COMMENTARY: Frustrated Hoosiers suffer worst home loss

Frustration was in abundant supply Thursday night at Assembly Hall. So was exasperation.

Not the aggressive, defeatist kind that generally renders useless whomever it infects. Nonetheless, it sat in the storied building, souring further as a stale second half erased the hard work that left the Hoosiers down one point after 20 minutes.

Most frustrating, perhaps, was the manner in which the second half played out, with the same salt being poured into the same wounds.

Turnovers were a problem, to the tune of 15, and assists (6) were rare. Defensive stops were hard to come by, particularly after freshman guard Verdell Jones’ short jumper put IU up 32-31 just 22 seconds into the second half.

“I just thought we got too relaxed,” Jones said about IU’s composure following that bucket.

Perhaps the Hoosiers did – it would explain the 18-4 run Wisconsin used over the next nine minutes to push the game beyond reach.

That type of point surge is yet another of those wounds – one that has troubled the Hoosiers often this year.

Illinois began their 76-45 win in Champaign on a 21-2 spurt. Ohio State rode an 18-0 wave to pull away in the first half of the Hoosiers’ next game. Michigan State’s 18-5 run helped them take firm control of the game in East Lansing, Mich., just two weeks ago.

But each of those defensive missteps and their respective losses came, at least, on the road. Assembly Hall had been a sanctuary from such trouble, a Thermopylae at which the young Hoosiers could use the comfort of home and all its trappings to stand against an army of deficiencies.

The Hoosiers’ last two home losses – 13 points to Illinois and Thursday night, 17 points to Wisconsin – have been their worst.

Both defeats have also been record-setting, for most single-season losses (then 18, now 19) and single-season Big Ten losses (12), respectively.

So frustration, in the face of all that, would seem at very least inevitable. But until Thursday night, the Hoosiers had mostly managed to stave off such feelings, at least in public.

Jones and Malik Story, while far from despondent, still appeared worn of their recurring plight.

Tom Crean, energetic all season, seemed the same way in a postgame press conference defined by short, firm answers.

“We just didn’t do as good a job in the second half. Our communication broke down,” Crean said, betraying a bit of chagrin from a man who since April 1 has made his meal money being indefatigable.

There’s nothing wrong with any of this – it’s actually slightly impressive that it took this long. This season was always bound to try even the most patient souls.

Fans, pundits and television analysts have been fond of emphasizing that help, as it were, is on the way, specifically in the form of next year’s lauded recruiting class.

But on nights like these, and there were sure to be many, October 2009 is a long way away. A long, long way away.