Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports
After leading the Indiana Hoosiers to an upset victory over the third ranked Wisconsin Badgers last Tuesday night, the guards have since cost them the last two games.
Indiana scored 52 points in the paint last Tuesday as the guards found their way to the rim and converted a lot of layups. The past two games — nothing.
Not only can Indiana not make layups (they missed 11 in the second half tonight), but they can’t shoot from outside the lane either.
Yogi Ferrell and Stanford Robinson combined to shoot 8-for-23 tonight. The other guard, Evan Gordon, didn’t shoot, but played bad when he was in the game. On Saturday, that same trio combined to shoot 6-for-30.
So with quick math, Ferrell, Robnison and Gordon are shooting a combined 14-for-53 (26 percent) over the past two games. Also mix in 4-for-17 (23 percent) from three-point land and this group is letting Indiana down.
They’re easy to defend at that point.
Teams can sag off them and force them to shoot. When they don’t hit wide open shots, there’s nothing Indiana can do. Then, when they do somehow get to the lane, they’re not converting.
That in turn is taking freshman forward Noah Vonleh completely out of the game because of so many players sagging in the lane.
Indiana has a real big problem on their hands and it starts with Ferrell. I’m singling him out due to him as the supposed leader of this team. He’s got the tools to be a great point guard at the next level, but his leadership skills of putting the ball in the goal no matter what — like leaders do — isn’t happening.
Ferrell, is shooting 6-for-27 (22 percent) over the last two games and 25-for-65 (38 percent) over the last five games. He’s also only 8-for-28 (28 percent) from three-point land during that same five-game stretch.
Indiana is 2-3 in that span.
That’s why the Hoosiers are lacking that something over the last two games. He lead them and put the team on his back against Wisconsin. He hasn’t done that the last two games and it’s glaring.
