Man.

A heartbreaker. After the missed rebound with us up two, I looked at my wife and said, I think we both know how this ends.

Then, BAM, a 3.

Damn.

But, for what it is worth, we played terrible, hardly loss and we get to hose those guys at our place, where the score will be corrected.

But, what went wrong? Why did we falter?

Here are my grades from last night.

Starting 5

Isaiah Thompson - C+

Isaiah hit a couple of big shots in this one, but his lack of ability to be strong with the ball allowed the bigger IU guards to fluster him while he had the rock. He cannot initiate our offense in a physical game, that was evident, once Ivey started to be the main ball handler, just to make sure that he got to touch the ball.

Jaden Ivey - B+

He took some wild shots, but he also kept us in it during the 2nd half. The first half, he was flustered, not getting calls he usually gets and picked up a bad flagrant foul, tossing another player. He has to keep his head, we go, as he goes. In the 2nd half, he locke up Phinisee, after he went nuts in the 1st half. Until, Sasha guarded him on the last shot, he did not score a bucket.

Sasha Stefanovic - D

After a great performance on the road at Illinois, Sasha took a huge step back in this one. Being a liability on defense and shooting the ball. He couldn’t find a rhythm and a big part of that was IU getting him off his spot.

Mason Gillis - A

He played the hard of the 10 guys that played. Scored well, hit open shots, hustled and was gritty. Mason has become a vital part to this team, we need the other guys to latch on to his identity.

Zach Edey - B

Big Zach did his job underneath the bucket and he got their best player in foul trouble, though, they did seem better with TJD on the bench, which is wild. He continues to be our best big man.

The Bench Mob

Trevion Williams - D

This was probably his worst game of the season. 5 turnovers in the first half, 2 points. Didn’t rebound well. I am not sure what the hell happened, but it can never happen again.

Eric Hunter Jr - C-

He did help with initiating the offense in the 2nd half, he handled pressure much better than Thompson, but, he did not score well.

Brandon Newman - D

3 strange fouls and we did not see a lot of him in the 2nd half. For us to be good, we need Newman hitting shots off the bench, he just, did not do that.

Caleb Furst - D

He struggled again, it appears he has hit a bit of the freshman wall. Game seemed a but too physical for him under the basket.

Ethan Morton - D

Ethan was hitting his groove a week ago, this week has not been great to him. Struggled on defense and the physicality of last night, but we need him to be a physical, big ball handler for us.