Indiana’s four-game winning streak to close the regular season came crashing to a halt on Thursday as the Hoosiers lost 79-75 in their Big Ten Tournament opener against Ohio State.
IU came out flat and had a pitiful offensive first half. The Hoosiers hit just nine of their 30 field goal attempts and went 4/15 from beyond the arc but managed to stay in the game with their defense, trailing the Buckeyes 35-28 at the half.
In the second half things got worse for the cream and crimson. Ohio State took control out of the locker room and rode that momentum to a 20 point lead with just over seven minutes left in the game. Indiana managed to claw its way back, but it was too little, too late and the Buckeyes took the win.
1. Devonte Green
The junior that has earned a reputation for doing both good and bad things like a pint-sized Troy Williams managed to do a lot of good things for the Hoosiers in this game. He poured in 26 points for IU against the Buckeyes, leading the team by a big margin, on 9/15 shooting and an 8/10 performance from downtown—that’s absolutely unreal. Sure he had four turnovers, but he also had four assists and added two blocks and two steals on top of that. This was Green’s best performance as a Hoosier and he was the reason that they had a chance to win at the end of a game in which they were outplayed in almost every category.
2. Where was Romeo?
No, not “wherefore art thou Romeo.” Wherefore doesn’t mean where and it’s been overdone. Langford disappeared for much of this game. He hit a three-pointer two minutes into the game and it looked like he could get off to a decent start—then it took him nearly 24 minutes to score again. In the closing moments of the game he hit a pair of layups that were significant, but it wasn’t enough. This was one of Langford’s worst games as a Hoosier and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. The freshman star finished the game with nine points. He shot 4/12 from the field and 1/5 from three-point land, but he did manage to contribute with six rebounds and five assists.
3. NIT Time?
That probably does it for Indiana’s NCAA Tournament hopes. As we wrote earlier this week IU-OSU was probably a play-in game. A loss means that the Hoosiers are seemingly destined for the NIT. This would be IU’s second NIT appearance in the last three years and if you don’t remember how the last one went, it wasn’t great. Once the Hoosiers get into the NIT the question becomes will they host and how much effort will they actually put into the event, though if you want to remain optimistic never say never with regards to a tournament bid.