Iowa 96, Indiana 90 (OT): That’s all, folks

And with that, we can all go home now.

After leading for well-more than the balance of the basketball game, Indiana drops their 5th straight game and 7th in their last 8. Per the KenPom numbers, it’s the worst loss for this team since the Nebraska calamity in mid-December. Peter Jok led all scorers with a massive 35-point outing. Robert Johnson paced Indiana with 19.

The Hoosiers now sit ahead of exactly one team in the Big Ten standings — Rutgers.

What’d we learn?

Indiana shouldn’t be this bad, and it’s hard to conceive why they are.

Indiana, without a lottery-level OG Anunoby, wasn’t going to be a great team this season. But they, still, should’ve been a good enough team with decent play from him — and at least a tournament team without him.

That won’t happen.

From the outside, it’s hard to exactly diagnose what in the world went so wrong for this Indiana team. Injuries assuredly played a role, and the massive impact of the departures of Yogi Ferrell and Troy Williams were likely not realized until some time in January. Tom Crean’s teams have always been able to rely on perimeter shooting as a staple food. This one hardly does it consistently. The pieces don’t fit well together. But, still, as with above -- this team should’ve probably been able to make the tournament.

It’s impossible to know what’s going on inside a locker room unless you’re there — and we often oversimplify complex problems to create a “fixable” solution. Is it a player problem? Is it a coach problem? Hard to tell, hard to assign that from the outside. But something clearly seems broken inside the locker room of this particular Indiana team, and god knows what it was.

It’s no matter now, however.

2. Fouls!

God, shucks, there were a lot of those, huh? 57 (!!) total in this game, with four Indiana players fouling out — something that likely cost a thin Indiana team this contest, ultimately.

This game was bad, I’m not writing any more about this because I want to go to bed.

3. This is probably it.

I don’t know anything. I do not break news. But, like, man, well. Yeah. Yeah.

Take it away, Chad.