Indiana Basketball: Best and Worst case scenario for Hoosiers in 2019-20
By Adam Childs
Worst Case Scenario
The Hoosiers start the year 4-0 before getting back-doored to death in an upset loss to Princeton. They then lose to Florida State in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge before losing their Big Ten opener at Wisconsin. They make it three in a row when they lose to UConn at Madison Square Garden.
They end their rough stretch by losing to Notre Dame and Arkansas, which gives them five non-conference losses. It doesn’t get much better when they lose twice to Ohio State, Maryland, and Minnesota in Big Ten conference play. They also lose again to Wisconsin at the end of the year. In between, they lose to both Michigan schools and win only six Big Ten games. They finish only ahead of Northwestern and Rutgers in the conference and miss not only the NCAA tournament but also the NIT. They don’t even get invited to the CBI.
Individually Devonte Green can’t duplicate his end of the year success and struggles to be the main guy in the offense. He averages under 10 points per game and his shooting touch disappears.
Jerome Hunter who looked great at Hoosier Hysteria, can’t translate that to games and struggles to be a complement to Green. Highly rated freshman Trayce Jackson-Davis shows flashes of being really good, but plays like a freshman too often and can’t be relied on. Armaan Franklin, another freshman, struggles also and rarely sees the court.
Joey Brunk, a transfer from Butler, gives them next to nothing. Overall the Hoosiers continue to struggle to shoot from the outside and must try to grind out games and they can’t do it enough. They barely average 60 points a game and the Hoosiers fans get restless.
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Archie Miller, who once was hugely popular with fans, is fired and the Hoosiers are looking yet again for a new man to lead the program. With Kelvin Sampson still working his magic in Houston and Tom Crean bringing in great recruiting classes to Georgia the Hoosiers are left wondering what could have been.
Indiana is left rebuilding yet again and it looks like it could be a few more years before the Hoosiers make the tournament. To make matters worse in-state rival Purdue exceeds expectations and makes the Final Four.