Mercy killing

In the end, the season died as it lived.

With a clank, and a splat, and a booiiiing.

With a not-very-good visitor trashing the Sacred Confines.

With an Indiana team that was really good for awhile, and then really awful, and then kinda-sorta good again, and finally, irrevocably, not good enough.

The Hoosiers were the top seed in the NIT, Wichita State was a 6-seed, and yet the Shockers won by 10 last night in Assembly Hall. It was one more loss to a team to which Indiana should never lose in the Hall -- really, how incorrigibly mediocre do you have to be to be a 6-seed in the NIT? -- and it happened because, once again, Indiana lost the ability to hit water falling out of a boat.

The Hoosiers reverted to their brick-laying ways, clanking and splatting and booiiiiing-ing 45 shots out of the 65 they took. That's 38.5 percent to you and me, kids. And that was still five percentage points better than they shot from the 3-point line, where they were a back-to-basics 6-of-18.

A lot of that was spearheaded by the backcourt, which was the key all season for the Hoosiers and was again last night. Robert Phinisee missed eight of the nine shots he took. Devonte Green and Al Durham each missed nine of their 14 attempts. That's a combined 11-of-37 shooting for the Indiana guards.

(And, no, once again, Romeo Langford did not play. Which means the Blob was, once again, wrong, wrong, wrong. The official story was he has an ouch-y back he didn't need to aggravate by playing in the Not Interested, Terribly tournament. The unofficial story is probably a bit different.)

In any case, the Hoosiers' season is over at 19-15, and perhaps a debt of gratitude is owed Wichita State for what was essentially a mercy killing. Archie Miller and the lads at least put up a fight in the last weeks of the season, so their competitive instinct is not in question. But I can't but think that somewhere deep inside, a small part of them is relieved it's over.

Now it's on to figuring out what went wrong this season, and how to fix it. And to ensure that, somewhere down the road, the maintenance crew in the Hall will have to figure out where to hang another banner.

Once more they are spared that task, this offseason. Not much call for an NIT Elite Eight banner, after all.