Column: The roller coaster season continues

Every one knew IU was inconsistent. But when IU (13-8, 3-5) lost to Nebraska (11-9, 3-5) 60-55 last night, it showed IU can be inconsistent even within the same game.

Nebraska, a team that lives and dies by the jump shot, was dead as a doornail in the first half. The Huskers had just 19 points and shot 35 percent from the field.

Nebraska Coach Tim Miles tweeted at halftime, “They banked in those two threes, and we lost our composure and fractured. We have to regroup and bounce back in the first five minutes.”

Oh, they bounced.

The Huskers, who missed jump shot after jump shot in the first half, couldn’t miss in the second.

Nebraska looked like a completely different team. And more frustrating for IU fans, so did the Hoosiers. The Huskers scored 41 points in the second half, compared to IU’s 23.

In yesterday’s column, I didn’t think IU could stop Nebraska’s Terran Petteway.

Though he was controlled in the first half, he was the best player on the floor in the second half, hands down.

Petteway’s step-back three with about two minutes to go just about sealed the Husker victory. The shot put Nebraska up by six points, and the way IU was scoring, that lead
was safe.

The question on the minds of every IU fan: when will this team develop some consistency?

In the first half, IU had two separate runs of 12-0 and 15-0. They were getting to the basket, hitting open jumpers and the 2-3 zone was suffocating the Husker offense.
And then at halftime, this IU team let their foot off the gas pedal.

To take the analogy further, the Hoosiers let their foot off the pedal and just got out of
the car.

Mantras like “this team is young” need to go in the waste basket of excuses. These players have been playing basketball for a very long time.

Yes, this team is a young team. But it is an incredibly talented team.

Winning in Lincoln, Neb., has been almost impossible, for whatever reason. The Huskers improved to 10-1 at home this year.

Their only loss was a one-point defeat to Michigan (8-0 in the Big Ten).

So losing at Nebraska is not the horrible blunder it appears to be. This Husker team is good.

The actual loss isn’t the discouraging part.

The discouraging part if you’re an IU fan is you’ve seen what this team can do. In fact, you saw what they could do in the first half of the game when IU raced out to a 16-point lead.

The loss is not ideal, obviously. But if they were in a hard-fought battle the whole game and came up short at the end, oh well. Like I said, there’s no shame in losing to
Nebraska.

But there is shame in dominating the first half, and getting blown out of the cornfields in the second half.

It’s not the results that are frustrating. It’s the absolute roller coaster in between that has IU fans pulling out their hair.

But there’s nowhere to go but up, right?

Follow columnist Evan Hoopfer on Twitter @EvanHoopfer