There are a lot of different ways to describe the Indiana men’s basketball’s performance in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
IU turned in abysmal outings against Louisville on Wednesday and Gonzaga on Thursday. But the Hoosiers salvaged an 89-73 win over Providence in Friday’s seventh-place game. That allows them to finally, after a long week in The Bahamas, to say one thing:
It could’ve been worse.
Had Indiana (5-2) dropped this game, it would’ve escalated the alarms sounding after the Cardinals and Bulldogs ran away with those contests. The Hoosiers could not afford to return from Atlantis with three straight losses, after the way those first two games went.
This win over Providence (5-3) was really important, if only just to regenerate some positive momentum. But IU head coach Mike Woodson remained focused on what his team still needs to improve on.
“I think when you get your butt beat like we did for two games, you better be connected. I thought we were connected tonight. I still think defensively, we got to clean up some things, and we got to rebound the ball better. Those two areas are huge. Make no mistake about it,” Woodson said after Friday’s game. “We shot the ball well tonight offensively. But defensively, I still think we’re a little behind, especially these last three games that we’ve played.”
The Hoosiers struggled immensely on defense against Louisville and Gonzaga. They improved on that end in the first half on Friday, holding the Friars to a 36.4 shooting percentage and 1.030 points per possession. But IU’s defense regressed in the second half, as Providence scored 1.444 PPP and capitalized on frequent IU lapses.
The Friars, meanwhile, looked a little sluggish for the 11 a.m. tipoff after playing at 8 p.m. on Thursday night. And their best player, Bryce Hopkins, has yet to debut this season. So Indiana had some clear advantages in this matchup which helped it control this game.
Still, the players — like Woodson — know their defense needs to improve going forward.
“It just comes down to talking and communicating,” Mackenzie Mgbako said. “I felt like when we communicate and talk on defense, the right things happen, we’re in the right places. We made the adjustments during halftime, getting out to shooters, taking cutters, so it just comes down to communication at the end of the day.”
Mgbako led IU’s offensive attack against Providence and gave them an outside shooting boost the team desperately needed in Atlantis. He scored 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting, with a lot of those points coming from the midrange and a 4-for-7 3-point clip. Providence couldn’t contain Malik Reneau, who put up 21 points on an efficient 8-for-9 line. And Trey Galloway, after IU’s guards contributed very little against Louisville and Gonzaga, chipped in 18 points, five rebounds, and five assists.
Woodson said he isn’t concerned about Myles Rice, who shot a combined 4 for 25 across the three games in The Bahamas. But he knows Rice needs to play better for Indiana to reach its potential this season. He knows players like Reneau, Galloway, and Luke Goode (2 for 3, nine points against Providence) need to perform with more consistency than they have so far this season.
But perhaps Indiana’s biggest takeaway from the Battle 4 Atlantis? It has to play more connected and with better energy and effort. All of that switched on and off far too often for IU in this event.
Yes, these neutral-site events are different environments than teams experience the rest of the season, with even quicker turnarounds than the NCAA Tournament brings. But IU leaves The Bahamas with two disastrous losses against quality teams and a win against a disadvantaged, weaker opponent. And Woodson knows his team has a lot of work to do to improve from there.
“We got to play harder, get better. We’ll continue to practice and work hard, and I got to keep pushing them,” Woodson said. “Gonzaga, there’s a reason why they’re a good team. They’re well-coached, and those guys play hard. Louisville played hard. We got to get our guys playing at that level because if we do, we can put ourselves in position to beat really good teams.”
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