Indiana's defensive issues resurface in alarming upset loss

Any improvement Indiana showed defensively in its first three games may have been a mirage.

The Hoosiers suffered a surprising 82-78 loss in the Maui Invitational quarterfinals on Monday because they couldn't come up with stops when they needed them.

A rebuilding Wake Forest team playing without last season's leading scorer exploited Indiana's defensive shortcomings with alarming ease. The Demon Deacons shot 50.7 percent because the Hoosiers couldn't stop dribble penetration, closed out on shooters too slowly and failed to adequately control the defensive glass or protect the rim.

Especially alarming were the issues prized freshman big man Thomas Bryant experienced moving laterally and defending ball screens. In the first half, perimeter-oriented Konstantinos Mitoglou gave him a ton of problems. In the second half, Wake Forest attacked him relentlessly off the dribble, especially in the final minute as the Demon Deacons clawed their way back from a late nine-point deficit.

With 30 seconds remaining and Wake Forest down one, Bryant Crawford blew right by Robert Johnson, took advantage of Bryant's slow rotation on help defense and scored an uncontested go-ahead layup. Then after a Troy Williams free throw tied the score, the Demon Deacons had Bryant's man set a top of the key ball screen so Crawford could attack him off the dribble again, this time resulting in the game-winning layup with 3.2 seconds left.

The way that Indiana struggled defensively much of the first half and wilted down the stretch is discouraging for a team that spent the offseason trying to get better at that end of the floor. The Hoosiers were 283rd in the nation in two-point field goal percentage defense last season because their perimeter players couldn't stay in front of anyone off the dribble and they lacked an adequate rim protector to erase mistakes.

What Monday's loss showed is that Bryant isn't an instant solution to those issues — at least not yet. Teams will force him to defend ball screens until Indiana goes zone or he shows he can do it. The Hoosiers don't have the option of pulling him off the floor because he's a weapon on offense and he's the team's top rebounder too.

While Wake Forest will get another crack at a quality win against Vanderbilt in Tuesday's Maui semifinals, Indiana will have what should amount to a get-well game in the consolation bracket against woeful St. John's. The Hoosiers need to use that game to go back to basics on defense and try to fix some of the issues that emerged on Monday.

Thanks to a potent offense with shooters and playmakers all over the floor, Indiana doesn't need to be an elite defensive team to meet its goals this season.

But if the Hoosiers aren't better than they were Monday night, they're not going to get anywhere close.