The Good news, I suppose, is that if any of us had been told on December 20, in the wake of the Creek injury, that IU's Big Ten season would include 15 and 16 point losses to Iowa, most would presume an 0-18 record. It's close enough to that as it is, and I can barely remember what it's like to see the Hoosiers contend in a game, let alone win. Here's the box score. It was a pretty comfortable win for Iowa, and the Hoosiers never led. Once again, turnovers were a huge problem for IU. IU turned the ball over 20 times in a 66 possession game, including eight times in the first ten minutes. Verdell Jones, who has been IU's only scoring threat in recent games, turned the ball over 5 times himself. There were no particular glimmers of hope in this game. Christian Watford was only 3-7 from the field but did manage to go 8-10 from the line. If Watford adds some strength that will allow him to bang inside a bit, he's going to be a very dangerous player given his shooting ability. Perhaps the Hawkeye scorer is stingy with assists (Iowa had only 9 on 22 field goals), but the Hoosiers assisted only four of 18 baskets.
Well, it's almost over. The Purdue game will be a bloodbath. Northwestern is back to being Northwestern, losing bt 19 to Penn State, but nothing the Hoosiers have shown in the last month indicates a capability to compete with any Big Ten team with a pulse. As always, I'll be watching to hope they prove me wrong, but I have no analysis to offer.