Same (stuff), different day

 Well, that was ... not illuminating.

Indiana went out to Nebraska last night to play another football school, and once again the Hoosiers got abused by said football school.  Lost 86-70, and it wasn't that close. Lost for the same reason they always either lose or struggle, which is where the not-illuminating part comes in.

To wit: Hey, did you hear the Hoosier guard play sucks?

Yeah, only about 500 times so far this season, mainly because it's true and rarely changes. Last night the Indiana backcourt directed an especially unkempt floor game, turning it over a staggering 19 times even though sixth-year senior Xavier Johnson was back in the lineup, at least for awhile.

Alas, he's still the same X, with a layer of rust thrown in for good measure. Which is to say, in 14 minutes he missed all three of his shot attempts, grabbed two rebounds, dished three assists and turned it over four times -- most a result of the sort of ill-advised decisions a sixth-year senior shouldn't be making.

Meanwhile, Nebraska guard Kesei Tominaga flamed the Hoosiers with 28 points in 27 minutes, confirming once again that Indiana's guards can't, well, guard.

How bad was it?

So bad even Mike Woodson, who tends to avoid publicly calling out his players,  declared the obvious in the postgame.

"They outplayed our starting two guards, who were awful tonight," he said.

A recurring theme that, let's face it, shouldn't be recurring this deep into the season.

Woodson keeps talking about how the Hoosiers are still young and unfamiliar with one another, but after 14 games all the tread's worn off that excuse. And the guard play remains the biggest issue, just as it was 14 games ago. 

Only sporadically has it made strides, usually against teams that presented favorable matchups. Against a backcourt led by Tominaga, one of the best guards in the Big Ten, it looked ... well, as awful as ever, to use Woodson's word.

And that, boys and girls, is on the coaching staff.

In the meantime, you can keep spinning the same record with these Hoosiers. Same (stuff), different day.