And now, they wait.
They wait because Oregon made a push and they couldn't answer, and wasn't that their season in a nutshell?
They wait because their shooting dried up and their designated 3-point maestro came up empty, and wasn't that the recipe for every "L" in this long strange season?
They wait, because Malik Reneau and Trey Galloway couldn't carry them alone. Because help, or at least enough of it, never came from Luke Goode or Oumar Ballo or Anthony Leal or Myles Rice.
They wait. And probably fruitlessly at this point.
They wait, these Indiana Hoosiers, because the Oregon Ducks beat them for the second time in two weeks yesterday in Indianapolis, and the Hoosiers' Big Ten tournament run was over before it began. One and done -- and likely done, period, if you catch the drift.
Final score yesterday was 72-59, and if Indiana hung around for awhile they couldn't hang long enough. It was 56-54 when Reneau horsed in a layup with 7:33 to play, and then it wasn't. Then it was 59-54 and 61-54 and 65-54, and finally, when Reneau finally made another layup, it was 65-56 with two minutes to play and the thing was gone.
Five-and-a-half minutes, the Hoosiers went without a point. Five-and-a-half minutes, enabling Oregon to outscore them 16-5 across that last 7:33, another late-game checkout in a continuing series for Indiana.
Reneau scored 19 points, again leading the Hoosiers off the bench. Galloway added 15, five rebounds and nine assists, and Mackenzie Mgbako scored a dozen. Other than that ...
Well, other than that, not much. Goode, whose sniping from the 3-point arc has cured a few ills for the Hoosiers, put up a horse collar: 0-for-5, 0-for-4 from distance. Everyone else seemed to follow suit; Indiana shot 36.2 percent (25 of 69) and missed 12 of their 16 tries from Arcville.
And now, they wait.
They wait for a Dance call that probably won't come now, according to the slide-rule boys who nerd out over brackets and such. Joe Lunardi, ESPN's resident bracket guru, says Indiana is now the first team out after North Carolina won again in the ACC tournament yesterday. We shall see.
In the meantime, now the Hoosiers ...
Well. You know.
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