Indiana still 'soul-searching' ahead of trip to Iowa

Before his Indiana team visited Illinois Saturday, Hoosiers coach Mike Woodson described the players' state of mind.

"We're soul-searching as a team," Woodson said.

The search continues after a 70-62 loss that dropped the Hoosiers to 1-4 in their last five games.

Indiana (12-8, 4-5 Big Ten) will try to figure things out Tuesday night in Bloomington, Ind., where it will host another team searching for some wins in Iowa.

Woodson was displeased with the Hoosiers' defense in a Jan. 19 loss at Wisconsin, which shot 59.6 percent from the field and made 10 of 21 3-pointers in a 91-79 decision. He got better defense at Illinois — the Fighting Illini hit only 23 of 62 shots - but the Hoosiers couldn't come up with enough offense.

"We played a great defensive game," Woodson said, "but when you're on the road, you've got to do almost everything right to come out with the win."

Malik Reneau leads Indiana with 16.7 points per game, while Kel'el Ware (14.2 points) has missed the last two games with a foot injury. His status for Tuesday night isn't known.

Meanwhile, Iowa (12-8, 4-5) aims for a second straight road win after toppling Michigan 88-78 on Saturday behind big games from Payton Sandfort and Tony Perkins. Sandfort went 6 of 8 on 3-pointers to score 26 points, while Perkins added 24 on just 12 shots and also dished out five assists.

Sandfort struggled in his previous game, going 3 of 9 from the floor in a 69-67 defeat to Maryland last Wednesday.

"He knows I'm going to let him keep firing," Hawkeyes coach Fran McCaffery said. "He couldn't make a shot in practice (Friday). I just said, ‘Look, man, we know what you can do. We are going to keep going to you. You just keep firing.'"

Sandfort is one of four double-figure scorers on the team at 14.5 points per game. Ben Krikke paces the attack at 15.7, Perkins adds 15.2 and freshman Owen Freeman scores 11.2.

—Field Level Media