HoosierAloha

The foul difference was IU +5 then we went 5-1 to overtake them!

Maybe we respond to physically getting hit in the eye?

That was a punk move

We have a long way to go before there is even a foundation established. The only reason we are where we are is because IU can still draw talent which is a doubled edged sword as discussed previously. That's something that should have been set early on and built upon.

We get pressured and just happy to get it over midcourt within time. Why are we not punishing teams for pressuring us? We're junk in our halfcourt offense tonight.

Hopefully we don't go into our stretch where we start fouling here.

We got away with JHS grabbing the driver there.

That was a foul! He touched Race! How did they miss that?!

Whether you agree it's a flagrant or not they just received two freebies and the ball for a 4 point play. It was a flagrant.

Seems applicable here

Decision time... 1) foul so he can't get the shot up 2) defend and try to block the shot 3) give up the layup **** it, panic for the flagrant for the second worst outcome

They had a lot of good looks from three. When a few fell they went on a run. When they didn't they were still in the game. I'd rather not gamble on whether or not they can make enough wide open looks to win.

I don't believe I called Northwestern a bad team in this case. I don't think they were setting the world on fire when we played them? Had an ugly loss or two around the time we played them, if I'm remembering correctly. Regardless of the name on the jersey, IU had no business losing that game. It was a close game after IU slept walk for the first ~38 minutes of that game. That level is what we once were and where we should aspire to be. Instead we excuse the absolute **** of any shortcomings of this program blaming it on any and everything that limits our success. We have more talent compared to our wins. The Big 1.o is down this season and we pissed opportunities away because we were all up in our feels.

Glad we saved that timeout until it was over

We continue to foul a lot and not value the ball?

They were getting those looks before they're just hitting them now. Water finds its level. We love to compound one mistake with 5 others. Anyone want to step up and stop the slide or we cool with just getting stats?

Excellent point. the signs were there that we were going to struggle before Race went down. Is it a coincidence that we've had some struggles since he's been back? I'm sure it's just the team readjusting to having him back.

The teams we lost to were used more for comparison. We could have used kenpom/rankings/NET or anything else. The point was they lost to good to great teams while we lost to teams that were not that great and I believe several that had been struggling. Speaks to my point, when we get there and "struggle" by losing a single game to a bad team it won't matter in the big picture. When we're scratching and clawing to just make the tourney it matters. Losing a game, here and there, isn't a big deal. Consistently playing with poor effort, focus, and rudderless makes a difference too.

The team has done some good things in the last 5 games. How they won a few of those games, especially on the road against Ill, was pretty impressive. I'm not sure the quality of all those teams but taking care of business is progress. There are still things that are concerning during that stretch. Elite programs don't have the stretch we had in that fashion. I get it that we're attempting to build towards that. Year after year with this core group we've seen them tuck tail for good chunks of games/multiple games. A baseline of competing at a certain level is getting over that hump. Losing happens, it sucks but it happens, I'd much prefer a team know they're going to have to earn it. We've given a couple of games away this season. Not giving games away is part of getting over that hump.

To a certain extent. It was big news KU lost 3 straight. It's happened how many times under Self? Look at who and where they played under that 3 game tumble. It's not exactly @Iowa, home to a solid NU, and on the road to a decent PSU team.

Getting ready to pay $20k in taxes next year....?

I was hoping we'd be past laying turds this season. The dumb play is one thing but the absolute laying of turds is unacceptable to me. I thought we'd struggle with Arizona. It was frustrating how we looked during that game but not totally unexpected. We sucked against KU. We flat out didn't compete. Going 0-2 in that stretch sucks but not totally unexpected. We're a better team than that. The complete choke job against Iowa was mind blowing. That should be in the past and it wasn't on the players only. We brain farted our way to a loss there. To follow that up with the effort against NW and then at PSU is horrendous. That's what losing programs do. That was us in years past. Absolutely no reason for it. There is plenty you can learn from a game outside of the W/L column. As a program, we need to get over that hump quickly. I believe it'll take personnel changes for us to get there. Time will tell.

Would hate to see Rutger getting more and more talent. If Pikiell can get talent to buy into his system Rutger will be an even bigger pain moving forward. The other side of that is what happened with Painter and purdoodoo when he went after talent that didn't fit his culture.

It'll be interesting to see who Kopp is defending. I haven't paid much attention to Carey but don't like the matchup with Hart. Reese fouls a lot. Although, if Reese gets in foul trouble do they go completely small to Rutger or PSU us? I hope our defense is on point and disrupting theirs while we take care of the ball and play inside out. Compete on every possession and we should get another roadie.

It's February somewhere right?