It is officially June and we are still doing Exit Surveys. In the same vein that The Floor Slap did season previews and in season spotlights for every team in the Big Ten, now it’s time to look back on everyone’s season and reflect. Going from the Bottom to the Top in the standings, we will be releasing Exit Survey’s for all 14 teams in the conference. Today, we have the 2nd place Indiana Hoosiers.
The Preseason
IU entered the season with real excitement for the first time in several years.
After making the tournament, winning a game in it, and beating rival Purdue, Mike Woodson and Indiana had some juice from last season. IU fans were excited to see how he would build on the positive year.
With excitement comes expectations.
After Trayce Jackson-Davis decided to return for another year at IU, pundits started to tab them as the favorites to win the Big Ten. IU was picked as a Top 15 in the AP poll to enter the season. With the All-American center returning, IU had real expectations to win and make noise in the tournament.
My preseason article focused on the idea that this was a legacy year for Trayce Jackson-Davis.
TJD was already an all time Hoosier who would end up at the top of the leaderboards of several statistical categories at IU. But, would fans remember him as a great player lost on bad teams, a casualty of the Archie Miller era? Or would they remember him as the player who turned the program around and back to its winning ways?
His performance this season would decide that. I focused on how he could improve as a playmaker, decision maker, and teammate more than just scoring more. Basically, can he do the little things like make the right pass, be a leader, defer to teammates, etc. that will allow the team to succeed?
Trayce Jackson-Davis did do the little things and Indiana thrived at times this season because of it.
Season
The Hoosiers lived up to their billing to start the year.
The Cream and Crimson crushed the month of November going 7-0. Five of those wins were 20 point blowouts against midmajor programs, but they also had two impressive victories.
Indiana went into the Cintas Center and beat Xavier 81-79 in their third game of the year. TJD scored 30 and Xavier Johnson scored 23 to lead the way. Adam Kunkel missed a layup with 2 seconds left that would have given the Musketeers the lead. Still, IU held on to get a quality true road win.
I went to the Xavier game and one of my big takeaways was that TJD’s baseline spin looked unstoppable.
The next big game was against preseason no.1 UNC (at the time ranked 18) in Assembly Hall for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Tar Heels had stumbled in their MTE dropping the previous two games before this clash, and TJD made sure to make it three losses in a row. Again, TJD was a superstar with 21pts/10rb/4ast/4blk and nearly fouled out preseason ACC player of the year Armando Bacot. Xavier Johnson once again was a co-star with 20 points in a game IU controlled for the last 30 minutes.
The UNC win continued the annual tradition for IU to have a big non conference home win in November and have all the fans say, “We’re back” just to be let down.
Hoosier fans didn’t have to wait long for this year’s letdown.
In their Big Ten opener, Indiana traveled to New Jersey to play Rutgers. The Hoosiers entered that game averaging 87 points per game. Against Cliff Omoruyi, Caleb McConnell, and the rest of Steve Pikiell’s defense, the Hoosiers scored 48 points. Xavier Johnson and TJD were stifled so Miller Kopp led the way with 21 points. Perhaps not a winning formula. Rutgers made a run in the second half lead by freshman Derek Simpson gave them a double digit lead. The Scarlet Knights wouldn’t lose it.
Jalen Hood-Schifino did miss this game with back spasms, but he was not yet the type of player he would be later in the year.
After a fun win against Nebraska (where IU had it so easy they could hunt for TJD to get his last assist for a triple double), things got worse for the Hoosiers.
The biggest games of the non conference for IU were against Arizona in Vegas and against the Kansas in Lawrence. Indiana got embarrassed in both of them.
Against Arizona, TJD was outmanned against Arizona’s double bigs in Azuolas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo. He scored only 11 points and grabbed just 5 rebounds while fouling out in 32 minutes. Arizona held a double digit lead for essentially the entire game as they ran through the Hoosiers. Yes, Hood-Schifino missed this game too.
In Kansas, things got bleeker. The Hoosiers were blown out in Phog Allen Fieldhouse immediately falling behind by double digits and never recovering. The Jayhawks had a 22 point lead at one point in the first half. The Hoosiers had Jalen Hood-Schifino return in this game, but the worst part of this game was that Xavier Johnson would exit the game in the first half with what would become a season ending injury.
IU had lost 3 of 4, two being premier games against other “blue-blood” type programs, and now lost their starting point guard and second leading scorer.
