IU basketball doesn’t seem to care a whole lot; why should we?
This is IU basketball, and nobody cares. Nobody’s impressed. Not the other team, not game officials. Not in this state, not in other states. Not at football schools, not anywhere. The Hoosiers dropped another dud of a game to another dud of a program, 8374 Saturday to a Penn State team going absolutely nowhere.
The Hoosiers have lost four in a row and seven of their last nine, they’ve been swept by Nebraska and now Penn State, and are 0-2 combined against Rutgers and Northwestern. At this rate more losing could be in the program’s best interest, and I generally hate that way of thinking. Losing is almost never a good idea, but there are exceptions, and the 2023-24 IU basketball team has finally found a way to be exceptional:
Keep losing, and the team might get the reset it needs after the season.
Coach Mike Woodson isn’t getting it done, and almost everyone outside of the IU basketball office knows that, but as we’ve discussed at length — and won’t do it much more here — the school cannot fire Woodson. Not after three seasons. It would look terrible, and looks wouldn’t be deceiving. Unless.
Unless the Hoosiers (14-13) don’t win another game this season — which could happen. Check their remaining schedule. See an easy win on there? Me neither. Entering Saturday, the easiest-looking game left was the one they just lost by nine to a 13-14 Penn State program that recently kicked its leading scorer off the team.
IU basketball hasn’t been this bleak since that 6-25 season of 2008-09, but there were mitigating circumstances 25 years ago: The Hoosiers were starting over after an NCAA investigation that gutted the roster.
This is different. IU finds itself at the intersection of poor play and poor effort, and the results are devastating. And not just on the scoreboard.
Not even the game officials respect IU. Did you see what happened midway through the second half?