FanPost

Next Five

Fantastic game last night. I was excellent to see them get over the top against a quality opponent. The fact that it was Illinois, and that the cries (pun intended) about Weber are starting to swell in Champaign, make it even that much more sweet.

There will likely be some talk about how this victory will be the turning point. Which is probably hogwash. This is still a young, thin team. They are almost certainly going to remain inconsistent and crap the bed from time to time.

However, this should be a turning point for us as fans. For the last three seasons, we have had to satisfy ourselves with moral victories. In two of the last three games, our beloved Hoosiers have gone out and have held an opponent to under 20 points in a half. Not coincidentally, they have won those games. They also laid an egg at Iowa. We can and should hold the team to the standard set by the Michigan and Illinois games. It's time for us to start measuring this team by the ultimate objective standard: wins and losses.

That is not to say that we should expect them to win every game or expect them to finish with a winning record. They might; that'd be great. But we should expect them to win the games that they should win, and also the games which they can win. Looking at the next five games, here's what I expect from them:

  • At Michigan State. L. Sparty is reeling, but I think that last night's loss to Michigan probably serves as a wake up call, and we pay the price.
  • Minnesota. W. IU played them strong in Minny. I do not expect IU to be favored. This is not a game they should win. It is a game that they can win, and I expect them to do so.
  • Iowa. W. This is a game we should win. The players should be so fired up over what happened last Sunday that they had better come out on fire. I do not expect a mental lapse here.
  • At Purdue. L. That's a good team. I don't think we have an answer for Johnson.
  • At Michigan. W. I do not expect Michigan to shoot as poorly as they did in Bloomington. This is a team we can beat. We need to be able to do this on the road. We won't be favored, but this is a game I now expect us to win.

What do the rest of you think? Is it too soon to start expecting our team to win? Are my expectations of these games unrealistic?


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