The last two games that Indiana basketball has played highlight the college basketball world pretty well. The Hoosiers have played two thrillers in a row, but the difference is that one came against the #2 team in the country, Kansas, and the other came against Morehead State basketball. Indiana lost a close one to the Jayhawks, and the Hoosiers won a thriller against Morehead State. It just goes to show that anything can happen in college basketball.

Indiana basketball improved to 8-3 on Tuesday after a nail-biter against Morehead State basketball. The Eagles led by 15 with just under nine minutes remaining in the game, but the Hoosiers stormed back to earn the win. It wasn't a good start, but Indiana made the plays down the stretch to come out with a win.

“First of all, you've got to tip your hat to Morehead because they played a great game,” Indiana head coach Mike Woodson said after the game, according to an article from Sports Illustrated. “I've been preaching all year, you can be beaten by any team. Doesn't matter who they are, if you don't come to play. I thought at the start of the game we were flat, and like we didn't even want to be out there. But finally we picked it up when our backs were against the wall, and we made plays coming down the stretch that we had to make in order to win the game. I thought Malik's defensive stop at the end was probably the biggest defensive play of the night, but at the seven-minute mark we were down 11, I think, and then our defense got better and we were able to make some shots. We've just got to keep working. We've got to get better in a lot of areas. Free throws, three-point shooting. We're taking enough threes, we're not just making them.”

The Hoosiers didn't seem like they came out ready to play. While they did win, it's still important to think about that start and how they need to fix that. In Big Ten play, that isn't going to fly. At the end of the day, however, Mike Woodson didn't have a good answer for why his team started so slowly.

“If I knew that, I could really answer that question,” Woodson said in regards to the slow start. “I mean, as coaches, we think we're ready to play every time we step out on the floor, and it didn't happen tonight. For whatever reason, it didn't. But at the end of the day, the guys made the plays that they needed to make to secure the win, and that's what counts.”

Perhaps one of the reasons was because of the emotional game against Kansas that Indiana had right before this game. It's hard to bounce back from a loss like that.

“That's a great question,” Woodson said when asked about the Kansas game having an effect on this one. “My thing is it should never be that way. When you're playing this game of basketball, and especially when you're playing here at home, you should never have highs and lows like that. The Kansas game was a great game. I thought we did a lot of good things in that game, but we just fell short. That doesn't mean you come back the next game and lay an egg to start the game. That's unacceptable. That's on me, man. I was very disappointed in how we played the first half. That should never be. We've just got to — I've just got to keep working as a coach to get them better to make sure that we don't put ourselves in that position again.”

One of the biggest reasons why Indiana basketball was able to complete the comeback against Morehead State was the play of Anthony Walker. He was terrific down the stretch, and Woodson dubbed him the MVP of the game.

“Phenomenal,” Woodson said of Walker. “He deserves the MVP tonight. He played 22 minutes, had 18 points, nine rebounds. By far his best game since he's been wearing an Indiana uniform. We needed every bit of it to win this game tonight. He gets the game ball based on what he did tonight. But again, I'm not taking anything away from Morehead. They played a great game. I'm just pleased that we didn't quit, could have easily thrown in the towel and said, hey, we'll get ready for the next game, but we didn't do that. We kept fighting and was able to get the win.”

Another huge part of the comeback stretch was the fact that Indiana shut down Jordan Lathon. He had 30 points in the game, but he didn't score in the final nine minutes.

“Well, we really struggled with the pick-and-roll up top,” Woodson said in regards to Lathon. “It's something that we haven't done all year. Then he got away. He made some tough shots. I knew they were going to go to him at the end, and I thought they got the switch that they wanted with Malik, but Malik just held in there and kept his ground and was able to get a tip, his hands on the ball when he shot it. I thought Gallo started to really take the ball away from him some. When he got rid of it, I told Gallo not to let him get it back if he could so he was trying in that area to keep the ball out of his hands because he was basically the hottest player on the floor.”

Indiana basketball waited until the very end to make their run. They were struggling going into the break as well as they trailed by nine, but they still came out in the second half playing poorly. Woodson noted that the halftime discussion was a difficult one.

“Well, again, it wasn't real pretty,” Woodson said, regarding the halftime talk. “Based on how we were playing. We were awful. You've got to give them credit because they competed the first half. Our fans don't come out to see stuff like that. I was very disappointed. We got it going late in that seven-minute mark is when we really dug in and did what we needed to do.”

The Indiana basketball team now has just two more games before Big Ten play takes over. The Hoosiers play North Alabama and Kennesaw State before the new year. Those are the only games that Woodson is focusing on.

“Can't concern myself with the Big Ten right now,” Woodson said. “We've got a game on Thursday. That's (North) Alabama — they're the next team up. Then we have another game after that, after the Christmas break. Then we start the Big Ten. We're two games away from the Big Ten. I can't concern myself with that right now.”

If Indiana basketball wins those last two games, they will be in good shape heading into conference play.