My Two Cents: What's the Cost of Selfish Acts That Led to Suspensions?
EVANSTON, Ill. — First off, let's dispense with a few presumptions. Indiana played Northwestern without five players on Tuesday night because of disciplinary reasons, and wound up losing a critical Big Ten game, 59-51.
Illusion No. 1: There is no guarantee that they win this game, even if the five who were suspended — starting guards Xavier Johnson and Parker Stewart, and reserves Michael Durr, Khristian Lander and Tamar Bates — would have played.
Reality No 1: Considering the game came down to one or two late possessions with a fatigued group still on the floor, Indiana probably does win this game — and puts themselves in excellent position to get their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2016.
And now? Well, you know the rules. When you lose a game you should win, you've got to find a way to maybe win a game or two that you shouldn't. Indiana's schedule is brutal the next few weeks. Now they desperately need wins.
Indiana is 16-7 now, and 7-6 in the Big Ten. The loss on Tuesday, basically played with six guys all night, was its second straight, and the first time all year that Indiana has lost back-to-back games.
A lot of NCAA Tournament projections have seven Big Ten teams in the field right now — and Indiana is now currently EIGHTH in the league standings.
The cost of these suspensions? It might be huge.
This all happened very quickly on Tuesday night. All 12 available players — Rob Phinisee was still out with a foot injury — were dressed and on the floor warming up prior to the game. When the internet rumor first surfaced, I specifically asked Indiana officials about it, and was told there was no truth to the rumor.
And then, just 15 minutes before the game, the school released a statement saying the five guys were suspended. Just like that.
Internet rumors are the worst, and they started flying around fast and furious. The school didn't release the reason for the punishment, and Indiana coach Mike Woodson wouldn't say why after the game, either. It will come out eventually, even though ''in-house'' was the rallying cry postgame.
All five suspended players were dressed and on the bench for the game and, to their credit if you want to go there, they were very engaged and supportive of their teammates throughout the game. (They get no bonus points from me for that, though. That's simply being a teammate.)
Woodson handled a handful of questions about it after the game. He wouldn't commit that this was just a one-game suspension, that he still had to think about it. It might be longer.
When five guys get suspended at the same time, the likely guess, of course, is that they did something as a group that merited getting their butts nailed to the bench. But one thing we can presume based on punishment of players through the years was that this was not drug-related. That's never publicly released anyway, but there have been a few Indiana players in the past years who have been punished, and that was usually for three games or so, and it meant NOT being dressed to play in games.
That's exactly why I asked Woodson that question after the game. Why were they dressed if they weren't going to play? Why were they even on the bench?
"Because they're part of this team,'' he said.
Yes, yes they are.
Being a part of this team probably wasn't at the front of their minds the night before, though, and this situation is serious because their selfishness — for whatever it is they did, probably after hours — cost them a basketball game on Tuesday night.
I don't like swirling hyperbole around, but I couldn't help but think going back to the hotel Tuesday night that the worst possible thing that could happen to this Indiana basketball team is that this one loss winds up keeping them out of the tournament.
Sure, it's just one game, and I get that. But what if that is the price they pay?
Think about all the work that's gone into this season, with the goal of getting Indiana basketball ''back'' to relevance, both in the Big Ten and, eventually, on a national level.
More than $10 million in booster money was spent to get rid of Archie Miller, even with three years left on his ''why did we do this?'' contract. Several million more was spent to hire Woodson and build a great coaching staff. Thousands of hours of hard work from players and coaches alike has gone into all of this since they first hit the floor together in April.
Indiana players Trayce Jackson-Davis and Trey Galloway talked after the game, and they didn't want to throw their teammates under the bus, either. They kept it to the game, and the effort they all put forth, and everything else stays in the locker room. They didn't say their teammates let them down, even though Woodson did.
"At the end of the day, it is what it is. We still go out there with the people that we've got,'' Jackson-Davis said. "Obviously, they are disappointed in themselves and we've still got a lot of basketball left, seven games left. For the guys who came out tonight, they fought. Anthony Leal and Trey Galloway, Anthony not playing and coming in and starting and doing what he did, playing as hard as he could. Same with Trey Galloway, playing the whole game until he fouled out.
