Insider: Winning formula for this IU basketball team isn't pretty. But winning is.
A line graph made the rounds Monday and Tuesday on Twitter which did no good for IU basketball fans' blood pressure.
It tracked how often college basketball teams were shooting 3-pointers along one axis, and how often they were making them on the other. Indiana, as you might imagine if you have watched the Hoosiers this season, shrank to the bottom left-hand corner.
The core tenets of modern basketball have yet to visit Assembly Hall this season. Per Ken Pomeroy, the Hoosiers are, remarkably, 360th nationally in 3-point attempts as a percentage of overall field goal attempts, and 362nd nationally, scoring an even more remarkable 12.6% of their points off 3s.
And yet, those same Hoosiers, thanks to Tuesday night's 78-75 win at Michigan (4-5, 0-1), are 7-1, and 2-0 in the Big Ten.
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That is a curious circle to square. Unless you make certain assumptions that are becoming safer by the game.
In that graphic, built and tweeted by basketball analyst Ryan Hammer, IU occupies the crossroads the aforementioned numbers suggest: The Hoosiers neither shoot, nor make, many 3s.
It has been a bugaboo far too often for this program, across multiple coaching staffs. Players recruited as shooting-talented prove less so at the college level. Numbers that should be stronger are not.
But the graphic referenced above puts an interesting tag on IU. It describes the grouping Indiana falls into as "can't shoot, but smartly aware of that."
The Hoosiers finished with 52 paint points Tuesday night in Ann Arbor. Despite strong efforts from Will Tschetter (17 points on seven field-goal attempts) and Olivier Nkamhoua (a game-high 18 points), the Wolverines finished minus-24 in the paint.
Indiana is undeniably unfinished right now. This team is an uncut diamond — rough in so many respects but with clear appeal as well. Maybe the final product will be a rare gem. Maybe it will be a dud. It's too early to say.
The Hoosiers keep winning close. It might be unfair to say they keep winning ugly, because their inability to stretch teams beyond the 3-point line means ugly might to some extent be their modus operandi. But after beginning conference play by pushing already reeling Maryland further toward the cliff, IU went into on paper looked like a tricky game and gutted out a win that will count like all the others in the end.
Woodson won't have wanted Army to be so difficult. Or Wright State. Or, frankly, Louisville.
They were. And in the difficulty, the Hoosiers learned a certain toughness that manifested itself Tuesday night.
Can this formula last forever, or beat everyone? Of course not. But it was good enough in this game, as it has been in seven of the eight IU has played so far this season.
Speaking postgame on Peacock, Woodson suggested the Hoosiers' 20-point defeat to reigning national champion UConn taught the Hoosiers something about the measure and importance of toughness.
Tuesday's result did not entirely argue. This game was won on toughness, yes. And it was also won on the learned experience now shared amongst a group that's managed five wins in those seven by fewer than 10 points.
Maybe that will eventually catch up to Indiana. Maybe this team is winning on borrowed time.
But it is winning. And when you consider where IU was on Nov. 7, much less the days, weeks and months before that — Woodson knowing how much work his team would need — that's not irrelevant.
What is it? Hard to tell. But it's meaningful somehow. Particularly in the one metric that counts above all others.
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball beats Michigan despite continued 3-point issues
