The Final Week

After what has been a long and roller coaster like season, Indiana University’s (IU) postseason hopes may very well hinge on their remaining two conference games at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (SSAH) starting Wednesday night when IU hosts the Gophers of Minnesota, followed by the Badgers from Wisconsin on Saturday afternoon.

A second chance at securing a spot in the NCAA Tournament awaits next week in Indianapolis at the Big10 Tournament, but past history doesn’t bode well for the Hoosiers chances of making a run there. Especially when their NCAA hopes are on the line. For that very reason alone IU needs to take care of business in these remaining two games and secure their spot in the field of 64, and then play next week a little more pressure free.

The road hasn’t been particularly kind to the Hoosiers this year, in fact, they’ve played downright awful at times. The lack of energy and effort in some contests this year has been a head scratcher to say the least. In my opinion, when IU comes ready to battle they can play with anyone in the country. Are they somewhat flawed? Absolutely. But they have also shown that when they are locked in, especially on the defensive end of the floor, they can be pretty good.

Yesterday (3/1/2020) IU traveled to Champagne to take on the Fighting Illini. Because of the above paragraph, as a fan, you sometimes just don’t know what to expect. IU had two road games last week, and even though Illinois came in ranked #23 in the country I still felt it was their best chance to win another road game. They struggled at times on both ends of the floor, and didn’t play particularly smart at times, but they competed. I felt as though they stuck together and battled for 40 minutes. They never quit, and due to some previous games this season, not quitting hasn’t always been what we’ve seen from them.

When you factor in that it very well may have been the worst officiated game I’ve seen this season, not quitting says a lot about how much this team battled yesterday. I don’t usually complain too much about officials. Oh sure, I do about a call here or there, but I also accept that the home team is more times than not going to get the majority of the calls, especially the 50/50 calls, but that’s not what we saw yesterday. Officiating across the country has been pretty inconsistent this year in my opinion, but I’m not sure there is an adjective to explain the inconsistency we’ve seen in the Big10.

We all know that the Big10 has a reputation for playing a physical brand of basketball. Which by the way I think hurts Big10 teams in their non-conference games, including the post season. But no matter what, just be consistent. Officiating shouldn’t change from game to game, and it shouldn’t really change within game unless tempers start running high. And last, but definitely not least, it damned shouldn’t sure shouldn’t change from possession to possession. Bad calls and no-calls are two different things, and we saw our fair share of both yesterday.

Kofi Cockburn, Illinois freshman center is good, and he is one big individual. With that having been said, his size doesn't, or shouldn’t, allow him to clear space with his elbows, nor allow him to take one hard dribble and put his shoulder into the defenders chest to knock him off balance on his way to the basket. If it does allow that then the defender shouldn’t be penalized for bracing himself to absorb that contact. Him being allowed to initiate the contact is one thing, but calling a foul on the defender after that contact is ridiculous. To Cockburn, and Illinois credit, they kept going inside to him because we had no answer, and the refs had no clue.

Three calls/no-calls upset me more than all of that though. Awarding the Illini a timeout when they didn’t have possession was one of them. Okay, maybe that’s one of those 50/50 calls that a home team just gets. Maybe. But number two on the list is the obvious foul on Al Durham’s 3 point jumper. Al may not be known as a knockdown shooter from deep, and he may throw up some strange looking shots towards the basket when driving the lane, but he is not going to miss a squared up jumper by 6 feet. He’s just not. And this was in open space with a referee not 10 feet from the play. What was he watching? At first glance it was where Durham’s feet were when he left the floor, as it should be. But from that point on it appears to me he was looking straight at the play and just swallowed his whistle. Number three was Rob Phinisee being tripped, and yes, he was tripped.

This is another example of the inconsistency. I actually saw a Tweet that said, “Refs just aren’t going to call that in a late game situation.” Bullshit. Because you know what, a foul in the first minute of the game is a foul in the final minute of the game. Letting them bang and tackle each other in the lane and then calling a hand check 30 feet from the basket is ruining the game in my opinion. The only thing yesterday’s referees were consistent in was being inconsistent. Unfortunately it’s becoming the norm and not the exception.

But here we are in the final week of the season and the Hoosiers have two perfect opportunities to solidify their spot in the NCAA field. I think they’re in right now, but I also think that losing two at home would put them on the outside looking in, so there’s definitely still work to be done. Neither game is a given by any means, but I think the players, the coaches, and the fans are up to the challenge. It’s time for Indiana to be playing meaningful games in March again and that starts Wednesday. So get yourselves to SSAH and show these guys that we have their backs and that we believe in them.

GO HOOSIERS!