Analysis: Three reasons IU is done in the B1G Tournament

I didn’t expect Indiana to win the Big Ten Tournament.

I also didn’t expect the Hoosiers to bow out as the No. 1 seed against No. 8 seed Michigan on Friday afternoon.

But unfortunately, of the two scenarios, I would have thought the latter had a better chance of happening than the former.

For whatever reason, Indiana basketball has not fared well in the conference tournament.

In 19 tournaments, the Hoosiers have been knocked out in the first game 10 times. TEN TIMES ONE AND DONE.

The last time the Hoosiers played on a Saturday in the Big Ten Tournament was 2006.

And now three times Indiana has lost at the buzzer in the Big Ten Tournament. It started with Iowa’s Luke Recker (when arguably the clock operator in Indianapolis started the clock a split second too slow) and later with Minnesota’s Blake Hoffarber in Dan Dakich’s interim season as coach.

The third time, and the charm if you will, was Kameron Chatman’s 3 from the right corner with 0.2 seconds to play Friday that eliminated the Hoosiers 72-69.

So what was Indiana’s problem Friday and how did the Hoosiers get knocked out of the Big Ten Tournament in the first game?

Here are a few takes:

1. Collin Hartman has to be better: He took two shots, both 3’s, and missed them both. He had three rebounds and one turnover in 20 minutes. But he just didn’t make an impact and when Indiana has played well, Hartman has made an impact. He also looked lost on a couple of back door cuts early that resulted in Michigan layups.
2. Indiana was 4 for 17 from 3-point distance: I’m not saying that Indiana has to be connecting from deep but … in the last nine games coming in to the B1G Tournament, the Hoosiers had made at least eight 3-pointers in each game and more than 10 five times. IU relies on the long ball and if that’s not going in, then the Hoosiers simply have to be more efficient inside. And that wasn’t the case on Friday.
3. IU has to be stronger with the ball: In the last 16 games, Indiana has had 15 or more turnovers three times. One of those times was Friday. In those three games, IU was 0-3. In the other 13 games, when the Hoosiers turned it over 14 times or less, Indiana is 12-1. Indiana simply has to be stronger with the ball.
So where does Indiana go from here?

The answer is that the Hoosiers will likely still be a top 4 seed on Sunday when the brackets are revealed but there’s now a chance that the Hoosiers could be sent out West or somewhere a lot farther away than St. Louis or central Iowa.

If that were to happen, IU would only have its self to blame after Friday’s performance .