Insult added to injury

At least it was the last IU loss I'll have to watch for the season. And to indulge in a tiresome aside - despite some defensive posturing by PSU bloggers about whiny IU fans- it is quite ridiculous that PSU didn't get whistled for a single foul for over 22 minutes. I'd say the Hoosiers didn't test them at drawing fouls, but it also shouldn't matter when David Jackson windmill-smacks Christian Watford in the mouth mere feet from Ed Hightower (at the 11:50 mark of the second half). Did the cost the Hoosiers the game? That's pretty unlikely, but it also didn't help IU's chances when Sheehey & Elston make clean plays or even made mere defensive feints and got whistled. Next season, Crean needs to keep the fouling in the preseason to a minimum, or this will be the result in every B1G roadgame.

I won't get all boilermaker and emotionally insist that the refs were out to get the Hoosiers in order to preserve a possible at-large bid for the conference. No, I believe that this was a game where the perception of IU as a hacktastic club and resultant lack of respect from Hightower, et al, manifested itself in a series of whistles that looked like jobbery, but wasn't. IU shouldn't have won because of their lack of offense and on defense they couldn't keep the Lions off the boards and had no answer for Jeff Brooks.

The 22 minutes without a foul... (Well, 25 really, in terms of meaningful whistles- an over-the-back at the end of the game when the IU player had possession doesn't matter- an over-the-back call where a player did have position would've helped earlier in the half) was extremely frustrating and disappointing to watch as a fan. It was something that was easy to key in on as "blatantly unfair" when your team is letting you down. It was insult added to injury.