This is actually going to break down into "One Thing We Learned and Two Things That Are Still True No Matter How Bad It Seems."
- When the three pointers don't fall, it will get ugly fast. This is something we all assumed / somewhat knew going into the year. While Indiana's three-point shooters will be the reason they win most of the games they win this year, if there were ever a night where they were all ice cold, the Hoosiers simply hasn't shown that they possess the defensive ability or offensive diversity to carry them to victory otherwise. Nights where one or two of Zeisloft, Yogi, RoJo, or Blackmon is off can be overcome but to have all four of them bricking left and right is a recipe for a blowout, pretty much regardless of the opponent.
- Losing in East Lansing (in January) isn't typically a reason to declare the season over. No one on this planet overreacts much better than college basketball fans, and Indiana's are no exception. This is still a flawed roster, but their postseason résumé is far from complete. A loss to Michigan State on the road, no matter how it came about or what the final margin is, will still only count as one loss in an eighteen game conference slate. It is up to this young team, and their head coach, to learn what can be learned from a beatdown like this and then bury it.
- All of Indiana's goals are still in front of them. A win in Lincoln and a loss in East Lansing was a pretty common pick for how IU would start their conference slate. You obviously want to see them play better than they did tonight, but that doesn't change what they can achieve in the future. This is essentially the same point I just made above. Tonight was a terrible game to witness and even Twitter went down so the hilarious tweets that always come from sports misery weren't there to comfort us. GUH.
WE'RE ON TO (checks schedule) OHIO STATE.
COOL.