Darian DeVries Surprised, Disappointed as Indiana Basketball Collapses at Michigan State

EAST LANSING, Mich. — While Michigan State fans bellowed chants of “Hoosier Daddy,” Darian DeVries stood motionless, arms crossed, face blank, watching as freshman forward Trent Sisley’s free throw rimmed out several feet in front of him.

The scoreboard showed an insurmountable 21-point Spartan lead with 31 seconds remaining. The on-court product portrayed an even worse reality — no lessons learned and no improvements made from three days prior, accompanied by the persistent presence of self-inflicted wounds burying Indiana basketball on the road.

The Hoosiers once fancied an upset Wednesday night at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, and they found themselves in a 53–53 tie with the nation’s No. 12 team just shy of the midway point in the second half.

But no matter how many timeouts DeVries called, no matter who took the shots, no matter which lineup he deployed, Indiana (12–5, 3–3 Big Ten) never stopped the second-half bleeding en route to an 81–60 loss at Michigan State (15–2, 5–1 Big Ten).

The Spartans used a 19–0 run, which peaked at 28–2 overall, across nine minutes to foil the Hoosiers’ plans of playing spoiler — and leave DeVries frustrated in a case of Déjà vu after Indiana endured a similar second-half slump in an 83–77 home loss to No. 8 Nebraska on Saturday.

“I thought we had some poor offensive possessions, which was the same thing that happened to us the other day at home,” DeVries said postgame. “Where we had some turnovers, maybe a couple of non-quality shots, and that led to their transition.

“You can't give them transition, especially here, and that's where the game just flipped.”

Indiana didn’t commit a turnover during the first nine minutes of the second half. The Hoosiers had six giveaways over the final 11, which Michigan State turned into 10 points — including five near the start of its big run.

All told, Indiana committed 14 turnovers, its third-most this season, and the Spartans scored 29 points off the Hoosiers’ miscues. DeVries said Indiana prioritizes turnovers each day in practice, and the team’s issues are fixable.

The Hoosiers have examined where their turnovers come from and who, or what, causes them. They’ve identified most as decision-making turnovers, not from traps or deflections but self-inflicted miscues.

DeVries wants his team to play off two feet, make sound decisions and balance aggression with ball security. None came to fruition in a game-losing, mind-numbing closing stretch.

“That's disappointing for as veteran of a group as we have,” DeVries said, “to be turning the ball over in these type of situations.”

Indiana had chances for two resume-defining wins in a four-day span. The Hoosiers dug their own grave instead.

“As a competitor, I mean, you want to win,” sixth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson said postgame. “If it's not disappointing to you, then you're not a true competitor. So, of course, it's disappointing, man. We fumbled two of ‘em we should have got.

“Each game, we was in the game, man. So, we just got to get better in the locker room, as a team, just build that chemistry where when we face adversity, we come out on top.”

The Hoosiers trailed 53–55 with 10 minutes and 39 seconds remaining in the second half. Over their next five possessions, they committed four turnovers — the first by senior forward Reed Bailey, the next by Wilkerson, another by senior guard Conor Enright and the last a team shot-clock violation out of a timeout.

Within two-and-a-half-minutes, Michigan State grew its lead to 65–53. Indiana’s bad offensive possessions compounded themselves, and it struggled getting consistent defensive stops, as the Spartans scored 1.3 points per possession in the second half.

The Hoosiers struggled rebounding, too. Michigan State won the battle of the boards, 37–19, and Indiana grabbed only seven rebounds in the second half. The Spartans tallied 9 second-chance points over the final 20 minutes while Indiana, which mustered just two offensive rebounds in the period, failed to score on either of its second chances.

DeVries said he “really thought” Indiana would take a step forward in its ball protection Tuesday night. The Hoosiers, by and large, moved backward.

“I mean, the guys get it,” DeVries said. “They understand it, they know what importance that is in both areas of defensive rebounding and turnovers. We said it from Day 1, those are the two biggest factors, in my opinion, in winning and losing basketball games, and tonight we got beat in both.”

Second-half spirals have emerged as a common theme for the Hoosiers, who saw a 7-point lead turn into a 12-point loss at Kentucky on Dec. 13 and a 16-point lead become a 6-point loss to Nebraska on Saturday.

Indiana has an experienced lineup. It starts five seniors in Enright, Wilkerson, sixth-year guard Tayton Conerway, forward Sam Alexis and sixth-year forward Tucker DeVries. Of the eight Hoosiers who saw the floor Tuesday night, six were seniors, and junior forward Nick Dorn added a seventh upperclassmen. Sisley is the lone freshman or sophomore who played.

DeVries, from the summer onward, preached the need for Indiana to create a loud gym, one full of juice and enthusiasm.

Together, the two factors — a seasoned lineup and a focus on intrinsic energy — figured to give the Hoosiers a strong chance to weather runs in loud environments. But Indiana too often hasn’t turned potential into production, leaving the Hoosiers just 2–4 away from Assembly Hall this season.

DeVries was asked postgame whether he’s surprised the Hoosiers, with their age and experience, haven’t been better at stopping games from snowballing.

“I think to a degree for sure,” DeVries said. “And again, I think it's been a little bit of the turnovers. It's been more of a common theme. I mean, there's always a little something else. And I thought the turnovers tonight was what flipped it again in the second half.

“Once we went from that tie game to all of a sudden, they're playing in transition, and now you've got the crowd going and energy. And you just can't allow those type of runs if you're going to beat a good team.”

Wilkerson, who scored a team-high 19 points and was the Hoosiers’ lone player to reach double figures, took blame for not doing “a good job leading the way I should have” during the Spartans’ run. He collectively felt Indiana didn’t execute the way it was supposed to offensively, was beaten in transition and didn’t win any 50/50 balls.

The Ashdown, Ark., native said Indiana needed to execute better “everywhere” throughout the final 11 minutes.

“Offensively, defensively, discipline-wise, quit putting people on the free throw line. We got to box out better,” Wilkerson said postgame. “There's just a lot of stuff we got to work on.”

Wilkerson lauded Michigan State’s crowd but ultimately believes the Hoosiers only have themselves to blame for the frustration of losing back-to-back games where there were opportunities abundant.

“I feel like all the things that's happening over these last couple of days, it's happening because of us,” Wilkerson said. “I feel like we're just self-inflicting ourselves and being undisciplined right now. So, once we get that figured out, then it'll be alright.”

Finding the solution requires a deep look internally. Wilkerson said the Hoosiers are a close-knit team, but they need to be better on the floor together. With improved on-court chemistry, he feels resiliency and drought-stopping prowess will follow.

“Just us moving the ball,” Wilkerson said. “When things are going wrong, just leaning on each other, finding a way to put out the fire.”

Indiana challenged two of the Big Ten’s best teams in a four-day span as part of an early-conference series of litmus tests. The Hoosiers learned they’re good enough to hang, but not yet disciplined, not yet efficient, not yet synchronized enough to finish against elite competition.

As DeVries walked toward Michigan State coach Tom Izzo to start the post-game handshake line, Izzo briefly threw up his hands, as if surprised, or taken aback, by the game’s sudden turn.

DeVries has many reasons to feel surprised, too. The Hoosiers are built, and culturally instilled, to persevere through adverse situations. They handled such scenarios several times during the exhibition slate and appeared wired to be a mentally tough, response-driven group.

But under live bullets, Indiana hasn’t stood strong. Tuesday night offered its biggest collapse yet — and DeVries and his staff, after back-to-back second-half struggles, have to go back to the drawing board once more.