Another home loss puts Indiana's Big Ten title ambitions in doubt
Only two games into conference play, Indiana’s hopes of capturing a second straight Big Ten championship are already in some jeopardy.
A Hoosiers team expected to contend in the Big Ten has started league play with back-to-back home losses.
Indiana had hoped to bounce back from last week’s stunning loss to Nebraska on Tuesday night, but the 25th-ranked Hoosiers instead floundered during a pivotal late-game stretch against 13th-ranked Wisconsin. Five straight points from Wisconsin guard Zak Showalter sparked a 10-2 Badgers run, enabling them to close out a 75-68 victory at the free throw line during the final two minutes.
Only twice in the past 10 seasons has the Big Ten champion even suffered as many as four league losses. By that standard, Indiana would have to go 14-2 the remainder of Big Ten play just to give itself slim hope of a co-league title, a highly ambitious goal given the Hoosiers’ tough remaining schedule and season-long inconsistency.
While Indiana (10-5) has proven itself capable of seismic victories with wins over Kansas and North Carolina, the Hoosiers have been equally susceptible to head-scratching losses. Their loss at Fort Wayne was one of the biggest surprises of the season so far, and stumbling at home against Nebraska wasn’t much better.
Turnover-plagued offense, wayward outside shooting and erratic defensive effort have typically been the culprits in Indiana’s losses this season. The Hoosiers don’t have a point guard they can depend on with Yogi Ferrell having graduated, Pittsburgh transfer Josh Newkirk struggling and James Blackmon being asked to create more off the dribble than he is capable of handling.
Those issues were a factor in one of the critical stretches of Tuesday night’s loss, a 16-2 game-opening surge by Wisconsin. Indiana committed four turnovers during the run and was lackadaisical closing out on shooters, forcing the Hoosiers to expend a ton of energy the rest of the first half to dig themselves out of that early hole.
Credit Indiana for clawing its way back into the lead behind the interior scoring of freshman De’Ron Davis, but some curious lineup choices by coach Tom Crean contributed to the Hoosiers’ eventual demise. The game-changing 10-2 Wisconsin run came with Davis, Ronald Johnson and Juwan Morgan on the bench and non-threats Freddie McSwain and Josh McRoberts both on the floor.
Crean eventually called timeout with 4:30 remaining to get four substitutions into the game, but by then Indiana already trailed 66-59. The Hoosiers got no closer than within three the rest of the way.
While Indiana has some winnable games the next two weeks that should allow it to get back on track, the Hoosiers’ schedule stiffens considerably after that. Two games remain against Purdue, Michigan and Northwestern, as do road games against Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio State, Iowa and Maryland.
Will Indiana win some of those games? Undoubtedly. But will the Hoosiers win enough of them to remain in Big Ten title contention? That’s a tall order for any team, let alone one so prone to inconsistency.
– – – – – – –
Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
