Todd’s Take: Indiana Players Suffer The Worst Kind Of Loss – The One You Can’t Explain

INDIANAPOLIS – In life? Whether good or bad, clarity is the desired outcome.

Losses always are tough to swallow, but particularly in Indiana’s case Thursday. The Hoosiers had their NCAA Tournament fate in their control if they could defeat Oregon on the second day of the Big Ten Tournament.

Alas, that didn’t happen. In a competitive game that got away from Indiana in the final seven minutes, Oregon prevailed 72-59 to put the Hoosiers’ postseason fate in serious doubt.

It would have been easy to explain the loss had there been something obvious that went wrong. It would be a stretch to say it was statistically even, given that Oregon had a 49.1% to 36.2% advantage in shooting over Indiana.

It would also be ignoring the facts if Indiana’s 5 of 10 performance at the free throw line wasn’t mentioned. Oregon had a 12-5 edge in points at the line.

Those are all true, but during the game all of those things felt like they could be overcome. For Indiana, this was a loss in the style of death by a thousand cuts.

The missed free throws hurt, especially two misses on front end of one-and-ones in the second half. But at the time those shortcomings revealed themselves, it was still a contest and Indiana was still in the fight.

Until it suddenly wasn’t. It’s the worst kind of loss for players – a slow motion unraveling that feels subtle when you’re on the floor. There are things to blame, but no one was blameless. It was hard for the Hoosiers to put into words.

“It’s definitely frustrating. We feel like we were the better team and we should have won the game,” Indiana guard Anthony Leal said.

Timing was everything in this loss for the Hoosiers. Indiana got its deficit down to a single possession on four different occasions in the second half. In every one of those situations, the Hoosiers had at least one shot to tie the game or take the lead.

They weren’t able to do it, leaving the door open for Oregon to respond with a counter-punch.

“We just had a few plays that we needed to go our way that didn’t, and that was able to change the momentum in the right time for Oregon,” Leal added.

Oregon deserves credit for sticking it to the Hoosiers when the Ducks were given the chance to do it, but there was an element of the unexpected to some of the production.

Brandon Angel is a solid, veteran player for Oregon, but you don’t count on him to score 14 points when he last reached that total more than five weeks ago. Nor do you expect him to hit a hook shot at the end of the shot clock to help the Ducks erase one of Indiana’s one-possession deficits.

Keeshawn Barthelemy is a solid 3-point shooter, but you don’t necessarily expect to have him hit a late dagger 3-pointer.

“They had some guys that we weren’t expecting to make some big shots that hit some big shots and were able to stop the runs that we went on. We competed and we thought we should have won that game, and that’s pretty frustrating,” Leal said.

TJ Bamba was a thorn in Indiana’s side all day. No more so than when he hit a well-guarded hook shot at the end of the shot clock after Leal missed the front end of a one-and-one at the line.

Indiana got few of those kinds of breaks, another frustrating aspect of the defeat.

“It’s crazy. Sometimes the basketball gods just don’t reward you for playing good defense. I feel like a lot of times we had really good defense by the end of the shot clock and they found a way to put the ball in the hole. There’s nothing you can do about that. You play your heart off for 26-to-28 seconds and stuff happens,” Indiana center Oumar Ballo said.

Indiana players said they weren’t distracted by the NCAA Tournament ramifications. Leal said he ignored it. Mackenize Mgbako said it was in the back of his mind, but not his overriding thought going into the game.

Now, after a frustrating game where Indiana was good enough to believe they could win, but didn’t, the Hoosiers have a long wait until they learn their tournament fate on Sunday.

What happens is now out of the Hoosiers’ hands. Mgbako cut right to the core of Indiana’s situation.

“We’ll prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” said Mgbako, who was productive with 12 points, but who was off the floor for 17 minutes with foul trouble. Mgbako and Ballo were the only two Hoosiers with a positive plus-minus against the Ducks.

The loss may have been to explain, but the stark reality isn’t. Indiana had a chance to control its fate, and it didn’t. We’ll see how deep the regrets will turn out to be on Sunday when the NCAA Tournament field is selected – with or without the Hoosiers.