Right what is wrong, then move along

Forget this one.

Seriously, just move on. Games like this happen. They are unavoidable, and I’m not even sure last year’s Hoosiers would have won that game.

Kentucky, a team mired in mediocrity at present, came out on fire like teams do maybe once a year. Hitting your first 12-of-14 isn’t so much indicative of greater talent as it is a sign Kentucky was just better on this day.

A team that comes out of the gate like that just can’t be stopped, and there’s no use dwindling on the negative in this case.

There were some obvious negatives, no doubt about it. First-half turnovers fueled the Wildcats’ fire in front of a raucous home crowd and never let the Hoosiers find their offensive rhythm.

“We contributed to it with turnovers and some quick shots,” IU coach Tom Crean said after the game. “We got away from doing what we wanted to do in keeping the game at a strong pace, and that is a tribute to Kentucky and the way they played early on. We just couldn’t deal with their length and athleticism.”

There were also positives, like rallying from a 36-13 halftime deficit to outscore Kentucky 41-36 in the second half, making Billy Gillespie’s squad look rather pedestrian along the way.

“We came out in the second half with a lot of energy,” said freshman forward Tom Pritchard. “We knew there was not a lot more wrong that we could do. We switched our defense up a little bit, and they got a little flustered with it, and we stuck with it and did what we could do.”

Obviously, second halves count for nothing except on a box score, and moral victories have already been sworn off as unacceptable for this club. There were mistakes, obviously, and ones that need to be corrected. And it should be unacceptable that the Hoosiers came out with an obviously lower level of energy and focus than their southward counterparts.

But why bear down too much on an unwinnable game?

Kentucky came out firing Saturday, and the Oklahoma City Thunder couldn’t have stopped them in those crucial opening minutes.

So take down your notes, figure out what needs correcting and sock away the memory of a rivalry loss – surely it will sting for the next 360-some-odd days. But this loss was never so much about IU as it was Kentucky, and there will be time for penance.

The truth right now is these Hoosiers have a real opportunity to enter Big Ten play 7-5 if they keep their heads about them, and I think we can all agree that would have looked a fine sight back in August. Dwell too much on a loss like this, and that win total just keeps shrinking.

Anyway, good luck on finals everybody, and have a great winter break.

See you next year.