Ready, set, go.

Start here.

Thanks to the Big Ten Geeks, here’s a scatter plot of offensive and defensive efficiency in the Big Ten as of yesterday:

Yes, not only is IU worst in the Big Ten offensively, as its only scoring about .93-.94 points per possession, but its second to last in defensive efficiency, allowing about 1.11 points per possession. If you want to know why IU has lost eight straight Big Ten games, you don’t have to look any further than these two numbers. When you aren’t scoring as much as your opponents, and you aren’t defending them well either, it’s sort of hard to get over the hump, ya dig?

When will they crack 60?

Let’s get visual, visual again. Via Statsheet, here’s IU scoring numbers:

IU has failed to eclipse the 60-point mark in its last four games, and barely did it in its fifth to last game — hitting 61 — in a loss to Northwestern. And pace really has nothing to do with the low amount of points IU is scoring: according to Ken Pomeroy, the Hoosiers’ adjusted pace of 68.6 possessions per game is a touch higher than the national average. They aren’t playing a slow game.

So why then, Ryan, are they specifically having trouble putting the ball in the hole?

There are four factors right now that are hurting the Hoosiers:

1) They’re one of the worst teams in the nation at getting their shots blocked. A staggering 12.9 percent of their shots get swatted, which ranks them 338th out of the 347 Division I teams. Meaning this: for every ten shots they take, it’s likely at least one of them isn’t going to find it’s way anywhere near the hoop. Which makes it that much harder for them to put the ball in the basket.

2) Turnovers. Oh the turnovers. They are averaging 15.2 of them per game. That’s 15 possessions a game that are essentially wasted. Add in four or five blocked shots a game, and the Hoosiers are squandering 20 scoring opportunities per game. That’s a lot.

3) Points in the paint. Let’s be real: IU lacks a low-post scoring threat. They just do. And outside of Jeremiah Rivers, this team also lacks a guy that can beat someone off the dribble and take it to the hole for an easy two. As such, this team just doesn’t take a lot of higher-percentage shots around the rim. And they’re not a particularly skilled shooting team from the outside either. They rank last in the Big Ten in field-goal percentage at 39.0 percent, and second to last in the league in 3-point percentage at 32.3 percent. If this team was able to pump in threes at an effective rate to compensate for the lack of inside scoring, they’d have a better chance of being competitive. But that’s just not the case.

4) This may seem rudimentary, but it’s worth bringing up: teams have seen enough tape on the Hoosiers to know their weaknesses and flaws, and with their inexperience and age, they just aren’t overcoming any of it as of late.

Add all this stuff up, and it’s why you see IU go on ridiculously long scoring droughts game after game.

OK, that about does it for me. As always, feel free to add in anything I missed. I’m sure there’s more.

Verdell Jones:

Jeremiah Rivers:

The Good Hoosiers showed up tonight in Bloomington. After the Bad Hoosiers lacked any sense of urgency in Columbus earlier this week, IU was a completely different squad this evening. They played like they wanted to win, like they deserved to win.

Perhaps this is just what we’re in for this season: a bit of deer-in-the-headlights-what-are-we-doing play on the road, while on its home court, Indiana plays with the utmost confidence. If the Hoosiers can give this kind of effort inside Assembly Hall every time out, they’ll be in most, if not all, of their home contests.

IU rattled off 41 points in the first half, and looked like a team on a mission. They were executing at both ends of the floor. One thing I want to point out during that impressive first 20 minutes: there’s a reason Jordan Hulls is starting alongside Jeremiah Rivers in the backcourt: his spot-up shooting ability. When Rivers is at his best on the dribble-drive and can draw help defense, Hulls stays at home on the wing or corner and has enough spacing to elevate and hit the three. And Rivers is athletic enough to take it all the way to the hole as well.

But when you’re hot, hot, hot, in the first half, you’re bound to cool in the second. Sure, the Hoosiers lacked some of that aggression and allowed Illinois to mount a comeback with their fouling, but IU’s shooting numbers tell a hot and cold tale: first half (14-of-25, 56 percent; 5-of-6 from three for 83.3 percent), second half (8-of-28, for 28.6 percent, 1-of-7 from three for 14.3 percent).

I expected Illinois to come back tonight, because it’s what they’ve done all season long: mount a comeback on a double-digit lead, get it close, and then go to war in the final few minutes. The Illini simply executed better down the stretch. Bruce Weber drew up a play for freshman D.J. Richardson when they were down one with 1:22 to go, and he hit the jumper. They hit their free throws down the stretch as well. IU didn’t, and hit a horrific scoring skid the last 8:28 of the game, getting outscored 18-3. They only scored 19 points in the second half.

Simply put, the better, more experienced team found a way to win this game this evening, because that’s what those kind of teams do. IU is still figuring that out, and it was frustrating to see all the good the Hoosiers did in the first half come in a losing effort. The IU team of a season ago gets routed in this game. This current incarnation plays well enough, but can’t finish. Future incarnations find a way to win this game.

In due time, they’ll get there.

THE BAD AND UGLY: FOULS.

I’m not here to complain about the refs. There were only a few calls I wasn’t a fan of, and they really could have gone either way. But Indiana was so foul-happy tonight — and it wasn’t just on shot attempts, it was reach-ins, and moving screens, and fouls off the ball — that Illinois got a whopping 38 attempts at the line. And it was a big chunk of their first-half offense: Illinois took 23 fouls shots, and hit 16 of them. They had 28 points at half, so only 12 points came in other ways besides the charity stripe. IU also got crushed on the boards in the second half, getting out-rebounded 24-13.

The Illini were in the bonus early in the second half, and it allowed them to chop away at the lead without any time coming off the clock. They hit 11 of their 16 second-half attempts from the line, including some key ones in the clutch.

There’s a fine line between being aggressive and being over-aggressive when playing defense, and the Hoosiers crossed it at points tonight. Yet, this was just a Big-Ten bruiser of a game: it was physical, it was heated, and you saw some jawing and pushing on the court.

Perhaps the younger, less experienced team played into that a bit too much with all the fouling going on this evening.

I started this game a bit late, so I had to play catchup on DVR. Because I always need to have my laptop open — always, always — I caught one of Alex’s Twitter updates that said IU had cut the lead to 11 with just under 12 minutes to go. At the time, I had just started the second half, and as the half wore on I became increasingly shocked by this fact: after all, IU showed no signs of really putting a dent into Loyola’s lead. They still trailed by 20 with 14:10 to go, and though they were taking care of the ball better — there was only one turnover in the first seven minutes of the second half — Loyola was hitting their shots, and IU wasn’t able to inch any closer.

But then the barrage hit. Maurice Creek knocked down two threes, Verdell Jones hit another, Creek hit a layup, got fouled and hit the free throw, Jones hit two free throws off a Creek steal, and suddenly the Hoosiers were only down six with 10:18 to go.

Another big part of IU’s comeback? Tom Pritchard. In the second half, he really reminded me of the Pritch of old: he was gobbling up rebounds, had a real knack for the ball and was a productive scorer. He had six offensive boards and eight total, and chipped in seven points. It wasn’t an amazing effort by any stretch, but he kept a lot of plays alive during the Hoosiers’ comeback run, and it was an integral part of why they were able to make this a game.  IU, with their thin frontline, could use this kind of effort out of Pritch every night.

Yes, of course, there was plenty to gripe about in this game. (Just what until you get to The Bad.) But IU could have laid down and died in this one. Instead, they turned up the defensive pressure in both the full and half court, were aggressive and got to the line, and hit some big shots to bring them right back into this game.

This is what good teams do when they find themselves at a crossroads: They will themselves back into the game with good play on both sides of the ball. But good teams also find a way to win these games against an inferior opponent at home. And well, we all know that didn’t happen tonight.

