Indiana Basketball: Best and Worst case scenario for Hoosiers in 2019-20
By Adam Childs
Hoosier Hysteria is in the book and we are less than a month away from the start of the college basketball season. What can we expect from Indiana basketball this year?
The Indiana Hoosiers enter the 2019-20 season with a lot of uncertainty. Last year they were supposed to make big strides with five-star recruit Romeo Langford and the return of Juwan Morgan. Archie Miller looked like he had the team going in the right direction and the Hoosier faithful were dreaming big.
The season started off great including a big win against a Marquette team who ended up being one of the best in the Big East. The start would also include wins against Louisville and Butler and they were flying high at 12-2 when they beat Illinois on January 3rd. They seemed like a lock for the NCAA tournament.
But then a trip to Michigan and an eleven point loss started a string of really bad play. They would lose 12 of their next 13 games with their only win was a shocking overtime win at Michigan State. The streak included bad losses to Northwestern and Nebraska and also a horrible 23 point loss at home to Michigan. It was a streak nobody saw coming and showed the flaws in the Hoosier team.
Langford played ok but didn’t shoot well, Morgan disappeared at times. The rest of the team seemed to lean on those two-way too much and if they weren’t playing well they lost and usually lost badly.
They would look a lot better during a four-game winning streak to end the regular season when they beat Wisconsin in overtime and Michigan State again. But a loss to Ohio State in the first round of the Big Ten tournament kept them out of the NCAA tournament and sent them to the NIT.
They did make it to the quarterfinals, avenging a regular-season loss to Arkansas but came up short against Wichita State to end their season. It was a disappointing end to a year the Hoosiers thought would end possibly in a Sweet 16 berth in the tournament. Instead, they were left to wonder what if and question if Miller is the right man for the job.
With less heralded players this year, could the Hoosiers actually be better? Or will they fall even further down the Big Ten? We take a look at the best and worst-case scenarios for the Hoosiers for the 2019-20 season.