Indiana extended their loss streak against in-state rival to 8 on Thursday evening when the Boilermakers took down the Hoosiers in a less than inspiring performance. Indiana head coach Archie Miller was disappointed at the performance of his squad stating that “[IU] did not have an answer offensively and we played poor on defense.”

“To be honest, they could have done whatever they wanted offensively because we had no answer other than the last eight minutes of the first half.”

Purdue, who averaged 35% from behind the arc coming into the contest, shot a blistering 65% from distance. They finished the game with a 53% shooting percentage across all shots.

“For a good portion of this game our offense scored and at the end of the day just could not get stops. They made shots and they made a lot of them.  We did not deserve to win the game. We will have to take this one and eat it. It hurts,” Miller said after the game.

“They got too comfortable once they got going. Bottom line is that they were too comfortable the rest of the game. They played easy.  I thought they had some real break downs of underneath out of bounds defense. They did a really good job of picking on us there”

“They got free tonight and made them. I give them credit, coming into the game they were not shooting the ball well from a lot of guys but they have been capable in their career so once they were confident, they got going. I think mid-way through the second half the from 3-point line they were still shooting it incredibly well. As you look at it recently the 3-point line has been something that we have struggled to guard since the beginning of January.”

Matt Painter’s team finished the game scoring 1.227 points per possession and led for the majority of the contest despite a number of Indiana attempts to catch up.

Even inside the arc, the Hoosiers had trouble stopping Trevion Williams, who tallied a team high 22 points of off 9-15 shooting. He was just able to record the double-double with his 10 rebounds.

IndianaHQ Shop - Indiana Tshirts, IU Hoosiers Apparel

Purdue’s offensive game plan and Indiana’s lack of a response combined for a very tough loss against two teams that came in with identical overall records and conference records.

And of course, it also stings for Hoosiers fans because it’s Purdue.

That being said, the Hoosiers have a unique opportunity for additional time off as the game this Sunday has been postponed due to COVID-19 concerns with the Michigan State program.

The two teams will be matched up at a later date once the conference can help get that scheduled. That means, the Hoosiers have a full week of recovery and preparation before traveling to No. 5 Iowa.

On that topic, Archie Miller noted, “We are going to have to go back to work. We will not have the game against Michigan State hanging in front us on Sunday and sometimes that is the best answer.”

Boy, does that come at the right time. IU has plenty of things to work on and game film to review before next week.

This upcoming week for Indiana is critical and can play into IU’s realistic chances of making the NCAA Tournament that will be hosted on their very own home court.

Miller alluded to the urgency in his post-game comments.

“For our team, we need to go back to work. We are going to have to figure some things out defensively because if we do not have that then we will be in big trouble going forward.”