Todd’s Take: Instantly Forgettable Game From An Indiana Season Slipping Into Irrelevance

MADISON, Wis. – Last Saturday, I wrote a column in the wake of Indiana’s 81-76 at Purdue that could fairly be labeled as being glass half-full.

I wrote about how Indiana’s fight was right against Purdue and if that fight could be replicated the Hoosiers could salvage something of a season that was starting to slip away.

I knew the no-moral-victories crowd would hate it, but I wrote it anyway. There are moral victories sometimes whether people want to acknowledge them or not. Indiana had one it could theoretically build upon.

I wrote it, and as with everything I write, it’s how I honestly felt.

Sometimes, though, what you write isn’t always the complete picture of how you feel. It’s more like a snapshot of one opinion you have from a multi-faceted topic. Columns don’t leave any means for interpreting what is left unsaid.

I thought about that even as I wrote that post-Purdue column. I had a line in it that was self-deprecating, but also sarcastic – something like, ‘Now watch Indiana get beat by 25 at Wisconsin after I write this column.’

I sliced it, because it didn’t fit the tone and it was unnecessarily snarky.

But did I feel like that could be an outcome from Indiana’s game at Wisconsin on Tuesday? You bet I did. I had a sneaking suspicion, for basketball reasons, that Indiana was up against it because the prolific Badgers were a bad matchup for the Hoosiers.

But even more so, I just didn’t trust the Hoosiers to be able to bottle what they did right at Purdue and do it again. This team is long past the point where you can trust them to be consistent at anything.

But I left it all unsaid. I wanted to give the Hoosiers the chance to prove my suspicions to be wrong.

Unfortunately for Indiana, that gut feeling I had – and I’m certain I wasn’t alone in having it – came to pass. The Hoosiers didn’t get beat by 25 on the scoreboard – Wisconsin won 76-64 in a margin that really flattered the Hoosiers – but it certainly felt like a 25-point loss in your heart of hearts.

Almost from the minute Wisconsin’s wide-open Steven Crowl hit the Badgers’ first shot of the game from 3-point range, the result of a late defensive closeout, you instantly knew the Hoosiers were in big trouble.

Wisconsin has really leaned into the analytical concept of scoring at the rim or from 3-point range at the exclusion of all else. No team has prevented Wisconsin from running its 3-point dominant offense.

Indiana didn’t seem to want to try. One late closeout after another allowed Wisconsin to do a 4th of July fireworks grand finale in reverse. The Badgers unleashed an opening salvo on the Hoosiers that put Indiana behind 26-4 with barely seven minutes elapsed. By the 11:30 mark, Wisconsin was already 7 of 8 from 3-point range.

It was embarrassing for Indiana – especially considering that what Wisconsin was doing to them was no big surprise – and there was no way to run away from it. After the game, Indiana coach Mike Woodson tried his best to explain it.

“We were terrible in transition early, they got a few there. You figure if you can take some of those away, you’ve got a game,” said Woodson, who also called Oumar Ballo and Malik Reneau’s defense on Wisconsin stretch bigs “terrible.”

In a weird way, when the game got more respectable for Indiana is when it got a whole lot worse. After its initial supernova of points, Wisconsin played down to Indiana’s level, and frankly, didn’t play very well over the final 30 minutes. Indiana outscored Wisconsin 60-50 after spotting the Badgers that 26-4 lead – a statistical distinction more so than any reflection of the quality of Indiana’s performance.

The Hoosiers made a bit of a mini-run at the end of each half, but never threatened to flip the outcome. Indiana trailed by 12 at halftime, not an insurmountable deficit by any means, but then fell behind by 19 again within five minutes of game time.

It was just a miserable slog. Hard to watch at times from both sides, but from Indiana’s point of view, it just seemed pointless. An exercise in filling time without any meaning to what we were watching.

I will occasionally look back at seasons I covered, see a score, and have no recollection of the detail in that game. This one richly deserves to join that club. A game that deserves to be instantly forgotten.

The sad thing for the Hoosiers is that as the losses pile up the whole season is taking on the irrelevant vibe that this single game did.

With every game, a little part of those who wish well on the Hoosiers dies as opportunities to turn fortunes around keep slipping through their fingers.

What is memorable about this season in a good way? What’s the biggest win? Providence? Ohio State? There’s not a whole lot of there there as the Hoosiers are concerned.

Fans will occupy themselves with the blame game, most of it aimed at Woodson. That’s understandable, but I don’t think anyone representing Indiana is innocent here. Players, coaches, they’re all culpable.

Indiana has put themselves in a position that is close to untenable as far as preseason goals are concerned. All of the home games must be won and probably at least one road game to have any chance of a NCAA Tournament shot. On paper, it can be done. In spirit, who believes it will be?

Tuesday’s loss at Wisconsin felt a lot like a long-time TV show in decline that’s in the final season of its run. The episodes you don’t go back to when you go back for a re-watch.

It’s sad, because it feels like the passion is gone, but it’s understandable, too, because when passion isn’t demonstrated with any consistency on the court? Why would anyone expect that it would be off of it?

It’s a season fading into irrelevance.