Indiana went from a circus to a great basketball team even after a critical injury

Last time we checked in on Indiana, the Hoosiers were in a state of crisis. They had been blown out by 20 against Duke, allowing 94 points in what was their third loss in their first eight games. The offense was cooking, but the defense was completely broken. In other words, this season was shaping up to look a lot like last season, and that would have been considered an outright failure.

Indiana took baby steps toward respectability a year ago, but the tenor of expectations changed when Yogi Ferrell decided to come back for his senior season and five-star center Thomas Bryant chose the Hoosiers over a host of other offers. Just making the NCAA Tournament wasn’t going to be enough anymore. If Tom Crean wanted to survive the seemingly constant rumblings about his job security, Indiana had to go on a deep run.

There was only one problem: the Hoosiers still couldn’t defend. Last season, IU had a hilariously wide split between offensive and defensive efficiency, finishing No. 9 on offense and No. 214 on defense, per KenPom. You only had to watch how clueless Indiana looked on defense against Duke -- with half the players often not appearing to know whether they were supposed to be running zone or man -- to see that things weren’t changing.

Well, something has changed now. Indiana hasn’t lost since falling to Duke, reeling off 12 straight wins and suddenly bursting into the Big Ten title race with a 7-0 start to conference season. Consider:

It’s easy to pinpoint what’s changed here: James Blackmon Jr., Indiana’s dynamic sophomore guard, hasn’t played since Dec. 22 after suffering a season-ending knee injury. You can make the case that Blackmon is one of the best offensive players in the country, but he’s also considered a poor defender. It’s impossible to ignore how much the Hoosiers have grown since his injury.

So: is this a simple case of addition by subtraction? Not really. There’s a few things you need to remember.

Blackmon was a McDonald’s All-American as a high school senior, one of the best freshman scorers in the country last season and was only getting more efficient this year. His numbers were eye-popping before the injury: 15.8 points in only 24.5 minutes per game, 46.3 shooting from three-point range on a super high volume of attempts per game (6.2).

Hypothetically, if he said he was leaving Indiana tomorrow, he’d be the most sought after transfer in the country by a wide margin. In a vacuum, James Blackmon Jr. should make any and every college basketball team better. But we know the game is more nuanced than that. Which brings us to ...

Blackmon is tremendous with the ball in his hands, but Indiana still has Yogi Ferrell, who is even better with the ball in his hands. Blackmon is a knock-down shooter, but Indiana has a ton of knock down shooters.

Blackmon’s injury has opened a starting spot for Robert Johnson, a stronger, more athletic guard who doesn’t make the same defensive mistakes. While Johnson isn’t nearly the scorer Blackmon is, he’s a capable enough shooter to maintain Indiana’s spacing. He also doesn’t need the ball the way Blackmon does, which means everyone is sharing the rock and not worrying about who is getting their stats up.

Indiana’s defense, which was in the 100s in efficiency as recently as early January, is now up No. 46, per KenPom. Johnson isn’t the only player who has made an impact since Blackmon’s injury.

Crean has brought in 10 top-100 prospects over the last four years (six of which are still around). OG Anunoby wasn’t one of them. But since Blackmon has gone out of the lineup, the 6’8 wing has carved out an extremely valuable niche. He’s an athletic defender capable of guarding four or five positions who does all the little things you want out of a role player: crash the offensive glass, run the floor and play within the confines of everything else going on around him.

To put it another way: Anunoby accentuates the strengths of Indiana’s top players while helping cover up their weaknesses. He has been found money and looks like a keeper for IU long-term.

Our Indiana blog put it best:

James Blackmon’s injury in and of itself didn’t make Indiana better. A quality player of Blackmon’s offensive ability can be of use to any team, including this one. What it did do was give Tom Crean an opportunity to retool his rotations and priorities with this basketball team. Prioritize defense as a team. Bump OG Anunoby’s minutes and give Indiana an athletic, versatile defender. Take care of the basketball. Play, a bit, more deliberately. That change has gone over tremendously. After the Maui trip, their only loss has been to Duke, and since that game in Durham, the Hoosiers have now won 12 straight.

It’s worth noting that the Hoosiers’ Big Ten schedule up to this point has mostly consisted of teams in the bottom half of the league. Indiana still has to play Iowa twice, Michigan State, Maryland and Purdue once. That doesn’t change the fact that this team just looks better lately, more balanced and more confident in what it can and can’t do.

Indiana may or may not be fixed, but there’s no denying the strides it has made.