Column: The inconsistency continues

What a dramatic difference four days makes.

Roughly 92 hours after IU basketball was at the top of the mountain after taking down No. 3 Wisconsin, an avalanche of missed jump shots and poor perimeter defense drug the Hoosiers back down to where they started.

One giant step forward. One equally giant step backward.

IU (12-6, 2-3) may have had its most disappointing outing of the season when they lost to Northwestern (9-10, 2-4).

The Hoosiers scored 47 points while shooting 25 percent from the field.

Let me reiterate: 47 points.

I could throw statistics at you to manifest the poor shooting, but the simple fact is IU was miserable on offense.

Actually I changed my mind.

These statistics are so alarming I’m going to throw them at you anyway.

IU was 15-60 from the field. Counting free throws, the Hoosiers missed 49 total shots.

Sophomore guard Kevin ‘Yogi’ Ferrell was 2-14 from the field for nine points.

Graduate student guard Evan Gordon was 3-12 from the field for seven points. One of his misses came with IU down four with 22 seconds left.

Gordon opted not to drive the lane, and instead took a contested step-back three, which he air-balled.

“Terrible shot,” IU Coach Tom Crean said of Gordon’s attempt. “No question about it … There’s no excuse for that.”

Freshman forward Noah Vonleh was the lone bright spot for IU. He had 17 points and 12 rebounds.

He made five field goals, which accounted one-third of the team’s total field goals.
IU’s offense was putrid.

But that wasn’t the most discouraging part for me. Sometimes you have days where the ball just doesn’t want to go in the hoop. It happens to every team.

The lack of offense production wasn’t due to a lack of effort.

But the defense? That’s another question.

The Wildcats were equally inept from the offensive end in the first half, shooting 28 percent.

But the Wildcats shot 50 percent in the second half.

That is ridiculous and not acceptable if you’re an IU fan.

It’s not like Northwestern was lighting the world on fire coming into today. They had averaged a woeful 51 points per game in conference play.

And they hung 32 points in the second half against a team that statistically had one of the country’s best defenses.

The lack of effort on the defensive side of the ball was abysmal. Northwestern’s Tre Demps scored 12 straight points at one point.

He was getting clean look after clean look. Sure, he was hot. But if you’re an IU defender you have at least try and disrupt his rhythm.

When your offensive is game is struggling that’s when the defense needs to step up.

And the Hoosiers lied down.

Demps finished with 15 points. Drew Crawford hung 17 against the Hoosier defense.

Like I said, the offense can be excused to an extent. Sometimes it isn’t your day with the whole getting the ball into the basket thing.

But a team has complete control over two things that aren’t tied to the opponent: attitude and effort.

On the defensive end of the ball, the effort wasn’t there.

And that’s how you lose to a sub .500 team four days after beating the No. 3 team in the nation.

All the trekking the Hoosiers did against Wisconsin was negated with this loss.

IU has to start over now.

And the Big Ten sure is a big mountain to climb.

-ehoopfer@indiana.edu