I was not able to watch Saturday's game; I've recorded it and I will; so my reflections are based on watching live game stats on my ESPN app; a few articles; a few posts on here and coach and player videos.
My first thought was how amazing that we went for being down 3 at the half to up 25 near the end of 3; and the next thing I knew that 25 point lead was slipping away until we lost at game's end. My initial gut reaction was this was as bad as Lynch's teams losing to Wisconsin by 60, but on reflecting it's not; Lynch's teams would not have been up on any quality team by 25; so I say there is improvement.
This team has not been there before; ahead by 25 against a good opponent (Rutgers gave MSU all it wanted). This team was down against SIU and found a way to win. This team learned they could play from behind and win. This team now needs to learn how to win when they are ahead by 25. Unfortunately this team did not learn this lesson with a win like they did against SIU. Life and the season are a journey; and yes I know the goal is bowl eligibility; hopefully this team puts this loss behind them, learns from it and achieves this goal.
Momentum - a very smart tennis coach I know, once told me that 'momentum' is the most important part of any sport. Momentum - you have, you lose, you figure out how to get it back, and you do your best to keep it. He was talking tennis, but stressed that it applied to any sport. I see there were two huge momentum swings in the second half; first 2/3s of the third qtr momentum belonged to IU; Rutgers found a way to get it back (sure IU helped with some untimely mistakes; all part of the game) and kept it till the end of the game; IU could not get it back. Sure, I'm disappointed, but not as disappointed as I will be if the Hoosiers don't do their best to get back up and find a way to swing momentum back their way against MSU, do their best to keep it, but more importantly when MSU has it (and they will), finding a way to get it back; that will tell me they have learned from this game.
This team is capable of playing with anyone - let's support them, we are not playing, we are not coaching so let's support them - they are our Hoosiers.
Peace
My first thought was how amazing that we went for being down 3 at the half to up 25 near the end of 3; and the next thing I knew that 25 point lead was slipping away until we lost at game's end. My initial gut reaction was this was as bad as Lynch's teams losing to Wisconsin by 60, but on reflecting it's not; Lynch's teams would not have been up on any quality team by 25; so I say there is improvement.
This team has not been there before; ahead by 25 against a good opponent (Rutgers gave MSU all it wanted). This team was down against SIU and found a way to win. This team learned they could play from behind and win. This team now needs to learn how to win when they are ahead by 25. Unfortunately this team did not learn this lesson with a win like they did against SIU. Life and the season are a journey; and yes I know the goal is bowl eligibility; hopefully this team puts this loss behind them, learns from it and achieves this goal.
Momentum - a very smart tennis coach I know, once told me that 'momentum' is the most important part of any sport. Momentum - you have, you lose, you figure out how to get it back, and you do your best to keep it. He was talking tennis, but stressed that it applied to any sport. I see there were two huge momentum swings in the second half; first 2/3s of the third qtr momentum belonged to IU; Rutgers found a way to get it back (sure IU helped with some untimely mistakes; all part of the game) and kept it till the end of the game; IU could not get it back. Sure, I'm disappointed, but not as disappointed as I will be if the Hoosiers don't do their best to get back up and find a way to swing momentum back their way against MSU, do their best to keep it, but more importantly when MSU has it (and they will), finding a way to get it back; that will tell me they have learned from this game.
This team is capable of playing with anyone - let's support them, we are not playing, we are not coaching so let's support them - they are our Hoosiers.
Peace
