juwan Morgan who earned a double-double finishing with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Romeo Langford had another tough game recording nine points on 3-for-12 shooting.

Ignas Brazdeikis led the Wolverines with 20 points on 8-for-12 shooting.

Zavier Simpson added 12, Jon Teske contributed with 11 and Charles Matthews finished with 10.

This was the largest margin of victory in Bloomington for the Michigan Wolverines in school history.

Coach Archie Miller is looking to move on from this loss quickly stating

“For us right now, it’s our next opportunity. That’s what we worry about right now, Rutgers.”

Indiana has 11 games left in the season and will travel to Piscataway, New Jersey on Wednesday to face Rutgers and then have a quick turnaround traveling to East Lansing to face No. 6 Michigan State.

For the Hoosiers to make the tournament, they have to find themselves quickly.