Indiana 58 - Wisconsin 69: Roughly As Expected

Indiana has now lost 4 games this season where they have led by double digits. Let that stat sink in for a moment before we continue. The Hoosiers have had 10+ point leads against Penn State, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin. They have lost all four. Now I'm not about to argue that we should have won last night's game. Wisconsin is definitely the better squad and they were failing miserably in the first half to hit open shots, but the other three really explain a lot about this season. It's depressing.

But enough about previous conference let downs, let's discuss last night. For any of you that watched the first thing that enters your stream of consciousness was that it was the Yogi and Noah show for the entirety of the night. Those two played 72 of the 80 minutes available to them, scored 42 of the 58 points and used up 58% of our offensive possessions. Yogi and Noah were really the only positives on offense.

Ultimately though, I don't think dropping last night's game should be too upsetting. Even with a 10 point lead at half time the game flow charts tell us that we only had a 48.5% chance of pulling out the victory. Wisconsin was missing shots in the first half and finished with only .7 points per possession. Indiana's defense was playing well, but it wasn't playing that well. Water was going to find it's level.

Boy did it ever. It didn't just level out and find Wisconsin doing better, but they started to go above and beyond. Their second half reminded me of some blistering shooting halves that Jordan Hulls and Christian Watford have put together throughout the years. The Badgers shot 62% in the second half, including going 6 of 11 from three. It was brutal, it was efficient and it would have been a beautiful thing to watch if it wasn't us on the receiving end. Sometimes you just get beat by a better team and that's what happened in the second half.

Defensively things could have been better. Troy Williams was a goat in that sense. Over and over he was getting abused on the dribble or burnt going under screens. Just a poor game for the freshman as he was taken advantage of over and over again. Crean tried to swap some things around a few different times, but there just wasn't an answer of 5 guys that Wisconsin couldn't find a weak spot against. Kudos to Wisconsin in that sense. It truly was a spectacular second half.

Overall, this game was what we ultimately expected from this. You would have loved to see Indiana seize that first half momentum and continue to run with it in the second half, but it wasn't meant to be. This team just still needs time to grow. Youth isn't an excuse for losing to Purdue or Penn State, but it certainly makes sense on the road against an experienced and very skilled Badgers squad.

Next on the plate is a game tomorrow against Iowa. This is the one that was rescheduled after Assembly Hall shed a single tear of sadness for how this season has gone. Pomeroy gives them a 34% chance of victory and depending on what half you decided to commit to memory from last night, that's either way too low or too high. It's really up to your imagination.