This was rumored during the Big Ten Tourney, and now it seems official: According to Jeff Goodman of FOX Sports, Iowa is parting ways with Todd Lickliter after three seasons.

There are two sides to this one:

Half-full: Anyone else think he got a bit of a raw deal? Sure, Iowa hasn’t done much under his watch. But like the Hoosiers, the Hawkeyes are a very young squad with some promise. They also have a decent recruiting class coming in. The man needs more time.

Half-empty: In three years, Lickliter hasn’t done much to show he can build a winning program there. He didn’t inherit a program in disarray. He just hasn’t gotten it done. Time to move on.

Which side do you fall on?

It’s easy to chalk this one up as uninspired effort by the Hoosiers.

But this loss was somewhat different than what we’ve seen lately.

Let’s break it down:

SHOOTING

It may not have felt like it the way the Hoosiers started out against Iowa, but they hit 45.0 percent of their shots tonight. Only twice previous to this matchup during this now 10-game losing streak — at Wisconsin and the home loss to Purdue –  have the Hoosiers shot over 40 percent.

In fact, they actually hit 11-of-21 shots in the second half, good for 52.4 percent. Two reasons for this: 1) They went down low to Christian Watford early. It appeared as if this was a point of emphasis in the locker room at halftime. 2) IU’s guards took it to the hole for some higher-percentage shots around the rim.

Iowa also only had three blocks, which means IU beat out their 13.2 percent opponent block percentage and didn’t waste so many chances on the offensive end. (Yes, it’s risen to 13.2 percent. IU now ranks 340th out the the 347 Division I teams in this category. Oof.)

Verdell Jones, who hasn’t had a scoring outburst he’s capable of in a while, re-emerged tonight with 22.

I know it’s yet another loss, but outside of IU’s 1-of-8 mark from beyond the arc, this was actual a pretty solid offensive effort for the Hoosiers tonight. There was more ball movement, more passing and they got some better looks because of it.

SO WHY DID THEY GET SMOKED AGAIN?

Iowa was able to negate the Hoosiers’ two best strengths: offensive rebounding and free-throw rate. The Hawkeyes grabbed 11 offensive boards, which led to eight second-chance points. Iowa also got to the line 38 times — a staggering 31 of those came in the second half — and converted on 26 of those attempts. The Hoosiers did hit 20-of-25 from the line for a solid 80.0 percent, but with them scoring four second-chance points and making six less free throws — there’s 10 points left hanging.

But the 20 turnovers are really what killed them tonight. Time and again, IU turned the ball over — many times unforced, mind you — and Iowa did a terrific job of getting out on the break and making the Hoosiers pay for their mistakes. In all, Iowa scored 23 points off IU’s miscues.

That’s a lot.

Cut that in half, and we suddenly have ourselves a ballgame.

And due to IU’s 11 first-half turnovers and Iowa’s better job on the offensive boards , the Hawkeyes had 44 attempts from the field in the first half to IU’s 24. That’s 20 more opportunities to score.

That’s a lot.

Had the Hawkeyes been more than 1-of-12 from 3-point land in the first half, the Hoosiers would have been down a lot more than nine at the break.

So yes: a better, more focused scoring effort for IU tonight. But it simply wasn’t enough to make up for all its other deficiencies.

Whatever its age and origin, it hit close enough to home after the 78-46 loss to Wisconsin that Crean was willing to give up practice time to get his players into the film room, where they were required to critique their own performances, rather than hearing it from the coaching staff.

“Every once in awhile, you’ve got to give up the floor for the film room, and I thought that was yesterday,” Crean said Saturday afternoon inside the coaches’ locker room at Assembly Hall. “It’s one thing to see it on paper. It’s another thing to see it yourself and have to call it out in front of your teammates.”

So Crean gathered his charges in the the foyer of that same locker room where he met the media, and the Hoosiers graded themselves. Crean said he hopes the sense of accountability brought about by the exercise will continue to foster growing leadership within the program.

