Men’s Basketball

For the entirety of Northwestern’s 89-57 loss Saturday at Indiana, the Wildcats had no answers for Tom Crean’s offense.

NU (15-6, 3-5) bore witness to a master class in offensive basketball taught by the Hoosiers, who sport the Big Ten’s highest-scoring offense. But it’s how easily Indiana scored — and how little the Cats’ matchup zone did to slow the Hoosiers down —that bodes poorly for NU’s fading tournament hopes going into the heart of the conference schedule.

“They’re a hard team to guard, especially (at home),” coach Chris Collins said. “They can expose any defense and ours just happened to be the next one in line.”

It started with star Indiana guard Yogi Ferrell, who seemed to be in complete control for much of the game on the way to 17 points and six assists. He was constantly probing the Cats’ perimeter defense, getting to his spots and scoring or distributing without much trouble.

If NU’s frontcourt stepped up to corral Ferrell’s penetration, Indiana forward Troy Williams cut right into the vacated space for an easy layup, as he did twice in the second half. If the Cats packed in defenders from the perimeter to help, the ball would end up in the hands of an open shooter, a losing proposition against the conference’s best 3-point shooting team.

Collins said Indiana’s dribble penetration, from Ferrell and others, forced his team into tough spots defensively all afternoon.

“It’s not just Yogi. They have a lot of guys who can drive the ball,” Collins said. “When you have four or five guys doing that and you’re constantly in rotation, you’re always scrambling.”

The Hoosiers repeatedly looked a step ahead of that scrambling NU defense. When the Cats were forced to rotate around the perimeter, Indiana always seemed to swing the ball to one more player than NU could cover. When the Cats were defending in transition, the Hoosiers always seemed to have one more player running out than NU could mark.

That’s how, despite receiving 36 combined points on good efficiency from senior center Alex Olah and senior guard Tre Demps, the Cats suffered their largest defeat of the season. Indiana bent NU’s zone out of shape with ease possession after possession, and if the Cats want to break their lengthy tournament drought, they can’t afford to let that become a trend.