My Two Cents: Old Adage Is True That 'Effort Travels'

It was a tale of two road trips over the past four days, and Indiana played much harder in Tuesday's win than they did in Saturday's ugly loss.

I don't know what it is about that Kohl Center place up the road in Wisconsin or that fancy Garden gym in the big city, but it sure is different from home. 

But why should it be? I mean, their baskets are 10 feet high too, just like our little gym back in Hickory. 

Road games. Man, they're weird, especially the first few of them every year, when a coach — and a fan base — is still trying to figure out if this team is any good or not.

In about an 80-hour window, we learned a whole lot about Indiana's basketball team. That includes the 84-64 loss to Wisconsin on Saturday in Madison and Tuesday night's thrilling but often sore-on-the-eyeballs 57-54 victory over Connecticut at historic Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Here are the three biggest nuggets that I take away from these first two road trips of the year:

1. If Indiana plays lethargically on defense like it did Saturday against the Badgers, they won't win a single road game all year. Not a single one. When you let opposing teams just run their sets with no pressure on them, they'll score all day long on you. Indiana forced ONE turnover in the first half, and the game was long over by then.
2. If Indiana attacks the ball aggressively and contests EVERY SHOT like they did against UConn, they're going to be just fine on the road. Indiana forced 22 turnovers against a team that only averages 13, and they did it by contesting everything — every shot, every pass, every post-up. And with this deep lineup, if you're guarding people, you will play. And if you don't? Well, there's a seat waiting for you at the end of the bench.
3. Everyone rolls their eyes — even Indiana coach Archie Miller — when I bring up Indiana's pillow-soft November schedule, but I think that slate of all cupcakes at home was no way to prepare for playing a Big Ten game on the road. Sure, I'll blame the players for not playing hard enough in Madison, but they were also unprepared for the environment, and I blame that on the guys who put the schedule together in the first place.

The biggest difference, by far, was effort

Back in the day, I had a dear friend who was a great basketball coach and he used to tell his kids that "effort travels.'' It was his way of getting into their heads and reminding them CONSTANTLY before a big game that the key to winning on the road was making those extra effort plays, especially on defense.

He would harp on it constantly before a road game, because he knew it was just a fact that teams don't shoot as well on the road as they do at home. So making those extra effort plays on defense would balance that out. Get a few extra steals and deflections, and you'd be fine. Get a few extra offensive rebounds, and it'd be the same thing. And he used to say that "50-50 balls on my teams better be 80-20 balls.''

All of it was so true.

His kids would write EFFORT TRAVELS on the top of every page in their notebooks. The phrase would be on posters in the locker room, and on the bus, and in his final words before the first tip. And it worked.

The same is true with this Indiana basketball team. Miller has been saying since October that the Hoosiers could be pretty good if they play well on the defensive end. He's exactly right, and they've proven that over the last four days. 

If they play hard on the road,  they've got a good chance to win, like they did Tuesday night in the big city. And if they don't? Well, that's what you saw Saturday. A big difference, right? Wisconsin and Connecticut are similarly talented — Wisconsin in No. 49 in the kenpom.com rankings this morning and UConn is No. 53, with the results of the past few days being the difference-makers — but the opponent point differential with the two games was 30!

What's it boil down to? One word, of course.

EFFORT.

That's all.

Connecticut Huskies Alterique Gilbert (3) is contested on a jump shot by Indiana's Rob Phinisee (10)  in the first half against the Indiana Hoosiers at Madison Square Garden. (Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports)

Learning quickly, as they should

There's no doubt in my mind that Indiana won Tuesday night because of what they learned on Saturday. They played so much harder, and with so much more purpose.

The biggest difference, of course, was when they fell behind early on Tuesday night against UConn. They didn't just sheepishly fold like they did against Wisconsin. Nope, they came back and fought. And, of course, eventually won.

Miller was so frustrated last Saturday that it was almost hard to watch. Everything he said went in one ear and out the other. Coaches hate that, with a passion.

"We didn't have a whole lot of resistance,'' Miller said Saturday night in Madison. "We had a quiet group today. I've got to find a way to get them to continue to use their voices. Our team was pleading with each other in the four-minute timeouts, talking on the bench and searching for that breakout moment early to get our two feet back on the ground and for everyone to say 'we're fine, we're okay'. 

"We never really got there, so that was a little frustrating.''

You sort of expect bad things to happen in Madison because the Hoosiers haven't won there since Jan of 1998, and they've lost 17 games in a row. But this year's Wisconsin team was beatable, and the Hoosiers let an opportunity slip away. That was a Big Ten road win there for the taking. And if you don't believe me, just watch. I bet Wisconsin loses at least three conference home games this year.

Fast forward now to the late show on Tuesday night.

The Hoosiers didn't let bad happen Tuesday night. It was imperative to get a win away from home against a quality opponent, because NCAA Tournament selection time, those seven wins in the November aren't going to mean much to the selection committee. That's why beating UConn was huge, and why beating Notre Dame and Arkansas later this month are also going to be important. Quality nonconference wins are very important.

Indiana played smarter, played harder, played with more passion, and played with more conviction against UConn. They played Tuesday night like Wisconsin played Saturday — like they really needed a win.

They did. And they got it.

Now learn and move forward.

"I thought our guys really dug down there after a start that was unfamiliar for us,'' Miller said Tuesday night. "It was much more of a response from them (compared to Saturday) and we had a lot of different guys step up in the game. I can't say enough about our response.

"It's not easy taking the medicine we took on Saturday and then playing the right way. I thought tonight we were much better in the toughness category and much better in certain areas defensively. Obviously, it was a grinder of a game. Guys stepped up to play.''

Effort. It's a wonderful thing — and it does indeed travel well.

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