After cleaning up against Elon and Kennesaw State, Mike Woodson and the Hoosiers hit another rough patch. IU lost in Carver-Hawkeye Arena by 2 points after a late clutch block from Kris Murray. The Hoosiers followed it up with a 1 point loss to Northwestern with Trey Galloway unable to get off the game winning shot off in time. The Hoosiers continued to ring in the New Year with a blowout loss at Penn State as the Nittany Lions hit 18 threes on their way to a 19 point win.
Sidenote: TJD had 18/24/8/4 against NU and that wasn’t enough.
From here on out, Trayce Jackson-Davis showed why he was an unanimous All-American.
The rest of the season TJD would have at least 18 points in all but one game. The rest of the guys around TJD (even Hood-Schifino) were inconsistent. IU needed TJD to be superhuman every game for them to succeed. And he was.
TJD put up 18, 35, 31, 25, and 18 in wins against Wisconsin, at Illinois, Michigan State, at Minnesota, and Ohio State respectively. He then put up a measly 18 points and 20 rebounds in a loss at College Park.
Here was Jalen Hood-Schifino in that stretch as the lead guard: 16pts (8-15 FG), 10 (5-12), 2 (1-6), 6 (2-11), 24 (8-12), and 3 (1-14). His inconsistency was hurting the Hoosiers. Once he started to play less erratically, the Hoosiers ceiling was raised.
I also want one sentence in here to say that Trey Galloway being inserted in the starting lineup helped them to have this win streak. His defense, shooting, and connecting play was underrated this season.
After winning 5 of 6 Indiana returned home to play number 1 Purdue in Bloomington. It was a matchup of the two best players in the country in Zach Edey and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Both of them came to play. Edey had 33 points and 18 boards while TJD had 25 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks.
IU jumped out to a big early lead and went into halftime up 15. Assembly Hall was rocking. Purdue battled back all second half and with 1:59 left it was 70-71 Hoosiers. Indiana held on to upset their rival and Mike Woodson improved to 2-1 against Purdue.
Hoosiers then turned around and avenged their earlier loss with a win in Bloomington against Rutgers 66-60. IU then won a strange battle in Ann Arbor 62-61 where neither team scored in the last 2:58 of play.
IU had won 8 of 9 and played their way back into the Big Ten Title race. The Hoosiers were 2 games back from the Boilermakers with 6 games to go. Unfortunately, from here on out the Hoosiers couldn’t string wins together.
They dropped a tough one in Evanston as Boo Buie’s teardrop floater fell in to give the Wildcats the win (yes he pushed off, so did Reggie Miller on MJ). Indiana rallied with a tight win over Illinois in Bloomington in a game where Trayce Jackson-Davis passed his coach Mike Woodson for 5th all time scorer in IU history. In the next game the Hoosiers again couldn’t string wins together as AJ Hoggard and Tyson Walker scored 45 points in a dominating win over Indiana.
Indiana then traveled to West Lafayette for a rematch with no.5 ranked Purdue. Again, Edey was awesome, but the story of this game was not about him. This will forever be the Jalen Hood-Schfino game. JHS scored 35 points in West Lafayette to sink the Boilermakers and seal the season sweep.
Purdue decided to double/take away TJD in this game and make JHS beat them. Both of them happily obliged. If you want to talk about TJD doing the little things to win… he did exactly that in this game. Forced to be a distributor and not a scorer, TJD had 10 points on only 8 shot attempts but had 8 boards and 7 assists while holding Edey to under 50% shooting. It was the Jalen Hood-Schifino game but it was that game in part because TJD took that next step as a superstar deferring to JHS to make sure they win.
Mike Woodson was now 3-1 against Matt Painter and Purdue.
IU couldn’t quite capture momentum from that win for a title push. The Hoosiers lost to Iowa and it wasn’t close being down double digits essentially all game. Kris Murray, Tony Perkins, and Payton Sandfort starred as the Hawkeyes put up 90 on IU’s defense for the 2nd time this season.
Indiana ended the regular season with more drama. Indiana won on senior night in TJD’s last game in Assembly Hall in overtime 75-73 over Michigan.
Trayce had 27 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists 2 blocks and 2 steals in the win. First round pick Jalen Hood-Schifino hit the game-tying three to force overtime while first round pick Kobe Bufkin threw the ball off of Hunter Dickinson’s back with a chance to win the game at the buzzer.
Purdue ended up winning the regular season title, but Indiana still was finally back at the top of the standings tying for 2nd with Northwestern at 12-8 in the conference play.
