After a tough week, IU basketball goes up against Ohio State in a tough win

On January 18, 2025By Littum

“We represented Indiana basketball tonight… Tonight we represented the brand the best we could.”

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Luke Goode turned grave words Tuesday night into demonstrable action 72 hours later.

And when he finished pouring in 23 points over Ohio State, in IU’s 77-76 overtime win on the road Friday, the Illinois transfer-turned-Indiana locker room voice led the way again, standing firmly on the ground, finally restored beneath the Hoosiers’ feet.

“Look, we have a reality check, but we have to come back,” Goode said. “Everyone took a step back, got a reality check and said if we want our season to go the right way, we just have to play hard and play together.”

If last week represented Indiana falling — a pair of 25-point losses as ugly as the atmosphere they evoked inside Assembly Hall Tuesday night — it was the Hoosiers (14-5, 5-3) rising.

Step forward? Climb up? Maybe not yet. But the first thing you have to do after stumbling is regain your balance, and this game could have gotten away from Mike Woodson’s team the way the previous two so emphatically had.

But it didn’t. And for a basketball team bent on restoring its ambitions through stubbornness and laudable pride, that’s something.

“You know, we got our ass kicked in those two games,” Woodson said. “You can’t do anything about it now. … We had to put it behind us.”

Players and coaches alike suggested Indiana’s behind-the-scenes response to the ugliness of the previous two games was strong. Woodson dismissed any outside suggestion that noise affected his team, and aside from a tough offensive performance in the first half, Friday night suggested he was telling the truth.

If anything, there was more resilience in this team. Ohio State (10-8, 2-5) won’t be anywhere near an NCAA Tournament projection Saturday morning, but Indiana is in no position (or mood) to worry about anything but its own problems.

Late in the first half, they included a Buckeye surge that yo-yoed back and forth up to seven. The otherwise sleepy Schottenstein Center stood up. Those were the moments when IU disappeared in those two losses when it got tough and Indiana got run over.

This time the Hoosiers held firm.

“We got together and said, let’s change the script,” Goode said. “Let’s flip the script and go out there and win.”

The reality is this: Every team that puts its season back together has to start from scratch. Woodson was at pains to point out Friday night that his team is still 14-5 and not 5-14, but it was the nature of those losses at Iowa and Illinois that made them so impactful. There is no way to delete all that in one fell swoop.

What is is standing up, meeting the moment even when it’s hard, and pushing forward together when it’s easy to lie down and fall apart.

Indiana could have done it after Illinois. It could have done that at the end of the first half. It might have, as it went cold late and a 10-point second-half lead melted into a tying score in the final possessions.

Instead, from start to finish, the Hoosiers proved they were the tougher team. And seniors led the way, from Goode’s 23 points, to Oumar Ballo’s 21 plus 15 rebounds. To Trey Galloway, who responded to being benched with five rebounds and six assists. To Anthony Leal, who takes over his longtime friend’s starting job with 31 tough minutes and a crucial block on Ohio State’s final overtime possession.

Goode faced the press Tuesday night and promised better, then played all 25 minutes of the second half and overtime three days later. Ballo endured widespread criticism for his effort against Illinois, then played all 25 minutes in the second half and overtime three days later.

Indiana’s most decisive late possessions included one that saw Ballo dive down the floor to grab a tip-in rebound and extend his team’s opportunity, and another that ended with a long Goode 3. Leadership by example.

It all works better when veterans — whether they’re transfers or career-long Hoosiers — talk about accountability and then deliver it in buckets.

“We represented Indiana basketball tonight,” Goode said. “Anthony guarding their leading scorer in the game, that’s Indiana pride right there. … Tonight we represented the brand as best we could.”

You’re reading these words and probably thinking something like, “Yeah, that’s fine, but I need to see it again. Do it again. Repeat the process. Show me that this is more than just an instinctive crisis response.”

And that’s totally fair. Friday night will not have solved all the problems. One win doesn’t turn an entire season around.

However, it begins the process. If this team is as tough as it thinks it is, if this ship can be righted, this is how it starts.

Not how it ends. The end is not even in sight. But when he got back up, Indiana started up Friday. No, it doesn’t end like that. But that may be how it starts. And that’s something.

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