It’s been an eventful 10 days for the Indiana Hoosiers men’s basketball team. After playing one of the easiest schedules in the country in their first seven games, nobody knew what to expect when the real season began on Dec. 3 against Florida State. The Hoosiers responded by dominating #17 Florida State by a score of 80-64 in Bloomington. That Florida State team already had wins this season over Purdue, and two highly ranked teams.
So the Hoosiers showed everyone they’re legit, right?
Not so fast.
Over the years, we’ve grown accustomed to Indiana winning big games at home only to then struggle on the road. Just four days after the big win, the Hoosiers traveled to Wisconsin to begin conference play, and they got embarrassed. Granted, the Kohl Center has been a house of horrors for Indiana for two decades. But to not even show up in the first Big Ten game of the year? The thoughts of “here we go again” entered the minds of fans, and who could blame them?
This past Tuesday, Indiana had a quick opportunity to get the bad taste of that loss out of their mouths, and they passed the test by beating UCONN at Madison Square Garden. It wasn’t a pretty game by any means, but any win away from Assembly Hall is noteworthy. Games like that will go a long way for IU’s tournament chances in March.
“I can’t say enough about our response,” coach Archie Miller said. “It’s not easy to take the medicine we had to take on Saturday (at Wisconsin) by not really playing the right way. We were much better in the toughness category. We were much better in certain areas defensively. Obviously it was a grinder of a game. Guys stepped up.”
So what kind of team does Indiana have? An unpredictable one. Don’t be surprised if they win a lot of big games and look great. Don’t be surprised if they look lost at other times, especially on the road. Overreacting one way or the other to certain games isn’t recommended. Especially in Big Ten play, anybody can beat anybody on any given night.
I’m sticking with my original prediction — I think this is a tournament team and a top-seven team in the Big Ten Conference. I also think they could be dangerous in March, as some of Archie Miller’s teams in Dayton were years ago. They’ve got to clean up the turnovers and not lose focus so easily to accomplish their goals.
The next three games are important for the Hoosiers to get. They host Nebraska Friday night in their first home conference game. They play Notre Dame in the Crossroads Classic on December 21st. They then host Arkansas in a non-conference game on the 29th.
There’s a good chance the Hoosiers will crack the Top-25 rankings next week if they beat Nebraska on Friday. (They were 29th in total votes before the UCONN victory.) Indiana should definitely enter the rankings if they take care of business in these next three games. There will be plenty of ups and downs this year for the cream and crimson. It’s a talented group that has a great chance to go dancing in March. Enjoy the ride.
Tyler Smith covers the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Hoosier basketball for Indy Sports Legends. Smith is also the youth pastor at New Hope Christian Church, and the varsity girl’s basketball coach at Crawfordsville High School.
