Nobody thinks IU played well Saturday. In spite of this, the Hoosiers beat an awful Minnesota team by seven on the road — and road Big Ten wins matter.
There is cause for optimism in Bloomington. The Hoosiers are winning difficult, ugly games they may not have in recent years. They’ve won 10 straight games, including a 5-0 start to Big Ten play.
Things seem pretty darn good right now.
So the question becomes: Is this back-loaded Big Ten schedule going to help or hurt IU down the stretch this year?
I go back and forth on this. Maybe it all truly depends on whether or not IU is as strong as their play has shown lately.
If these wins are purely a result of a good stretch and weak competition — because no, none of these five Big Ten wins were individually impressive — then it could be the worst thing for IU. It could mean IU potentially losing five of its seven games and ending the season lower than ever.
The Hoosiers do not play a single Big Ten team ranked inkenpom.com’s top-25 until Iowa on Feb. 11.
This launches a stretch of playing Iowa twice, Michigan State, Purdue and Maryland over the final seven games. Brutal, right?
The hope of IU fans is that this streak is something real. That would mean this manageable beginning to the Big Ten season can serve as a development period for a team learning how to play without star sophomore guard James Blackmon Jr.
That hope lays in the idea that by the time mid-February comes, IU will have itself figured out and ready to compete with the best.
That is the debate. How impressive is this stretch?
The way I see it is that talent has not been an issue much over the past few years. The problems have been things like maturity, toughness and the ability to stay composed in difficult situations.
The talent is here. We all know it. What seems to be changing is that IU is winning the games where everything is going wrong. The truth of the matter is that three of these five Big Ten wins were on the road, so that overcomes some of the opponent talent levels.
Maybe the fact that IU is winning these ugly games now will be the biggest lesson of all. Maybe once the actual basketball flaws are figured out, they will be figured out along with a more mature team.
Or, IU will go into that stretch far too confidently and without self-awareness. Those teams could show the world just how bad IU is, exemplified by the Duke game.
I know I’m the columnist, but I simply do not know.
My money’s on the notion that IU lucked into a scenario of having a preseason for Big Ten play. In a month, IU will be a month better.
I wrote after the Duke loss that I don’t think IU has that high of a ceiling. I still stand by it. But something is clicking lately, and it could be something real down the stretch.
