At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 11, Bloomington cable subscribers had a panoply of choices.
The informed citizen might choose “PBS NewsHour.” Thrill seekers could check out the 2000 Nicholas Cage vehicle “Gone in 60 Seconds” on FX. And for those who can’t get enough drama, Bravo had a rerun of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”
But if they really hated themselves, Big Ten Network had just the program.
Indiana men’s basketball fell 85-66 to Penn State, its third-straight loss since returning from winter break.
As is the case when evaluating any of the Hoosiers’ losses in 2023, you have to acknowledge the absence of graduate guard Xavier Johnson and graduate forward Race Thompson. That’s an almost unquantifiable level of production forced to sit on the sidelines.
You have to wonder what Indiana could have accomplished with Thompson and Johnson on the floor. It might have — oh, I don’t know — held Penn State under 58% shooting from the 3-point line.
That statistic sounds fake, or at best cherry-picked from a small sample size. If only.
Penn State was virtually untouchable from beyond the arc, knocking down 18 3-point shots. The Hoosiers fruitlessly chased Nittany Lions around the perimeter, occasionally leaving them wide open.
It was as if Indiana tried to leverage a bit of Cartesian philosophy wherein denying the existence of the 3-point line on defense would render Penn State unable to score from it. But the Nittany Lions shot uncontested a bunch of times; therefore, they scored a ton of points.
Just to make sure nobody lost track of the 3-point barrage, Penn State’s student section featured a steadily growing row of signs inscribed with a blue No. 3. At one point, the broadcast panned to the 3-point tracker, where a toddler was struggling to carry one of the signs to the end of the absurdly long line. For what it’s worth, even though she looked too young to have mastered object permanence, that toddler likely could have drained a 3-pointer against Indiana’s defense.
Obviously, the Nittany Lions’ offensive fireworks will grab most of the attention, but the Hoosier offense shouldn’t get off the hook too easily. Once again, it seemed like all of Indiana’s points had to flow through star senior forward Tracye Jackson-Davis, who finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
To be fair, four different Hoosiers scored in double figures. That’s not bad. However, a complete inability to stretch the floor and generate open looks for large swaths of game time is not what you’d call innovative basketball.
While Indiana limited its turnovers to 11, it certainly made the most of them. Charmin-soft passes straight to defenders were accompanied by missiles sent directly into the stands.
The Hoosiers occasionally perform quite well. Their play includes far more than errant passes and defensive lapses. However, those errors — some mental, some physical — have paved the track on which head coach Mike Woodson is currently driving the struggle bus in circles.
Indiana game recaps are starting to enter Mad Libs territory. Pick an adjective that could easily describe the scene of a natural disaster, a synonym for lazy and a method of transportation during 19th century wartime and you have a lead, no problem. Don’t believe me? Watch.
Devastated by injury, Indiana’s sloppy defense overshadowed another double-double by the freight train that is Jackson-Davis. Obliterated by injury, Indiana’s slothful defense overshadowed another double-double by the workhorse that is Jackson-Davis. Wrecked by injury, Indiana’s lackadaisical defense overshadowed another double-double by the SS Edmund Fitzgerald — you get the idea.
There’s still time to right the ship, but it’s unclear how that can happen. For now, find a synonym for fantasy and call it a pipe dream.