“The best thing that happens — this is hard for guys — is that they verbalize it before the coaches do,” Crean said. “But again, it’s all part of the progress that you have to make.”

That progress could be measured as soon as Sunday, when the Hoosiers travel to Iowa City to face a team that, like the Hoosiers, has just three Big Ten wins in 15 tries. But the tables have turned significantly since both teams met, something Crean and his team have not forgotten.

When Iowa made the trip to Bloomington, the Hoosiers were riding a two-game winning streak and finally appeared to be making the tangible progress so many fans had clamored for in Puerto Rico or against Loyola-Maryland. Then they ran into the Hawkeyes, who outhustled and outmuscled them at Assembly Hall, dealing the Hoosiers a 15-point loss. They have not won since.

Crean admitted Saturday that his team overlooked Iowa, (“I think they embraced success a little bit in those games”) one reason why he’s placing an emphasis on his players’ mentality in Iowa City.

“I’ll be very disappointed, OK, for them, for individuals that don’t come out tomorrow understanding that we better have some toughness and fight in this game,” Crean said.

Crean credited his players for their approach to preparation and practice since the Wisconsin game. But he also pointed out that the same could be said about the build-up to Indiana’s first match-up with Iowa, lending further credence to the idea that Indiana might have taken the Hawkeyes for granted in their first meeting.

“I guess we overlooked them,” Christian Watford said. “We didn’t really take that game as serious as we took the other games. We’ve got to go up there and pay them back.”

Getting that payback, according to Crean, will demand improved defense on the pick-and-roll and in pressuring Iowa, as well as better offensive execution. He was also worried about Iowa’s solid frontline, highlighting Aaron Fuller, who Crean said worries him because Fuller has struggled recently.

Indiana right now finds itself in a strange position. It can neither afford to look past any one game, nor lose sight of the overarching goal. Even Crean admitted that he sometimes struggles to remember the “process” ongoing within his program. So when he talks specifically and metaphorically in the same breath, and both the present and future come together, it is done of necessity as much as anything else.

Take, for example, the personal-critique film session, yet another exercise that builds for the now, and for the later.

“The only way you can do it is to keep building those skills of leadership,” Crean said. “When you have to verbalize what you didn’t do, you know what? It’s important, it’s not lying.”

Well that was unexpected.

Coming off a terrific OT win against Minnesota at home a week ago, and the program’s first road Big Ten win under Tom Crean on Thursday at Penn State, IU faced an Iowa team tonight that’s just not all that good. They hadn’t won a Big Ten road game since March of 2008. They entered the contest 7-12, and only 1-5 in Big Ten play. The Hoosiers were favored tonight. And with the tide turning on this season, with the Hoosiers gaining a little bit of swagger and poise — a Big Ten winning streak! — this wasn’t just there for the taking; it was served up on a silver platter.

But instead of playing like they have all Big Ten season at home, these Hoosiers came out flat. Real flat. Central Illinois farmland flat. It was a performance reminiscent of their stinkers at Michigan or Ohio State. At no point did they show any semblance of offensive flow. The two runs they made in each half, where it looked like maybe they were going to sneak back into this one, Iowa came right back to extend the lead. The Hoosiers only had three — three! — assists tonight. They missed all nine of their 3-point attempts, marking the first time the program hasn’t hit a three since 2001. They turned the ball over 16 times. They shot a horrific 35.6 percent from the floor. (Verdell Jones was the lone competent offensive threat tonight. He hit 6-of-12 buckets and had 14 points.)

But the real story of this game was the boards. Iowa snagged 39 to IU’s 23. But 18 of those rebounds for Iowa were offensive. Add in the early points they got with dribble penetration, and it allowed them to completely dominate in the points in the paint department. They outscored IU in paint 34-16, and had 20 second-chance points to IU’s seven. That’s the story of the game right there. And in the second half, the Hawkeyes also added in what they do best: hitting the 3-point shot. They nailed 4-of-7 in the second half, and with the Hoosiers struggling to score, it helped put the game out of reach.

