Hoosiers searching for answers after third straight loss
By TYLER SMITH (@TylerSmith_ISL)
ISL Editor
(Photo by insidethehall.com)
BLOOMINGTON — It’s been a rough seven days for the Indiana Hoosiers. They lost their third straight game on Tuesday night, falling to the Wisconsin Badgers 75-68 in front of a surprisingly quiet Assembly Hall crowd. They’ve now started conference play 0-2, and have yet to play a conference game on the road.
“There’s a lot of season to play,” Coach Tom Crean said after the loss. “We’ve had a rough week. There’s no question about that. But it’s the first week of January and our guys have to understand that.”
The Badgers started the game on a 13-0 run, something you just don’t see in this building.
“I don’t even know what to tell you about how we started the game,” Crean said. “It made no sense to me.”
“We didn’t come out ready,” said Hoosiers forward Juwan Morgan. “We broke down completely on our defensive coverages, and that’s not who we are. It’s all of Indiana’s fault. It’s not one player or one coach. It’s all of us.”
That makes two straight home games where an Indiana player said they weren’t ready at the start of the game. Robert Johnson had similar comments after the Nebraska loss.
After the terrible start, the Hoosiers fought their way back in the game, and even led during a few brief moments. They’ve been down by double-digits to Butler, Nebraska, Louisville, and Wisconsin, and have fought back in each of those games. The problem is, they’ve still lost each and every one of them.
Morgan, Johnson, and De’Ron Davis all scored 12 points to lead the Hoosiers. Davis was once again a bright spot, shooting 5-of-7 for the game and bringing the muscle inside. Thomas Bryant continued to struggle, with only six points and three rebounds while giving up lots of buckets to Ethan Happ (19 points, 8-of-11 shooting).
Indiana took a 57-56 lead with 7:06 to play, and then the wheels came off. Wisconsin finished the game on a 19-11 run, sending the Hoosier faithful to the exits in angst.
“This is a game of segments,” Crean said. “Against the best teams you cannot have bad segments. You can’t have a bad segment at the end of the game.”
Indiana had such a promising start to the season with wins over Kansas and North Carolina. They were ranked in the top-10 and looked to be in great shape heading into conference play. Now, it’s an un-ranked team who might be trending towards the bubble watch unless they can turn things around.
We know this much: the players aren’t losing confidence.
“We have to come together as one,” Juwan Morgan said. “This is the time when you have to pull everybody in. I’m not frustrated at all. I’m confident in all of us.”
As Crean said, it’s just the beginning of January. But early season losses hurt the tournament resume, and this team can’t afford many more of them.
