Indiana Basketball: 5 Reasons Hoosiers Can Bounce Back from Loss to Nebraska

The Hoosiers are well on their way from that disappointing one-point loss at Nebraska last Wednesday night. They responded with what I felt was a must-win game at home against Penn State and beat them by 19 points on Sunday.

The Hoosiers face a favorable schedule in the last month of the Big 10 schedule, and should turn things around and back to a positive.

This team is too good to have played so badly in their three-game skid a few weeks ago, and I feel these are the reasons why they will bounce back.

Couldn't Handle Success

I don’t think this team was ready for the success and attention it received by starting out 15-1 on the season. All but three of these players were on the previous lousy teams, and when you start out 15-1, it’s a shellshock.

They always say it’s harder staying at the top than on the road reaching it. I think that’s exactly what happened to Indiana.

When you beat Kentucky and Ohio State, people expect you to beat Minnesota and Nebraska with ease. I think the players fell into this group as well instead of staying focused. They just looked like they expected to win and not have to try as hard.

What they didn’t realize is that every game from here on out, you’re getting every team's best shot. It makes their season to knock off a team ranked as high as Indiana was. Instead of hunting for the bullseye, like Hoosiers have the last few seasons, Indiana had the bullseye directly on their back.

I think now this team knows how to handle success after getting a harsh reality check.

Better Focused on Defense

What made this team great in the non-conference and against Kentucky and Ohio State was their defensive intensity. The Hoosiers played great team defense, and got their hand on a ton of loose balls. They were setting ugodly numbers for deflections in a game.

On the three-game skid, it looked like they felt they didn’t need to try on defense. They went from lock down defenders to matadors. It looked like they all wanted to exert their energy on offense rather than defense.

That hit rock bottom when I notice guys not fighting through screens, and just stopping at them and letting the opposition shoot. You cannot do that in Big 10 play, because every team has sharpshooters and will hit an open shot.

Then, I noticed guys not wanting to stay in front of the ball, and help side defense was caught staring at open space. Instead of taking charges, they were just reaching their arm out, and I can tell you that doesn’t work. When you have the bullseye on your back, players aren’t going to let matador defense stop them. They will go to the rim as hard as possible.

I think this team will be disciplined enough to start playing hard team defense and force difficult shots once again for the opposition.

Favorable Schedule

After losses to Minnesota and Nebraska, you wouldn’t think the schedule would matter, but I do believe this team will fix its problems and get back to winning ways.

The Hoosiers don’t have to play Ohio State the rest of the regular season. They host Michigan State and Illinois and don’t have to travel to either school, and get Wisconsin out of the way tonight.

The toughest games will be at Michigan and Purdue, but if the Hoosiers play with solid intensity for 40 minutes, I think they win those games.

If they can win those games and take care of the easy must-win games, then success will just snowball into more success instead of a negative like it was in the middle of the season.

Competition Coming

As we get later in the year, I expect practices and games to intensify for Indiana. There’s realistically 10-11 guys that play on any given night for them with two that don’t get as much playing time. At the end of the year, only three of them are leaving due to graduation, and none of the three are looked upon for huge outputs on either end of the floor.

The Hoosiers have the top-ranked recruiting class coming in with realistically five guys that can all come in and start. These guys coming back know that and want to fight for playing time now and show they deserve some time next year.

With minutes tough to come by at the end of this season and definitely next year, the intensity will rise ever more considerably, and when the intensity rises, good things happen.

This team will be a tough out when they have their intensity going to 40 minutes. With the players realizing the sky's the limit, why not play now, because you may be the 12th or 13th man next year if you don’t.

Cody Zeller

Cody Zeller is literally the glue that holds this team together. He has turned this program around by himself. The scary part is after all of his success so far, he’s getting better and better by the game.

I think he will emerge as a big time leader by the end of the season as the Hoosiers are figuring out ways to get him the ball in the post.

If he’s improved to an even bigger force, teams will be forced to continually double him every time he touches the ball. Luckily for the other four guys on the court, he is one of the best passers I’ve seen at finding the open man for a big guy.

Indiana has been in a shooting slump, and that’s been the biggest culprit to these losses. Christian Watford and Verdell Jones III have been nonexistent, and even Jordan Hulls was missing shots he was making earlier in the year. I don’t give credit to any of the teams' defense that they’ve played; it was just a slump and bad play by the Hoosiers.

In the second half against Penn State, the Hoosiers finally found their touch, and I put a lot of reasoning behind that to the dominant play of Cody Zeller in the first half. Penn State was forced to defend him heavily and that opened up open looks for the Hoosiers and they capitalized.

This can continually happen, and I think the shots will come back and Zeller’s play will elevate.