Ouch. That hurt.
There it is, Blobophiles. That would have been my lede if I were still a working sports scribe and bloviating about whatever the hell that was yesterday between Auburn and Indiana.
"I know what it was, Mr. Blob!" you're saying now, waving your hand.
OK, so what was it?
"It was a royal platinum-grade ass-whuppin'!"
Well, yeah, it was all that and a bag of chips, and so let the Mike-Woodson-must-go-ing begin. Crimson Nation does not like it when their Hoosiers lie down and let some football school wipe its feet on them. They don't like it when the football school outscores their guys 42-12 across the back end of the first half and then just keep piling on in the second half, eventually winning 104-76.
Crimson Nation, after all, is not supposed to be short for "Crimson With IU's Blood Nation."
And the hell of it is, Crimson Nation is not entirely wrong/delusional/completely hysterical like usual. They're mad at Woodson because this one was demonstrably on him.
His Hoosiers came out of the gate smoking, building a 26-16 lead and putting Auburn on its heels. But then Woodson did that weird substitution thing of his -- subbing out five-for-five the way hockey teams change lines -- and it came apart like the surprise prize in the Cracker Jacks box.
Auburn cranked up the defensive pressure the second unit, kept aggressively going to the glass, and, hey, look at this, the 22-10 Indiana lead is gone. Now it's 52-34 at the break, and the Auburns are in the process of undressing the Indiana guards with eight steals, and pounding the supposed Indiana strength -- its game around the rim -- with 11 offensive rebounds and 32 points in the paint, and exploiting the Hoosiers' puny perimeter D with 14 threes.
And even worse part?
Indiana surrendered. Flat outright surrendered.
And even worse than that?
Against the only two really formidable opponents they've faced, the Hoosiers have lost big -- by 20 to UConn and 28 to Auburn.
This does not bode well for their chances in March. Heck, it's doesn't bode well for the chances to get to March.
Not all of this is on Woodson, but yesterday certainly was -- when a team simply doesn't compete, that's a coach thing -- and others might be as well. The team he's put together has two or three quality bigs, but doesn't have a guard capable of handling aggressive pressure or taking control of a game when an opponent keeps the bigs in check. That's especially true when Xavier Johnson isn't on the floor, but it might be only slightly less true when he is.
Kel'el Ware, Malik Reneau and Mackenzie Mgbako are some solid pieces to build around, but you've still got to build around 'em. Maybe that happens as the season goes on. Maybe Woodson figures out you can't sub hockey-style in the college game, that it simply doesn't work. And maybe everyone in the Big Ten was taking notes yesterday on how you beat Woodson's team, because Auburn certainly provided the blueprint yesterday.
In the meantime, the Hoosiers get No. 2 Kansas next weekend.
Altogether now: Yikes.
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