Indiana men’s went to Columbus looking to end the season on a strong note after a series of highs and lows meant another early March on the bubble. A 30 point win over Minnesota earlier in the week inspired some confidence that this team might get its groove back, but it didn’t matter unless Indiana could beat Ohio State.
Indiana could not beat Ohio State today, falling 91-78 with the season on the line.
The final score doesn’t reflect just how ugly it looked at points, which is a testament to these
players’ willingness to tough it out no matter what. But being down by 17 at the half in a must-win game is a lot to come back from, even for teams with more roster depth and balance than this year’s Indiana team.
By the final buzzer, Indiana came up short.
Here are 3 takeaways from the game:
Fight
Twice in this game, once in each half, the Hoosiers went on big runs that could have brought them back into the game. That is not what happened after the runs, though.
In the first half, Indiana went on an 8-0 run to bring itself within one possession, trailing 28-25 with just under eight minutes left in the half. By halftime, Ohio State had a 17-point lead.
Things went further Ohio State’s way for most of the second half, as the Buckeyes extended the lead out to 25 at one point. But then Indiana had another run that brought them within 10 points with over three minutes to play – striking distance for a team that can shoot like Indiana.
Unfortunately, Indiana squandered that momentum as well, going on to lose by 13 points.
Familiar story
If you missed today’s game but had watched the rest of Indiana’s season, the result would not have been much of a surprise. Indiana was overmatched athletically, which limited what it could do on offense and made the defense basically a non-factor.
We’ve seen this team overmatched like this against better teams, Michigan State, Michigan, and Illinois to name a few, but today’s loss to the Buckeyes was for the same reason as those losses. The other team just had better players.
With a short bench, this group has appeared to regress recently, which isn’t a reflection of their talent. The top three or four guys, namely Lamar Wilkerson, have just been asked to do too much over the course of a 31 game season.
Unless the bench provides a huge, unprecedented spark next week in the Big Ten Tournament, it’s unlikely that this team has the legs for a deep run in the conference tournament.
That’s a wrap on the regular season and maybe more
Indiana had to win this game to have a shot at an NCAA Tournament bid, even with Wisconsin’s win over Purdue likely giving the Hoosiers an extra Quad 1 win. Indiana was not on the right side of the bubble entering this one, and losing in this fashion should be the final nail in the coffin.
With how the Hoosiers have played down the stretch of the season here, it would be hard to make the case that this team deserves a spot in the field of 68. Winning a home game over Northwestern could have helped Indiana avoid a situation like this so late in the year, but, like today’s must-win, Indiana came up short.
As we’ve noted, this is an old team, with very few players from DeVries’ rotation having any NCAA eligibility left. Given the high roster turnover we are staring down for the second straight postseason, it would not make much sense to accept a bid to another postseason tournament like the NIT.
Barring a deep run in next week’s Big Ten Tournament, the focus for the program will quickly turn to the offseason, when this staff will have a second crack at building a roster, likely another starting lineup, largely from scratch.
