Hoosier eclipse

The moon didn't exactly turn Gouda crimson last night during the Blood Moon Wolfman Jack Eclipse (or something like that.) It turned more the color of rust, which was still plenty breathtaking for those who ventured out into God's icebox to give it a look.

So I guess the analogy isn't exact between the not-quite-crimson eclipse and the ongoing eclipse of the cream-and-crimson.

That would be your Indiana Hoosiers, currently wallowing around in a four-game losing streak that has been all kinds of butt-ugly. The firearchiemiller.com domain hasn't gone viral yet, but the usual natives are getting restless in the usual way. Even some of the media has become captives of the moment, floating suggestions that Miller may have lost his basketball team.

I'm not convinced the apocalypse is that imminent. But you lose by 15 at home to Nebraska (without putting up a fight), and then by 15 in Mackey Arena to your archrival (without putting up very much of a fight), these things will happen.

It's hard not to fear the worst when a team looks as lost as the Hoosiers did in West Lafayette on Saturday, and hated Purdue looked exactly the opposite. The Boilermakers, who continue to look more coherent with every game,  had a plan and mostly executed it. But Indiana had no plan and made no adjustments to Purdue's, and couldn't even complete the simplest of basketball tasks.

Which is to say, the Hoosiers missed 11 of their 18 free throws.

There's no excusing this when you're a team with as much high-end talent as Indiana has. The current narrative that says IU is too much a two-man team (or three, counting Robert Phinisee) ignores the fact that Romeo Langford and Juwan Morgan are hardly all the Hoosiers have. This is not Romeo and Juwan and Them Others. There is talent all up and down the roster. It's not that they can't perform, it's that they aren't doing it.

Which, yes, goes to coaching. Miller may yet be exactly what Indiana needs, but a season-and-a-half in he's yet to put his full imprint on a team that's not entirely his yet. And right now it shows.

On Saturday, Matt Painter put exactly the right guy (Nojel Eastern) on Langford, and Eastern (plus foul trouble) effectively took Langford out of the game. At the other end, meanwhile, freshman Trevion Williams continued to get better and better on the low blocks, Painter continues to develop Aaron Wheeler and Evan Boudreaux and Grady Eifert into viable complements to Carsen Edwards -- and, on Saturday, 7-3 Matt Haarms exploited Indiana's lack of recognition with one pick-and-roll cut to the basket after another.

Indiana never adjusted to any of it, or even appeared to try. That, of course, goes to coaching. And so if Hoosier Nation is unhappy with Miller right now, they have reason to be.

The good news?

The good news, for Miller and the faithful, is Indiana gets Northwestern next. And Northwestern has lost two of its last three games by double digits, beating only bottom feeder Rutgers.

So, yes, the Blob is saying there's a chance.

That this team should be better than just having a chance, of course, is the problem.