The given was not such a given. The excitement pouring out of Bloomington quickly switched to hot takes and defeatism.
Four days removed from dominating Michigan on the road and earning the respect it’s been craving, IU traveled to Penn State and lost 68-63 in a truly ugly display of basketball from both sides.
It was not a good loss. Nobody is going to claim it is. But losing a Big Ten game on the road isn’t an indication that all is lost.
Yet there is a larger reason why this loss hurts. It’s time to buckle up, IU fans. IU might lose three straight basketball games. It plays Iowa on Thursday and Michigan State on Feb. 14.
After dominating the early Big Ten season and putting itself in good position to recover from some losses against the toughest of the Big Ten to end the season, IU lost one of the easy ones in that stretch.
The Hoosiers are entering a stretch where every loss matters, and it lost to a team whose only Big Ten wins before were against Minnesota and Northwestern.
In a vacuum, it isn’t that bad of a loss. Purdue lost to Illinois. Michigan State lost to Nebraska at home. These losses happen. It’s just the timing that makes it so difficult. IU absolutely needs to steal one of the next two games now.
IU was a team clamoring for impressive wins before. Now, the résumé has another loss to an unimpressive opponent.
It has four losses to teams KenPom.com has ranked No. 50 or worse.
The big picture issues from this loss don’t stem simply from the things that went wrong in the game. What was more concerning was the way IU failed to compensate for senior guard Yogi Ferrell on his rare off night.
Ferrell has had about two bad games all season. In those two games, IU struggled as a whole. Others haven’t stepped up like one would hope. In those two games, IU barely squeaked by an awful Minnesota team at home and lost to Penn State.
A guy like Ferrell, who is playing on a different level this season, should be able to have an occasional off night and not have to worry about his team failing to take over against a team like Penn State.
Junior forward Troy Williams was on the bench during crunch time Saturday night. He also didn’t start the second half. Is IU Coach Tom Crean starting to experiment with a bigger role for freshman forward OG Anunoby?
Anunoby plays efficiently, and he can lock people down. He is already becoming what people hoped Williams would be. It feels like more of a team with him on the floor.
I’m interested to see if this experimentation increases.
In the end, I don’t think losing a game like this is so awful. It happens. They played poorly for a night and struggled. What matters now is how they respond.
“I’ve praised our leadership for two-plus months and rightfully so,” Crean said. “I’m not feeling that way tonight.”
Brody Miller