"That's toughness. We grew up as a group, and we're together. And those other guys are going to come back hungry and they're going to do the right thing next time. Obviously you're disappointed in the circumstances, but at the same time, you've still got a game to play. And the guys that were out there tonight, they did their thing. The guys that did the wrong thing and doing what they did, they were still out there cheering for us, they were still there for us and we trying to be good teammates. That's all you can do.''
Things like this are hard on a team. It had to be done, Woodson said, because he's ''trying to build a culture here.'' The punishment was meted out, and dealt with on Tuesday.
And where does it go from here?
Indiana's next three games are at No. 17 Michigan State on Saturday, at home against No. 14 Wisconsin on Tuesday and at No. 16 Ohio State the following Saturday. So what is the carryover from all this?
Suspensions are a big deal, especially when the game ends in a loss. It's an even bigger deal if it lingers, or if there are even bigger issues ahead.
Woodson knows this all too well, too, because it happened when he was a player at Indiana, too.
Back during his junior year at Indiana — the 1978-79 season — there was a marijuana issue with the team during a trip to the Great Alaskan Shootout over Thanksgiving. Bob Knight called it one of the most difficult things he ever dealt with as a coach, because he kicked three players off the team for good, and five others — including Woodson — were put on probation, with their biggest punishment being forced to call their parents and tell them what happened.
The lives of the players booted — Tommy Baker, Don Cox and Jim Roberson — were never the same again.
What happened in Evanston is probably nowhere near as bad as what happened 40-something years ago, but what it does is put a blotch on this team, right here and right now.
It's taken away all the joy and rejuvenation that this season has brought all of Hoosier Nation. Heck, it's even taking away the fact that, a thousand words later, I still haven't talked about how impressed I was with the effort Trey Galloway put forth Tuesday night as the emergency point guard.
This was a bad night for Indiana basketball. The suspensions were bad. Losing to Northwestern was bad. Being on a two-game losing streak is bad — especially if we're talking about a five-game losing streak after next weekend.
Bad, bad, bad.
This team, through the selfishness of five players, is now suddenly on the precipice. Is this crash-and-burn time? Is this the end of our joy for the season? Does this start to rip this team apart?
The optimist is me says no. I was there for the 1978 suspensions too as a student reporter as part of Woodson's class. That team vowed to move forward and give it their all — and they did. They learned from their mistakes, and promised to make amends. They did just that. All of it.
The five suspended players, Woodson, Ray Tolbert, Landon Turner, Phil Isenbarger and Eric Kirchner — were great the rest of the season and led Indiana to the 1979 NIT title. The following year, they were preseason No. 1 and made 1980 one of the most memorable seasons in Indiana basketball history. Woodson was gone the following year, but then Indiana won a national title in 1981.
So, yes, teams and players can recover from discipline in a real way. We've seen it. Woodson's done it.
So what will Wednesday bring? And Thursday? Who plays on Saturday in East Lansing? This is Parker Stewart's second punishment, so where do we draw the line with him? What happens to this 2021-22 season that began with such promise?
I hate that we're here, hate that this is going on. I hate to watch six guys give their on Tuesday night, especially knowing full well that with just a little bit of help, that they probably win that game. Yeah, I know, probably.
Still, this stinks. And let's just hope that it doesn't stink for much longer.
Woodson, though, has drawn a line in the sand. He's not going to put up with any crap, either. Rules are rules, and teams are teams. They are all in this together.
And let's see how they respond from this.
Related stories on Indiana basketball
- GAME STORY: Indiana coach Mike Woodson suspended five players on Tuesday for breaking team rules, and the other half of his team fought gamely against Northwestern, but came up short after fading in the second half, losing 59-51. CLICK HERE
- LIVE BLOG: Follow Tuesday night's game between Indiana and Northwestern in real time. CLICK HERE
- HOOSIERS SUSPEND 5: Just minutes before Indiana's game with Northwestern, five players were suspended, including starting guards Xavier Johnson and Parker Stewart. CLICK HERE
- RELIVING INDIANA'S 1980 SEASON: Indiana could have won a national title in 1980, Mike Woodson's senior year, and it's one of those ''Missing Banners'' in Indiana basketball history. CLICK HERE
