My Two Cents: Now It's All About Taking Care of Business at Home

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — We've talked about it ad nauseum all season, but it's really true. It's damn hard to win on the road in the Big Ten.

If you don't show up with max effort, you're going to get blown out, much like Indiana did at Michigan and Penn State, among others. Sometimes you play hard, but the other team is just better.

And then there are games like Sunday at Illinois, where the Hoosiers showed up, played hard, did a lot of good things — but still came up short, losing 67-66 to a very good Illinois team that's still just a game out of first place in the league.

It was a much better showing than Thursday at Purdue, when the Hoosiers shot only 25 percent from the field and were getting blown out until a late rally made the 57-49 final seem less gruesome.

That's a tough week, with two road losses. And it stings even worse, this Illinois loss, because it was there for the taking. Indiana played that well in a very hostile environment. There were a lot of calls that didn't go their way either, especially in the final minute.

Indiana had its best perimeter shooting night of the year on the road, making 8-of-16 shots from three-point range. They made ALL of their free throws — 10 straight — until freshman Trayce Jackson-Davis missed two in the final minute. They guarded well, and even outrebounded Illinois by 8.

And still lost.

But here's the thing. It's in the rear view mirror now. From the standpoint of getting an NCAA tournament bid, those losses aren't really hurting all that much. They were basically 6-point underdogs both games. They aren't being punished huge for the losses. ESPN's Joe Lunardi still has them as a No. 10 seed, playing No. 7 Houston and former disgraced Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson in Albany, N.Y. in the first round.

It's all about this week now, the final week. That's really all it comes down to, that "last gasp of air of the regular season, which has been very hard for everybody,'' Archie Miller said Sunday.

The Hoosiers are back at home, where they've been mostly great all year. On their home floor, they have beaten five ranked teams, fourth-best in the country.

All that's left is beating Minnesota on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET) and Wisconsin on Saturday (Noon ET), and the Hoosiers — who are 18-11 overall and 8-10 in the Big Ten — will likely be dancing.

Give the Hoosiers credit on Sunday. They played hard, and played well. They had their chances, but it slipped away in the final minute.

"At the end of the day, I give our team a lot of credit for fighting through it on the road and having an opportunity in the last couple of minutes to win the game,'' Miller said. "I'm proud of our guys. We competed hard this week. At the end of the day, you cannot budge or flinch. You just have to mow down. We fought. We just came up short today.'

"We were better today that we were on (Thursday at Purdue), which is a positive.''

Casual fans who think they know the game but don't will look at Indiana's numbers against Purdue and say that Indiana shot poorly. But that's short-sighted. The reason for those numbers is a lack of execution, and a lack of getting things done on the offensive end. Because they didn't execute well, they were forced to take a lot of bad shots, especially late in the shot clock on a multitude of ugly first-half possessions. That's never good.

"(Thursday) we didn't execute at all. People want to talk about our shooting and our offense, but we didn't execute,'' Miller said. "(Sunday) we executed better and we were able to score a little better.''

And now the Hoosiers come home to finish Archie Miller's third season in Bloomington. And when it comes to earning an NCAA tournament bid, the math is simple. Win both games and you are 100 percent in for sure. Lose both, and you are 100 percent OUT for sure. If you beat Minnesota but lose to a Wisconsin team that still might tie for the Big Ten title, you still might have a chance to get in. Say 40 percent?

Still, let's not risk it. Indiana has been very good at home. Just ask Florida State, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa, all ranked teams that fell at Simon Skodjt Assembly Hall.

So 2-0, yes, it can be done.

"Now we go home, and everything has to be erased from your memory, and you're on to the next one,'' Miller said.

There are no guarantees, of course. Indiana has laid an egg or two at home. But this is the final go-round. They will be ready.

It's time to close it out in style.

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