It might have been easier if the Hoosiers had simply gone away.
The IU fans in the stadium, forced into silence by the Hoosiers' historically awful first-half scoring output, could have stayed quiet. They could have sat there, comfortable in their fantasies of Eric Gordon's impending arrival, and they could have been OK with that.
Instead, like they have all season, this year's Hoosiers beat back that impulse. For one more game, they gave Hoosier fans the slight hope that now is just as promising as next year, that Eric Gordon might have to wait 40 more minutes before grabbing the crimson tinted spotlight. (From this outwardly detached reporter's perspective, I will cop to this: the Hoosiers gave me hope that I could cover them, in San Jose no less, for another week. That prospect alone was exciting enough.)
That recovery turned a slow burn of emotion into a roller coaster in the last few minutes of this game. IU fans cheered, erupted, fell silent, erupted again, stood, sat down, stood, and then sat down. Perhaps the loss would have been easier to swallow, easier for them to deal with, if they could have calmly chalked it up to a talent gap or poor offense. Despite an obvious talent disparity, despite a definitive home court atmosphere for UCLA, despite a first half that is quite possibly the worst first-half scoring output of any NCAA team ever (!), the Hoosiers battled through adversity, as their coach said, and made a proud exit from the NCAA Tournament. Hat's off.
A few closing thoughts:
-- Not that it matters at this point, but I'm not sure who to credit for that last turnover on the inbounds play. The Hoosiers trailed 51-49 with around 40 seconds left, and Lance Stemler struggled to inbound the ball twice. On the sideline, Calloway streaked past his defender, but Stemler led him with the pass and UCLA guard Darren Collison snatched it up before Calloway could grab the ball or adjust its flight.
Basically, I'm not sure whether it was Stemler's fault for leading Earl with the pass or Earl's fault for not grabbing the ball and avoiding Collison. Maybe it was just a combination of the two. Anybody have an opinion?
-- D.J. White might have had his best game of the season tonight. It didn't show up as much on the scoresheet - though he finished with 14 points - because no one on IU had an impressive scoring effort, but D.J.'s rebounding almost single-handedly kept IU in the game, especially in the first half when he had eight boards. Not only that, but his defense was as emphatic tonight as it's been the entire year. On each of his four blocks, he looked every bit the defensive eraser Greg Oden is. It's likely he'll stay and play at IU (we'll figure that out soon enough), but if he doesn't, his last game as a Hoosier was a tremendous performance.
-- Farewell to the seniors. I didn't cover the beat last year, but there didn't seem to be the same sort of admiration for Marco Killingsworth et. al. as there was for this outgoing group of seniors, especially Rod Wilmont and Errek Suhr. That's something we'll cover more in the future too, hopefully, but for now: farewell, gents.
Look for more coverage from us in the coming days as we head home and get ready for the first week of class after Spring Break. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you then.
