Column: What happens at halftime?

If college basketball games were 20 minutes, IU would be an upper-echelon Big Ten team.

Alas, the NCAA regulates 40-minute games. IU (15-12, 5-9) fell to No. 14 Wisconsin (23-5, 10-5) last night, 69-58.

The Hoosiers were rolling in the first half. They led 29-19 and held the usually proficient Wisconsin offense in check.

Then halftime happened.

For whatever reason this season, IU has had consistent trouble at halftime. And this isn’t an anomaly. It’s a definite trend.

IU has played 18 games against BCS schools. That means all 14 Big Ten games, plus Washington, Connecticut, Syracuse and Notre Dame. The Kennesaw States and Stony Brooks of the world were not evaluated for the following data.

Of those 18 games, IU has held a halftime lead in nine of those games. So, in the first half against stiff competition, IU is 9-8-1 (IU and Illinois were tied at halftime on Jan. 31, and IU lost).

Yet, the Hoosiers record in those 18 games is 7-11. Moreover, IU has been outscored in 11 of 18 games in the second half.

Amazingly, in those 18 games, IU has actually averaged a lead at halftime. They’ve outscored opponents by an average of 1.1 points in the first half.

In the second half, you guessed it, the Hoosiers continually get beat. They’ve been outscored by an average of 2.7 points in the second half.

Recently, the second half woes have gotten even worse. In the last nine games, IU has led at halftime in eight of them.

Eight of nine games.

If I were allowed to use exclamation points, I would, to illustrate how crazy that number is.

In that one game where they didn’t have the lead, against Purdue, IU was only down by five.

Those last nine games have also featured four double-digits point swings. Against Nebraska, IU was outscored by 18 in the second half. Against Minnesota — 12. Purdue — 13.

And last night was the worst of all.

After outscoring the scorching-hot Badgers by 10 in the first half, Wisconsin proceeded to drop 50 points on the IU defense and outscored the Hoosiers by a staggering 21 points.

As a columnist, I’m supposed to assert my opinion. But, in this case, I don’t need to. The numbers speak for themselves.

The great thing about numbers is they aren’t biased. They don’t have an agenda. They don’t lie.

The facts are, in the last nine games, IU has held leads in eight of them. The Hoosiers are 8-1 with halftime leads.

In those nine games, IU’s actual record is 3-6.

Once again — facts.

Who knows what happens at halftime. Do the players just become lackadaisical and lose focus? Is IU that easy to figure out strategically, so opposing coaches just have to make a few adjustments, and then the other team can stop the Hoosiers with ease?

I don’t know the real reason. It’s probably a combination of all of those things.

But whatever the reason, the second half showings for the Hoosiers this season, with a few exceptions, have been abysmal.

That’s a fact.

@EvanHoopfer