Once characterized as a group of scrappy dogs, the Hoosiers were outworked in their 58-43 loss to Iowa on Sunday.
Its stamp has come in the area of effort, but Iowa outrebounded IU and turned that stat into layups.
Iowa averages 32 rebounds as a team and claims only a 0.1 advantage on its opponents. Yet, the Hoosiers had only 23 rebounds Sunday, which is well below their average of 37.3.
Iowa totaled 39 rebounds, and gained 20 of their 58 points on the offensive glass. IU coach Tom Crean said he was most disturbed with the numbers that came out of the paint.
"What bothers me is the rebounding," Crean said. "You may have seen the end of the three-guard lineup right now. We can't do that, we had two rebounds between our three guards."
IU had won two consecutive Big Ten contests before falling to an Iowa team that had only defeated the winless Penn State. In those two games, they averaged 37 rebounds.
The Hawkeyes scored 34 points in the lane, and the Hoosiers managed only 16. The totals stemmed from 18 offensive rebounds for the Hawkeyes.
Crean said his team's total was based solely to the lack of aggression displayed by his team.
"This all came down to our lack of being willing to fight today," he said.
