Analysis: It was a bad loss but goals are still ahead of the Hoosiers

Indiana’s luck in tight games against inferior opponents finally ran out Saturday night at Penn State.

And the game I was most worried about heading into the big matchup against Iowa next week materialized.

Penn State 68, Indiana 63.

This is a bad loss. It won’t get better as time goes on. When seeding is done for Selection Sunday this one will come up.

But it’s still just one loss. I saw that one of my colleagues on Twitter wrote that Indiana had lost its chance at winning the Big Ten title.

That’s a little premature isn’t it. Beat Iowa on Thursday and you’re at the very least back into a tie for first place. When you consider you have two games left with Iowa and one with Maryland, it’s difficult to say your shot at winning a Big Ten title is over. You have all of your goals and dreams ahead of you. You just have to win big games.

And mark it down right here: Indiana will beat Iowa on Thursday.

I don’t care about Penn State. Indiana plays better against better opponents and the Hoosiers are unbeaten at Assembly Hall. It will be a bright lights game and my guess is that Indiana will come out and take it to the Hawkeyes.

I’m not nearly as confident with Sunday’s game at Michigan State. But if Indiana can come out of next week with a split I think you have to be happy with that considering the opponents.

Saturday night was a bad game for the Hoosiers. And as bad as the Hoosiers played Penn State was letting IU hang around in much the same fashion as the Hoosiers were treating their hosts. Eventually you let Penn State hang around too long and the Nittany Lions were able to score the upset.

I’m not ready to write off the Big Ten title based on one dismal performance but the reality is that Indiana needs to bounce back in a big way against Iowa.

Do that, knock off a top 10 ranked team, and you’ll at the very least be back into a share of first place in the Big Ten.

On the other hand if this turns out to be the beginning of a three-game skid, then there will be a lot of interesting discussion on this board a week from Sunday night.

We’ll see.