Make It Stop

I gotta tell you, this rebuilding process is really starting to wear on me.  I found this game completely uninteresting.  I wasn't looking forward to watching it like I normally do and I certainly did not enjoy actually watching it.  There was no resistance, no fight.  I think Tom Crean has done miracle work to keep this team fighting over the last two years, but the team seems to have lost their fight this past week.  It was not surprising to lay an egg at NW after those good efforts and tough losses at Illinois and versus Purdue.  However, they have typically avoided the lackluster performances in back-to-back games.  Unfortunately, after tonight, that is exactly what has now occurred.  A telltale sign in tonight's game was that IU forced just 3 turnovers in the first 36 minutes of the game (OSU did also have 3 unforced turnovers by their bench players in garbage time at the end).

Once again, the Hoosiers got off to a horrible start and went down 9-0 in the first 4 minutes of the game.  Then they played solid for the next 9 minutes and outscored OSU 20-13 to cut the lead to 22-20.  After that, it got just plain ugly and OSU went on a 12-0 run over the final 7 minutes of the half for a 34-20 halftime lead.

In the second half, the Hoosiers showed some brief signs of life, but any signs of hope were short-lived and this one turned into an ass-kicking.  It actually got to that embarrassing point where OSU was constantly dunking on us, blocking our shots, and laughing at us.  They were even trying fancy dunks and missing, but nobody cared because it was already a beat-down.

Some additional thoughts:

• Jordan Hulls played well and had a career-high 13 points including a perfect 3-3 from the arc.  He added 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and only 1 turnover.
• Christian Watford's jumper looked good as he was 2-3 from the arc and had a couple nice mid-range jumpers, but he looked rediculous trying to take it to the rack.  He was flat out teeing them up for Dallas Lauderdale to swat them out of there.  Eventually, you want Watford to develop that true inside outside game, so he can be difficult to defend.....however, I think this was poor coaching and preparation.  Watford should have been coached to stick to his pull-up mid-range game and his outside game rather than taking it right at Lauderdale.  By the way, Hulls also served up a couple easy ones to Lauderdale.
• Verdell Jones struggled tonight. Started very slow from the field and had 5 turnovers.  It's pretty clear that IU is going to struggle when Verdell struggles.
• Jeremiah Rivers just needs to be better.  Coming into this game, you had to believe he was going to be tasked with guarding Evan Turner.  Instead, he commits 2 stupid fouls in the first minute of the game and had to sit down.  Fortunately, Turner picked up his second foul just a couple minutes later and sat the rest of the half.  Regardless, they were dumb fouls by Rivers.  On the offensive end, he just needs to be better.  I could go into more detail, but I just don't feel like it right now.
• Pritchard continues to not add much to this team.
• Capobianco was OK.
• Dumes stayed ice cold.
• Elston went back into the dog-house.

There aren't any signs of hope in the near future as the Hoosiers head to the Kohl Center this weekend and then Michigan State comes to town next week.

This nightmare of a massive rebuilding effort continues and doesn't look like it will end any time soon.

I just re-read this post before publishing it and realized that my performance on this blog is reflecting the Hoosiers performance on the court....lackluster.  Fuck it.