Indiana knew it would find out plenty about itself during Thanksgiving week at the Battle 4 Atlantis. It certainly did, but most of it was not good.
In a crucial season for fourth-year head coach Mike Woodson, the Hoosiers hoped to find proof that the large NIL war chest they gathered — and the way they spent it — would put this storied program on better footing. Alas, Woodson’s group left The Bahamas with a 1-2 record and a lot more questions than answers.
Indiana, which was ranked No. 17 in the AP’s preseason Top 25, opened the week on Wednesday with a humiliating 89-61 loss to rival Louisville, another proud but downtrodden program that has a first-year coach in Pat Kelsey. The Hoosiers were thoroughly outclassed and at one point trailed by 38 points. “This was embarrassing,” Woodson admitted afterward. “We didn’t play Indiana basketball. … It was beyond schemes. I thought they came out at the very beginning and they punched us and we didn’t respond. And it didn’t get better throughout the ballgame. As a coach I’ve got to get this team more ready to go.”
It wasn’t much better on Thursday when Indiana trailed Gonzaga by 23 points before losing 89-73. Starting guards Myles Rice and Kanaan Carlyle combined for just 12 points a day after going a combined 1 of 13 from the field for a total of three points. The Hoosiers salvaged the trip on Friday by beating Providence 89-73 to claim seventh place, but by that point the damage was done.
Rice’s performance was especially concerning given how important he is to this team’s fortunes. The 6-foot-3 sophomore guard transferred from Washington State and scored 23 points in a win over South Carolina less than two weeks ago. Woodson said he wasn’t worried about Rice’s lack of production in paradise — “Myles is a tough kid. We’ll get him back.” — but he did indicate that Rice is still struggling through his transition in learning how to play with a new group of teammates. “Myles might be a little gun shy right now,” Woodson said. “Again, I can fix that and get him back going. But I don’t think we’ve told anybody not to shoot the basketball. I mean, at this stage, guys know when there’s a good shot and a bad shot. I’m just trying to get players to understand team [basketball] and what it’s about when you’re talking about playing good offense when you’re sharing the ball. When it comes to you to set a screen, you set a screen and you sacrifice the pass for the sake of the team. We haven’t been doing that and that’s my job to get us to do that.”
Carlyle, meanwhile, sat out Friday’s win over Providence with a lower body injury. When asked how long Carlyle would be out, Woodson replied, “Don’t know. He’s day-to-day. He couldn’t move today so we shut him down.”
Despite that, Indiana’s play was much improved against Providence. The Hoosiers shot 8 of 15 (53.3 percent) from 3-point range, had 20 assists to 10 turnovers. It appeared to help that Trey Galloway moved in the starting lineup in Carlyle’s absence. Galloway, a former starter who missed much of the preseason as he recovered from off-season knee surgery, finished with 18 points on 7 of 12 shooting. Woodson was not ready to proclaim Galloway a starter moving forward, but he was encouraged by Galloway’s physical condition as well as his performance. “He played great today,” Woodson said. “I was holding my breath that he could get up this morning and tell me that he felt fine, because we hadn’t heard that a lot. This morning, he got up and said it was probably the best he’s felt in a long time and that was good news to my ears.”
Indiana also played through 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Mackenzie Mgbako. Mgbako, a potential first rounder in the 2025 NBA draft, went for 25 points on 9 of 14 shooting. That was enough to give Indiana a positive outcome on Friday. Frankly, it needed one. “I think when you get your butt beat like we did for two games you better be connected,” Woodson said. “We’ve got to play harder, get better. We’ll continue to practice and work hard. I’ve got to keep pushing them. I mean, Gonzaga, there’s a reason they’re a good team. They’re well-coached, and those guys play hard. Louisville played hard. We’ve got to get our guys playing at that level, because if we do, then we can put ourselves in position to beat really good teams.”
