Column: IU cannot settle for moral victories

MADISON, Wis. — Moral victories don’t count for anything.

They never have, never will and certainly can’t mean much for IU after Thursday’s contest at Wisconsin.

In the 69-60 loss, continuing the season-long trend of losing away from Assembly Hall, the Hoosiers could not finish what was, by all accounts, an impressive start.

Realistically, not many expected IU to beat Wisconsin. I didn’t. The result is nothing more than what was assumed.

That being said, IU very well could have won this game. And if IU wants to be any better than it has been the past two seasons, it needs to finally win something just like this game.

The weak non-conference slate that IU dominated has been well-documented, but when the competition has increased, IU hasn’t quite met the challenge this year.

Several times, the Hoosiers have come close. And it’s easy to begin thinking in terms of moral victories when close seems good enough.

There were many admirable things that the Hoosiers did at the Kohl Center on Thursday that would certainly seem to amount to a moral victory.

Sophomore guard Jordan Hulls played lights-out for most of the game, scoring 10 points in the first five minutes and finishing the game with 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting.

Junior forward Tom Pritchard played very well defensively, a trend that began against Michigan last week.

Junior guard Verdell Jones scored his 1,000th point and, despite some foul trouble, gave a solid effort.

And, most importantly, the game was close and remained close throughout against the No. 17 team in the country at a building that has been tough for everyone, but especially IU. The Hoosiers haven’t won in Madison in their last 10 tries.
So what does that count for — 10 moral victories within one game?

But IU can’t settle for that. It can’t settle for “well, that was a pretty good effort against a good team.” It’s not crazy to think that IU played one of its better games last night.

It can easily be argued that in 100 games at Wisconsin, IU would win less than 10.

Again, I’m not saying Thursday’s result is shocking.

Settling for Thursday’s result, though, is unsettling. IU coach Tom Crean and the players have not yet, but that's the danger going forward.

At IU’s talent level, the rest of the season can easily become one in which the team looks for such moral victories while stringing along a few wins against lower-level Big Ten teams at Assembly Hall.

During the past two seasons (in which long losing streaks were the norm) and this season in which the team has struggled, moral victories have to be among the biggest concerns for the team.

It can not settle for anything less than real, more-points-than-the-other-team-at-the-end-of-the-game victories.

A good effort is no longer good enough.