Must. Beat. Rutgers.

Must. Beat. Rutgers.

In a season of us optimistic Hoosier hysteria fans believing until early January of 2019 (a mere three weeks ago!) that the basketball team was among at least the Big 10 elite, if not the country, we now stand transmogrified. Yes, we are grotesquely misshapen as the word implies.

We, I, are extremely discouraged.

The Hoosiers have not shown what we thought that they were. They have lost 6 straight, which is their worst streak since 2010-11, apparently. Back in the Crean re-build era.

Ick.  

IU was supposed to be special under second year coach Archie Miller. The man to bring IU past the unfulfilled Crean, Sampson, Davis, and late Knight disappointed supporters and fans.

This Rutgers game is huge.Wednesday night, in Piscataway. The Knights have won two in a row. They have players.

IU has players. But those players have a lot of confidence and consistency issues. The lack thereof.

Ach, nein, it is bad. It has been bad.

My earlier analysis of the Hoosiers was concerning, because the free throws had been bad by most players. Some have improved since then. But everything else has gone bad.

The team would good off to slow starts, even against inferior teams at home, but the Hoosiers would rally and win in the first third of the season.

Not now. They have runs of 5 minutes of good basketball, then get pounded.

The bad streak began with an away loss at Michigan. They were outplayed by one of the best in the land. They showed fight and came up short. Understandable.

They got off to a great start in College Park with the Terrapins first half, on a Friday night. Before the end of the half the Terps showed some fight and pulled it to 8 down. Second half IU fell apart, not getting the necessary defensive rebounds.

And IU has been down ever since. At home at Nebraska, at Purdue, at Northwestern, now at home against Michigan again.

Eegs.

The good thing is, except for Northwestern, and maybe now that Nebraska has lost their second best scorer (yesterday to Copeland), those teams are all good. Michigan is considered by many as great. Even though they (the Wolverines) have had some near miss struggles lately. But they got the Hoosiers.

Can IU get its mojo back and be competetive by March?

We need to get the Scarlet Knights. Staunch the bleeding.

Schedule from here out: 

@ Rutgers --Must win

@Michigan State ---yeesh, one of the toughest assignments in the nation

Iowa --challenging

Ohio State--challenging

@Minnesota--challenging

Purdue-- need revenge

@Iowa-- difficult

 Wisconsin-- always hard

Michigan State--probably a revenge game

@Illinois--tougher now than a month ago

Rutgers--must win

Big Ten Tourney--IU will need at least two wins, maybe more in the tournament to look like a NCAA invitee.

12 Games remaining, counting the Big Ten Tournament.

If they go 6-6, they will be 18-14 going into another Big Ten Tourney game. Does 18-15 get them in the Big Dance? Maybe not. They have quality wins against Marquette and Louisville, but Butler does not seem like that great a win anymore. Nor does a loss to Arkansas. They were handled by Duke in Durham.

14 or 15 losses might still be OK if they get the other 18-19 wins. Maybe.

But this last 0-6 stretch is not good enough. They have to beat Rutgers, or they will just not be good enough.

Maybe Romeo Langford's hand/finger injuries has cost him this much. I see him work on it during the games. He needs to re-establish himself as elite. He is.

Justin Smith is a wild card that has not paid off, having one good game against Purdue when no one else was on. But other games he blows it, particularly against Northwestern.

Juwan Morgan gets in foul trouble and cannot stop all the big men inside.

Deron Davis is hurt? No good?

Devonte Green is indefinitely suspended. !!!!!

Aljami Durham is showing good stuff.

Rob Phinesee is back from his concussion and will improve. He was clutch prior to that misshap.

Evan Fitzner has not found the range that we thought we had.

Zach McRoberts has not been savvy enough, which is his strong suit.

Demezi Anderson makes poor plays.

Cliff Moore and Jake Forrester have not been given enough time to really be integral. 

Can the Hoosiers win 6 to7 more?

The road to redemption starts in New Jersey.

Stay tuned.

At least things are interesting enough to where they have a chance.

Then again, at 3-6 in the Big Ten, 9-12 conference wins (projected 6-6 finish) does not seem good enough to be NCAA eligible.

Maybe they need 3 wins in the Big Ten Tourney to be among the best.

Well, at least the NIT will be an improvement from last year.

IF they are good enough for even that. Not if they cannot beat Rutgers.