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Indiana’s defense a trainwreck in 30-point loss at Michigan

Tom Crean

Tom Crean

AP

Indiana seemingly saved their season last week, getting a buzzer-beating three from James Blackmon Jr. to salvage a win in a game where the Hoosiers lost O.G. Anunoby before smacking around Michigan State over the weekend.

Was Tom Crean working his magic again?!? Was Indiana about to make a memorable run to take home a wide-open Big Ten?!?

Well ... no.

The Hoosiers got hit with a sandblaster to the face on Thursday night in Ann Arbor, losing to the Wolverines 90-60 in a game where they were just as bad, if not worse, defensively than last year’s performance at Duke in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, a game that was so ugly some were wondering whether Crean would land in Bloomington with a job.

That’s not the case tonight, but it’s clear after this game that the issues facing this team aren’t going away anytime soon.

Michigan shot 63.3 percent from the floor. They were 11-for-19 from three. They put up 90 points and did so while averaging 1.525 points-per-possession. But to truly get an idea of how bad Indiana’s defense was on Thursday night, chew on this nugget: the Hoosiers shot 54.5 percent from the floor and 53.8 percent from three and lost by 30 in a game that they were never in.

We knew losing Anunoby was going to hurt them on that end of the floor.

But who expected this?