“Defense is what won us a lot of games last season, and I'll never get away from that.”
Those were the words of Mike Woodson last May when giving an early preview of the IU men’s basketball 2022-23 season. The Hoosiers were projected to be atop the Big Ten this season because of their freshman talent and defensive infrastructure.
Fast forward to today. Indiana is unranked, 1-4 in the Big Ten and has one of the worst defenses in the conference. IU has given up 1.098 points per possession and 77.6 points per game in Big Ten play. Both of those marks are the second-worst in the conference.
Indiana has given up 80 or more points in its past five Power 6 games, all of which were losses. The Hoosiers are clearly lost defensively, and the blunders go beyond the injuries to Xavier Johnson and Race Thompson (although that’s part of it).
So let’s look into the issues that have caused IU’s defense to fall off a cliff.
A quick look at the stats shows that the most notable difference in Indiana’s defensive performance has been 3-point defense. Indiana’s opponents shot a mediocre 33% from downtown last year, but they’re making 35.2% of their 3s this season.
Teams have scorched IU from beyond the arc lately because the Hoosiers are too aggressive defensively. The Hoosiers constantly send overambitious help around the foul line and allow opponents to shoot open jumpers. Overhelping has been a theme throughout the Woodson era thus far, and offenses are exposing it this season.
Indiana overhelped last season, but there was at least more attention to detail as to who was being helped off of. In those clips, you can see the Hoosiers helping off the likes of Gradey Dick (47.2% shooter), Kris Murray (37.5%), Andrew Funk (42.1%) and Seth Lundy (42.6%). These are dangerous outside players that need to be accounted for, but Indiana allowed them open looks.
Since Dec. 10, Indiana’s opponents are 69-for-159 (43.4%) from 3-point range. IU’s faced skilled offenses in this span that took advantage of the Hoosiers’ hyper-aggressive defensive approach.
“Maybe they think that’s being aggressive, and I get it when you’re trying to dig out of a hole,” Woodson said after Indiana’s loss to Penn State on Wednesday, a game in which the Nittany Lions made 18 3s.
Not only did the Hoosiers overhelp against Penn State, but they were all over the place in their rotations. Penn State had Indiana running wild around the court and eventually found the open man.
“If there was one rotation, we didn’t make the next rotation,” Woodson said. “We looked lost, and again that’s on me.”
The Hoosiers fail to follow simple defensive principles, and it burns them on the perimeter. Indiana needs to play a more sound style of help defense to slow down capable 3-point shooting teams.
Indiana’s wretched point-of-attack defense has contributed to the team’s jumbled rotations. IU’s perimeter defenders have struggled to contain drives throughout the poor seven-game stretch the Hoosiers are enduring. Teams are driving straight to the hoop against Indiana.
“We're getting straight-line drived a lot, and it's requiring guys to get out of position and help, and it gives up open 3s, and they're getting wide-open looks and they're knocking them down,” Indiana forward Trayce Jackson-Davis said following the team’s 84-83 loss against Northwestern on Sunday.
Jackson-Davis realizes Indiana isn’t playing with nearly enough intensity when defending the ball. IU’s guards aren’t guarding at a Big Ten level and the Hoosiers are suffering the consequences.
This is where the injury to Johnson comes into play. He was easily Indiana’s best perimeter defender, and the team has severely felt his loss.
The graph above shows the impact of Johnson being away from the team. When he’s on the court, opponents don’t get to the rim nearly as much and are forced into more mid-range shot attempts (per hoop-explorer.com). Indiana also forces more turnovers when its fifth-year point guard is on the floor.
The Hoosiers allow 0.91 points per possession when Johnson’s on the floor. They allow 1.034 points per possession when he’s off the floor (hoop-explorer.com). That’s the difference between a top-20 defense and an average Division I team.
It’s no coincidence that IU’s on-ball defense has plummeted in Johnson’s absence. He pressures the ball heavily while also having the agility and athleticism needed to keep up with other guards.
“[Johnson] has been out a while now, who anchors in guarding the ball coming up the floor and does a lot of pretty good things defensively for us,” Woodson said after the Northwestern game. “That's why we're struggling a little bit defensively.”
Johnson sets the tone for Indiana defensively, and the team hasn’t been able to replace his defensive production.
Just watch the fierceness that Johnson and others guarded with against North Carolina on Nov. 30, and compare that to the earlier clip of Indiana’s players being blown by.
