Indiana Basketball: State of the program moving forward
By Tyler Smith
Indiana basketball is in the midst of a weird but exciting finish to the season, but looking forward could bring even more excitement for Hoosiers fans.
One word comes to mind when thinking about the 2018-2019 Indiana Hoosiers season… Weird.
The Hoosiers started 12-2 and 3-0 in the conference. They were well on their way to a top four or five-seed in the NCAA Tournament. They blasted Marquette. They took care of Louisville. Even though the offense wasn’t fully clicking, this team looked like a force to be reckoned with.
Since then? The Hoosiers have gone 3-12. But the three wins are against Michigan State (twice) and Wisconsin.
The crazy thing is, despite 14 losses on the season, you could argue that none of them were “bad” losses. You could also argue that Indiana is STILL within striking distance of the NCAA Tournament because of the big wins coupled with the weaker bubble teams in this year’s field. They have seven Quad-1 wins. They have zero Quad 3 or 4 losses.
No matter what you think about this crazy season, many fans were already writing off next season- and that’s a big mistake.
“But we are losing our two best players! We’ll be even worse!”
Is that possible? Sure. Anything is possible. But unlike many other sports, success or lack thereof is not always linear for college teams.
Losing Juwan Morgan will be a big loss. Romeo Langford will probably go pro. And I still think Indiana will be better next season. Here’s why: