In a year when the entire men’s NCAA basketball tournament will be played within an hour of campus, Indiana University might not qualify, may be as stuck as far outside the shifting semi-bubble as most fans.
There may even be tournament games played on the Hoosiers’ home court at Assembly Hall that they won’t be allowed to see, never mind play in. The grand metaphor is of being invited to participate in the Big Dance. The Hoosiers are shaping up as wallflowers.
Going into the weekend, IU is 9-7 overall and 4-5 in the Big Ten. Unless there is a godfather pulling strings with the selection committee, those kind of numbers won’t cut it.
Usually, as the calendar is about to turn to February, the talk about the Hoosiers is how far they can go in the NCAA tournament. Unless they go on a run, it appears the 2020-21 season might culminate with a different question, as in how much of the tournament they can watch on television.
This is the fourth season of the Archie Miller reign, and by Indiana fan standards, his record is more likely to inspire irritation than patience. That is the way it is in Bloomington, where the very old high standard of performance was established by Branch McCracken and raised even higher by Bob Knight.
If you are not winning Big Ten titles, threatening to capture national titles, or at least going like three rounds deep in the NCAAs, you disappear from certain boosters’ Christmas card lists.
Speaking of Christmas, when was the last time the Hoosier football team had more wins than the basketball team? That was partially since the basketball team didn’t open until late November because of NCAA-imposed coronavirus restrictions. Still…if a sports fan knows the history of the two programs, he recognizes how unlikely that is.
Miller made the transition to Indiana after coming off of consecutive seasons of 26 wins, 27 wins, 25 wins and 24 wins and four straight NCAA appearances with Dayton.
The first three seasons under Miller at IU went 16-15, 19-16 and 20-12. There were expectations and pressure to make this season breakthrough time.
It has not been happening. This club’s signature win came Jan. 21 at Iowa, then ranked No. 4 in the nation, by 12 points. If wins like that stacked up, fans would be kissing Miller’s ring, if he had one. The Hoosiers were handled by ranked Florida State, Texas, Illinois and Wisconsin and lost to rival Purdue.
Trayce Jackson-Davis, the 6-foot-9 sophomore from Greenwood, has been a wonderful catch, averaging 20.1 points and 8.7 rebounds a game. Guards Amaan Franklin of Indianapolis is averaging 12.8 points and 4.4 rebounds a game. And guard Al Durham is averaging 10.6 points and 3.1 assists a game.
Help shows up in different ways from various other players, such as junior guard Rob Phinesee, but IU seems one key player away in depth. That’s partially because Joey Brunk, the 6-11 big man out of Southport, began having back problems in the preseason and has not played.
His aching back has become IU’s aching back. Brunk, who averaged 6.8 points and 5.2 rebounds a game last year, had a minor operation to relieve pain and has been rehabbing.
Jackson-Davis said Brunk is missed all of the time.
“It’s the energy he brings,” Jackson-Davis said. “He’s a great teammate at all times.”
The Hoosiers have had trouble filling Brunk’s minutes. Miller has played a short rotation and believes his team is running out of gas late, and that is leading to defensive lapses.
“I think when you are talking about our bench, it has got to be a focal point moving forward,” Miller said earlier in January. “We have some of our best performances when we play the most guys. We are going to move forward and try to do a better job of improving our depth. It is needed.”
One guy hungry for minutes is freshman Jordan Geronimo, a 6-6, 220-pound forward from Newark, New Jersey, who was employed part time covering Iowa’s Luka Garza, a holdover first-team All-American.
It was dirty work, but he acquitted himself well enough to perhaps became a bench guys who gets more PT.
March Madness will be madder than ever this season with the tournament localized, but IU’s ride to March is a minefield. No gimmes on the schedule with Iowa again, Illinois again, Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, Minnesota and Purdue in the way.
Big wins are required, or no NCAA play.