The potential is there

Indiana University’s (IU) past week showed us, or at least me, that the potential is there. The potential to be a very competitive team in the Big Ten Conference (B10) as well as on the national scene. Yes they came away with a split in their two games last week, one of which was a loss to Wisconsin in Madison that was as about as disappointing as any loss could be. But for 20 minutes of that game IU showed that when they are locked in on both ends of the floor they are pretty damned good.

Out of the locker room IU looked determined to end the losing streak in Madison that dates back to 1998. They completely took the Badgers out of any semblance of an efficient offense, and by contrast, were clicking on all cylinders on offense themselves. The spacing was incredible. The screens and cuts were done with purpose. They shared the ball. They played inside out. The pushed the ball off of rebounds as well as off of turnovers. They hit open shots. Simply put, they played as good a twenty minutes of basketball that Hoosier fans have seem their team play in quite some time.

Now, I think every basketball fan in America knew that the Badgers would make a run. So the real question became, how would IU respond? On two different occasions I felt as though they had weathered the storm, only to be proven wrong. Wisconsin was able to chip away and chip away, and they did so by speeding the Hoosiers up. Whereas the Hoosiers dictated and completely controlled the pace in the first half, the Badgers flipped the script and did so in the second half.

A lot of fingers have been pointed at who, or what, caused the complete 180 from one half to the next, but just as it was a group effort to play as good a half as they can in the first half, it was also a group effort in the second half crumble. Hindsight is the perfect for the armchair coaches around America. Everyone believes after the fact that they had the answers and it was a simple solution. “So and so should get more minutes.” “A good coach would have done ______!” “Why didn’t they just ______?” Unfortunately, we’ll never know if they are right or wrong. And personally I don’t care because it doesn’t matter now. I just hope that they were able to use it as a learning experience and continue to grow.

They responded with a 81-49 win on Sunday in SSAH against Merrimack University. After somewhat of a slow start, which I chalk up to being somewhat “hungover” from giving one away in Madison, as well the early start time, they got it rolling. Now, before anyone throws out the fact Merrimack is not Wisconsin, I get it. But coming off of what could be a demoralizing loss you want to see your team respond in a positive way, and the Hoosiers did.

So many times in the past we’ve seen our IU teams play to the level of their competition, so seeing one that doesn’t do that is a very welcome change. There are flaws on this team, from the coaching staff all the way down to the end of the bench, that much is obvious. But if you don’t see that they are learning and improving every game, then I’m not sure you completely understand the game of basketball.

Am I happy about being 8-2? Well no, and I’m definitely not thrilled considering we could not only easily be 10-0, we probably should be, The two losses were in very tough places to play, but for as good as we played in the first half of the Wisconsin game they were equally as bad in the first half of the Syracuse game. But they have taken care of business in their other games and they have learned from the two losses.

After this week off for finals they’ll travel to Indianapolis to play Notre Dame in The Crossroads Classic. This is a 4-4 Irish team that hasn’t played well except for beating the then #10 Kentucky Wildcats (UK). Now, UK isn’t the 10th best team in the nation, but they aren’t Merrimack either, so if IU doesn’t come to play they’ll be in for a fight and the real possibility of another disappointing loss is there. Following this game there are two more very winnable games before we start the gauntlet that is the B10. So IU has a very good opportunity to be 11-2 to end 2021 and heading into 2022.

To sum things up for me, IU has to get better/smarter point guard play going forward. We are a better team with Xavier Johnson leading the way…BUT…playing within himself. When he has his emotions in check he is exactly what this team needs. When they aren’t in check, he’s detrimental to our success. We have to keep working toward being able to lock in defensively for a full 40 minutes. When we’re locked in on defense we are very good, we just have to have more consistency on that end. Turnovers. And it’s not just turnovers, it’s the unforced turnovers. We have to keep working towards the goal of 12 a game. While we’ve gotten better in that department but we’ve also had games in the twenty’s turnover wise, and that is simply mot going to get it done. FREE THROWS! In what has been taught and also proven time and time again since the game started being taught, free throws will both win you games and lose you games.

I’ve been under the weather and needed this week long break while the players take finals to get myself geared up and ready for the B10 season. It’s given me time to reflect on the season thus far and to look ahead at whats coming up. In doing both I’ve been able to see that there has been more positive than negative so far, which is exciting. And let’s be honest, there hasn’t been a lot of things to be excited about for a few years. So let’s all take a deep breath, and get ourselves ready for the Irish on Saturday.

GO HOOSIERS!!!