Let's just get this Indiana basketball season over.
Why prolong the pain? The Hoosiers need a break, a lot of off-season individual work (can you say defense?) and some new players (thank heaven for Cody Zeller).
As for what's left of this season, well, at least we know, courtesy of guard Verdell Jones, that Indiana is tired of losing basketball games.
The problem is, there isn’t much the Hoosiers (12-17 with a six-game losing streak) can do about it. The make too many mistakes and the Big Ten is way too strong.
Losing at Ohio State 82-61 Sunday wasn’t a surprise. The Buckeyes (27-2) are aiming for a Big Ten title and will be ranked No. 1 today in the wake of Duke’s loss at Virginia Tech.
Still, IU’s poor shooting has become a major problem on top of defense that has been, to be diplomatic, erractic. Yes, Ohio State’s defense was a factor, but the Hoosiers missed enough open looks for three games. They wound up 20-for-52 (38.5 percent). The shooting woes even affected guard Jordan Hulls, who entered the game shooting 50.9 percent from the field. He was 1-for-9.
Jones was the scoring leader with 14 points, but was just 4-for-10 from the field. Christian Watford added 12 points, but was just 3-for-9. He had five turnovers.
This puts IU at 3-13 in the Big Ten. Yes, that is last in the conference. Iowa also is 3-13, but has the tiebreaker by sweeping Indiana.
The Hoosiers host No. 12 Wisconsin Thursday night and play at Illinois Saturday afternoon. They have no momentum and no real shot at winning either game. Right now it looks like they would open next week’s Big Ten tourney play against Penn State, but that depends on what happens this week.
The merciful thing is, at least Indiana’s season will be over by next week.
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Indiana’s women’s basketball team also has had a season to forget. It's reward is getting to open with Purdue on Thursday afternoon in the opening round of the Big Ten tourney at Indianapolis’ Conseco Fieldhouse.
The Hoosiers finished 9-19 during the regular season, 3-13 in Big Ten play to get the No. 10 seed. Purdue went 19-10 overall and 9-7 in the conference and are the No. 7 seed.
Michigan State is the No. 1 seed. It went 13-3 in conference action and 25-4 overall.
IU has won this event once – in 2002.
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IU got four individual winners en route to a runner-up finish in the Big Ten men’s indoor track meet at Illinois. It was the Hoosiers’ best team performance since winning in 2005.
Derek Drouin won the high jump, Andrew Poore won the 5,000 meters, Andy Bayer won the 3,000 meters and Kind Butler won the 200 meters.
The Hoosiers finished with 104.5 team points. Minnesota won with 117.333
Also, IU’s women’s track team finished fifth at the Big Ten indoor meet. Faith Sherrill won the shot put and finished fourth in the weight throw. Emma Kimoto tied for fourth in the high jump. Monique Riddick took second in the shot put.
I kind of feel bad Cody Zeller.
ReplyDeleteIt's not going to be all that much better next year and I think people are expecting it to be. Of course Crean is going to end up with the brunt of it, but you'd be crazy to think that Cody Zeller won't have some of the nearly two decades of frustration deflected in his way.
As a life long fan, player and student of the game, I have to say Crean is the not the guy who will another banner in assembly hall. IU should have improved this year. I am tired of hearing about youth and inexperience, this is year 3 of the train wreck. Crean does not run any executable offense, poor substitution patterns, is it any wonder that hulls is not scoring now? defenses have picked him up. he has to create his own shot as there are no screens or plays designed to get him open...sad truly sad....I never thought it could get any worse than the Mike Davis era....I guess I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteI agree the season needs to be over. Coach Crean talked about "accountability" after the Purdue loss. Where is the coaching accountability? In his third year IU finishes 3-15 in the Big Ten? Crean's overall road record is 3-40? Is this worth the 2 plus million he is paid per year. Is there really any progress?
ReplyDelete"Just because the past taps you on the shoulder, doesn't mean you have to look back." Mo Creek posted this today.
ReplyDeleteI believe in my hoosiers all the way! Every year I see improvement in this team. But reality is, all the other big ten teams have improved as well. Most of the teams at the top of the league have senior leadership that are their program's best players.
Indiana's time WILL come and all the doubt and negativity WILL be washed away. GO HOOSIERS!! Always going to support them and Tom Crean no matter what!
I BELEVE IU IS THE WORST SCREENING TEAM IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL.HULLS,JONES,AND CREEK BEFORE HIS INJURY HAVE TO WORK SO HARD TO GET THEIR SHOTS EVERY GAME.CREAM HAS SHOWED HE IS A VERY POOR COACH WHEN IT COMES TO STATEGY,FIRST AND SECOND HALF AJUSTMENTS,PLAYER ROTATION.HIS MOVES FROM GAME TO GAME ARE HARDLY NOTICABLE,I HOPE HE CAN TURN IT AROUND THE NEXT 2-YEARS BUT I REALLY HAVE MY DOUBTS.P.S.CREAM NEEDS TOSIT DOWN ON THE BENCH AND QUIT THIS WALKING UP AND DOWN THE SIDELINES,HE CAN'T THINK AND WALK AT THE SAME TIME
ReplyDeleteCrean is a nice guy. However, he is not the man to bring IU a banner. Just not going to happen. If you know ANYTHING about basketball you can see this. The defense is weak and there is no desire. He had his first year team play with desire...now with his recruits here, they don't play hard.
ReplyDeleteNotre Dame and Purdue are ranked in the Top 10. IU has another losing season.
Seriously...what is wrong with the above two sentences? I never would have imagined typing that ten years ago.
If Crean stays another year and goes 12-17, are the "we love Crean, he's a nice guy" people going to eventually turn?
well last season they won 10 games and they definitely haven't had a healthy team all season and being in the toughest conferences in the nation. Not very good odds.
ReplyDeleteI still believe in Tom crean and getting rid of him would definitely mean starting all over from the sampson era. and since there are obviously a lot of IU fans that don't have patience, I would think firing tom crean would be the last thing any fan would want happen.
I didn't even bother to watch the OSU game. Need I say more?
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