OG Anunoby put on a show in the Hoosier Hysteria dunk contest Saturday, and Tyra Buss cemented her stardom in the three-point contest.
Meanwhile, 200 miles away, IU football’s identity was fully crystalizing in a narrow loss to Northwestern.
Basketball was back, and football was settling into a trend of losing winnable games.
The two emotional states couldn’t be more disparate.
It was supposed to be different for IU football this season.
The season began promisingly as the Hoosiers won games against FIU — which subsequently fired head coach Ron Turner — and Ball State.
Since then, IU has come up short against Wake Forest, Ohio State, Nebraska and Northwestern, all games that could have been victories if IU made a few more plays.
IU Coach Kevin Wilson said the Hoosiers were close after the loss to Nebraska, and that’s exactly what this team is.
Close enough to every team it has played, but not good enough to get over the hump. There hasn’t be a game in which all three units were functioning at peak form for four whole quarters.
This season could have become something special for the IU program as it looked to build on last season’s Pinstripe Bowl appearance.
Instead, it isn’t building. It’s just the same as last year — nearly somewhere great.
But basketball season is here now.
Hoosier fans were ready to jump on the football bandwagon this season if they were just given a chance. IU football had a chance to establish itself as something more than a distraction until basketball season started.
The thirst for basketball will always be there, but fans are ready to embrace football.
There have just been too many caveats for people to buy in and too many near misses and failed upset bids for a lot of fans to stomach.
The ship seems to have sailed on changing that perception, at least for this season.
The Michigan State win was supposed to be a sea change for the IU program. Instead, that victory appears worse and worse as the Spartans’ season falls apart. That victory has turned into an overtime win against a team consistently getting thumped.
The trajectory of the program seems to have flatlined this season. Injuries and graduation have seemed to stymie any upward momentum.
A bowl bid remains possible, but that requires four more victories, victories not of the moral kind the team has been feasting on all of October. A bowl bid is going to come down to the wire, which is fitting for a season that has seen every game be relatively close.
Getting to bowls is an admirable goal; however, so much more was on the table for this season.
Close doesn’t get you much, especially when the fans are just ready for the basketball season to tip off.
For Hoosier fans, basketball being back means all is right with the universe again and football becomes a simple diversion.
It didn’t have to be that way this season, but that’s exactly where we are.
aphussey@indiana.edu
@thehussnetwork