There were certainly bumps along the way, but Indiana were ranked for most of the season, finished in the top 4 of the standings again, and swept rival Purdue. A pretty good year.
Post Season
However, Indiana still had a post season to go.
The Hoosiers earned the 3 seed in the Big Ten Tourney because of Northwestern’s regular season sweep. They matched up with Maryland in the quarterfinals. The only time the Hoosiers played the Terps in the regular season, they lost. That would not be the case this time.
TJD scored 24 points, had 9 boards, dealt out 7 assists, had 3 steals and 4 blocks on top of that. Doing it all.
Jalen Hood-Schifino added 19 points and the Hoosiers held onto a solid lead for most of the second half for a 70-60 victory. TJD frustrated Julian Reese all night nearly fouling him out, and the Hoosiers took away Jahmir Young only giving up 12 points on 3-15 shooting.
Indiana advanced to the semis to play Penn State, while a championship matchup against Purdue loomed. However, Penn State played with a little more to prove and snuck past the Hoosiers 77-73. Jackson-Davis’ 24/10/7 was not enough to beat out Jalen Pickett (28/8/4) and the Nittany Lions.
The loss didn’t matter too much as the Hoosiers still locked down a 4 seed in March Madness with a first round matchup of Kent State.
For some reason Kent State was a trendy upset pick in this bracket. I didn’t see it.
The Hoosiers commanded the game and the Flashes really weren’t a match for Trayce Jackson-Davis and … Race Thompson! Yeah, Race Thompson finally getting a mention! Maybe a disappointing season for Race production wise, but he stepped up with 20 and 9 to pair with TJD’s 24/11/5/5 as the IU frontcourt dominated.
Mike Woodson and IU advanced to take on the 5 seed and ACC champion Miami Hurricanes. This turned out to be a bad matchup for the Hoosiers, as Miami had too much firepower for the Hoosiers to deal with. Nijel Pack, Jordan Miller and (now Indiana Pacer) Isaiah Wong all had great games to lead Miami to the Sweet 16. The Hoosiers fell behind in the second half and were never able to dig themselves out.
Trayce Jackson-Davis’ IU career ended with a 23 point, 8 rebound and 5 block statline in a loss in the 2nd round of the tournament.
So, where does that leave the Trayce Jackson-Davis legacy year?
TJD finished his IU career at 74-59 (.589 winning pct) with 12+ losses each season and never making it to the second weekend of the tournament. If it was a normal four seasons (aka no covid) he would have had a third shot at the tournament in 2019-20. Still, just want to make this point for all the stupid “banners!” chanting IU fans.
TJD also did exactly what I said he needed to do. A reminder that his starting point guard Xavier Johnson exited the season a dozen or so games into it. TJD stepped up in X’s absence and improved across the board in his senior year. Upping his averages from 18.3 ppg to 20.9, his rpg from 8.1 to 10.8, his blocks from 2.3 to 2.9 and his assists from 1.9 to 4 a game.
Doing all the little things to win.
His transformation to Unanimous All-American this season dragged a Hoosiers team into the National conversation again for the first time since… Yogi Ferrell, Troy Williams and Thomas Bryant? Who knows what he could have done if Xavier Johnson was on this team to be that 2nd or 3rd leading scorer.
Trayce Jackson-Davis cemented that he is one of the All-time greats of the Big Ten even if all the bad luck prevented him from getting over the hump in March. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the leaderboards.
TJD finished 6th all time in scoring, 3rd all time in rebounds, and 5th all time in blocks. The 4-time All-Big Ten performer elevated this season to finally get his first 1st Team All-Big Ten but also his first All-American (1st team as well).
Beyond just counting stats, TJD has helped to revitalize the Indiana program.
IU fans like their coach for the first time maybe this century. The Hoosiers are beating Purdue again. The program is landing big recruits like Jalen Hood-Schifino, Malik Reneau, Kel’el Ware, and Mackenzie Mgbako. Indiana will once again enter next season with excitement and expectations.
That is all a part of Trayce Jackson-Davis’ legacy.
So thank you Trayce for allowing Hoosiers fans to be able to say “We’re back!” because when has that phrase gone wrong for them! Now, it is up to Mike Woodson to extend TJD’s legacy and continue winning.
Read More on The Floor Slap:
- College Basketball Super Sixteen: December Edition
- Midweek Madness: Feast Week Leftovers
- Big Ten Betting Guide: Rivalry Week
- Big Ten Betting Guide: Week 13
- Big Ten Football Preview: Week 13