Most troubling is that Iowa didn’t have a particularly great game. The Hawkeyes scored 58 points, and had 21 turnovers. If I had just been given those two numbers having not watched this game, I would have figured the Hoosiers had won it handily.

You have to wonder why IU came out so flat tonight. Perhaps it was the game being pushed backed because of the Colts, and Assembly Hall being empty for its standards at tip-off. It was a point Dan Dakich brought up at halftime: The Hoosiers feed of the energy of the home crowd, and it wasn’t quite there for them in the first half. Perhaps it was just one of those nights. Perhaps the Hawkeyes were just due for a road win, and IU was ripe for the picking after possibly looking past this game.

And perhaps it’s because for all the strides this time has made in the last week or so, the fact remains: they are still young, they are still growing. There’s still work to be done.

But when the dust settled, the Hoosiers (9-10, 3-4 Big Ten) looked nothing like the team that had just knocked off Minnesota in overtime or the team that won its first road game at Penn State on Thursday.

The result? A head-scratching 58-43 loss to Iowa.

“We didn’t have the same toughness level as Iowa had,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “And that’s the bottom line. There was a 15-round fight that every Big Ten game is and we decided we weren’t going to be in that fight.”

From the outset, Indiana’s effort, particularly on the glass, left plenty to be desired. The Hoosiers allowed the Hawkeyes (8-12, 2-5) to grab 18 offensive rebounds and score 20 second-chance points. In all, Indiana was beaten badly on the boards, 39-23.

“That was one of the softest low-post performances I’ve ever been apart of,” Crean said. “And I apologize to our fans. I apologize to everybody that made a great attempt to be here based on the fact that the Colts were playing. That’s not who we’re gonna be.”

After trailing 28-19 at halftime, Indiana opened the half on a 12-5 run and got within two at 33-31 with 13:23 remaining. Iowa responded with a 7-0 run of its own and the Hoosiers never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

Aaron Fuller led three Hawkeyes in double figures with 13 points. Jarryd Cole added 11 points and 10 rebounds and Brennan Cougill had 10.

For Indiana, Verdell Jones led the way with 14 points, but pulled down just one rebound. IU’s three starting guards combined for a total of just two rebounds in 87 minutes.

“When our guards don’t rebound, we do not play very well,” Crean said. “We just can’t win that way.”

+ Box score

No points from behind the arc: For the first time since facing Wisconsin in the 2001 Big Ten Tournament, Indiana failed to make a 3-pointer. The Hoosiers finished 0-for-9.

Assist-to-turnover ratio not pretty: Indiana committed 16 turnovers and had a season-low three assists. Crean attributed that to screening, or a lack thereof. “Our screening was atrocious. That’s what that is more than anything else.”

Jeremiah Rivers postgame comments:

Player Pick to Click Wins, Season to-date:

+ Verdell Jones: 6

+ Maurice Creek: 5

+ Christian Watford: 4

+ Jeremiah Rivers: 2

+ Devan Dumes: 1

The Iowa at Indiana men’s basketball game this Sunday has been moved from a 5 p.m. (Eastern) tipoff to a 6 p.m. Tipoff. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

The change was pursuant to discussions between IU Athletic Director Fred Glass and the Big Ten Conference to avoid as much conflict as possible with Sunday’s AFC Championship game featuring the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Jets on Sunday. That game is scheduled to start at 3 p.m.

“My primary goal in all this is to get as many people in Assembly Hall as possible,” said Glass. “What this does for us, is the people in and around Assembly Hall, primarily students and faculty and staff, can watch pretty much the entire Colts game, and still get to our game. So hopefully that’s significant. We appreciate the cooperation of the Big Ten Conference, the Big Ten Network and the University of Iowa.”