Hoosier waning

Two days later, and my answer remains the same, Blobophiles: No, I don't know what's wrong with your Indiana Hoosiers.

It's a bomb crater down there in Bloomington now, after Michigan went off on them in a 23-point blowout. That's two losses in their last two games in Assembly Hall by a combined 38 points. They may have turned the place into a shrine to Indiana basketball with all the statuary and what-not, but it's a shrine that inspires no reverence anymore. Or awe, or fear.

Assembly Hall?

Just another shrine to past glories now, where opponents come to expose the pale imitation of those glories, and pick up an easy road W.

That this should not be keeps getting curiouser and curiouser, as the Hoosier free fall extends to six straight losses now. This is not a team, on paper, that should be losing six straight or getting blown out by 23 at home by anyone. It's not a team, on paper, that should be down 17-0 in their own previously inviolable fortress in a relative eyeblink, and that should be this inept in virtually every phase of the game.

To summarize: They can't shoot the 3. They can't defend the 3. They can't defend in general, nor make any attempt in-game to adjust to whatever it is by which they're getting beat. And, as their own head coach observed after the Michigan debacle, they're soft as Charmin physically and mentally.

That a good deal of this is on the aforementioned head coach is evident, and for that the perpetually displeased Hoosier Nation can be forgiven for the creeping fear that Archie Miller might be Tom Crean 2.0. That Tom Crean 1.0 deserved far more credit from the Perpetually Displeased than he ever got is a moot point. The point is, the Perpetually Displeased are growing displeased yet again with an IU basketball coach.

So what's going on?

Well, not even the main characters seem to know. Miller seems utterly perplexed. Juwan Morgan -- the only player on the floor who's consistently battling and producing right now -- talked post-Michigan about how they have to fight, they have to punch back, and that everyone in the IU locker room is embarrassed by how they're playing.

Which begs the obvious question: Then why don't they do something about it?

Mystery upon mystery. About the only thing that seems obvious at the moment is that teams have figured out how to defend Indiana in general, and alleged lottery pick Romeo Langford in particular.

 Earlier in the season, Langford was consistently getting to the rim and finishing, which is his signature suit. Now opponents are taking that away by putting bigger people on him and clogging the driving lanes, recognizing that the weakest part of his game (and Indiana's) is shooting. And so he's become less and less effective, because no one around him and Morgan are stepping up to knock down shots and open things up for them.

In short: The Hoosiers can't shoot. And opponents are recognizing that and taking advantage of it.

The one sunbeam in this is that shooting tends be cyclical, and feeds on confidence. No one on the Indiana has any confidence right now that when they launch it's going to find a home. That can change, almost literally, as soon as someone splashes two or three in a row. And maybe that happens against Rutgers, the weakest link in the Big Ten.

If not ...

If not, then they get Michigan State. And the death spiral continues.