THE BAD: OH, THERE WAS PLENTY.

I’ve seen some bad basketball in my day. I’ve played some bad basketball in my day. I know last year’s team turned the ball over at a freakishly high rate. But man, this has to rank up there as some of the most terrible basketball I’ve seen in recent history. It was a like a middle school game between two unskilled, uncoordinated teams. The game was basically a reversed course. Where Loyola feasted off IU’s turnovers for 20 points thanks to its full-court press in the first half,  IU got back into this game on the strength of its three-quarters court trap in the second half. Both teams finished the night with 23 turnovers. Early in the first half, when IU actually was able to break the press (which was rare), every possession just seemed to be guys trying to drive — be it Maurice Creek, Christian Watford, Devan Dumes — and falling over themselves.

There was also a ridiculous 58 free throws shot in this game — 32 for IU; 26 for Loyola — which seemed to be to IU’s advantage. They hit a nice 10-of-12 in the first half, and were hitting early in the second.

But it killed them down the stretch:  Jones missed two with 8:21 to go, Jeremiah Rivers missed four straight in the last 2:03, none more important than the two he missed with IU down 69-67 with 37 seconds to play, which essentially sealed the game for Loyola. In the second half, IU only shot 12-of-20 from the line, good for 60 percent. In a game that’s so close, one that you were once down 24 in, you have to do better than that.

And if you’re wondering why, when the shot clock and game clock were nearly identical after those last two missed free throws, the Hoosiers waited 20 seconds to foul, it’s because Brett Harvey happens to be the best returning free-throw shooter in the country from last season. When he didn’t give up the ball, IU had to eventually foul. And all it did was give them less time to mount a comeback. Down four with 17 seconds to go is a lot harder than down four with 35-36 seconds to go.

And ugh, the four-point play with just under two minutes to go in which Rivers fouled Harvey on a 3-point attempt that he made? A four-point lead with just under two minutes to go quickly became a two-point deficit. In a game like this, you can’t let that happen. You just can’t. And it was the second time it happened; the first play of the second half was a four-point play from Harvey, in which Rivers fouled him on a 3-pointer.

The worst play of the night? With 11 minutes to go in the first half, Watford looked to inbound the ball under Loyola’s basket. Hulls and Rivers were covered in the backcourt very near to him on the baseline. Dumes, the next closest Hoosier, was near the 3-point line down on IU’s side of the court. So what does Watford do? He throws it right to — literally it hit him chest high — Robert Olsen of Loyola, a guy that was standing pretty much at center court.

That play pretty much epitomizes how this game went.

THE UGLY: WHEN THE TIE COMES OFF, YOU KNOW TOM CREAN IS ANGRY.

Hmmm, where to begin. Let’s take some baby steps here. Save for the last few minutes where it all unraveled, Indiana hung right with Maryland, and during several stretches, outplayed and outworked the Terrapins –  a tournament team last season. A team that was ranked earlier this year. IU had a lead with 9:44 to go. It led for a good stretch in the first half. As much as we want expectations to be higher and wins to be a result, at this juncture in the season it’s progress.

The Puerto Rico incarnation of these Hoosiers likely doesn’t keep it this close for this long, or look as poised and as polished as IU did for stretches tonight.

About the only other thing I want to point out here is one key difference this year as opposed to last, and that’s IU actually having viable options off the bench. When Jeremiah Rivers went down with his injury early in the first half after that nifty layup– I worry his trashing style of play might lead to more scary moments like that later in the season — Jordan Hulls filled in without skipping a beat. He hit a three, and had a dazzling no-look pass to Christian Watford under the bucket. Watford scored, was fouled and hit the free throw. Having two capable point guards will be huge as the season progresses. Derek Elston also showed some spark off the bench, too. He didn’t have a good shooting night, but he had nine boards in 20 minutes. He continues to make the most out of his time on the court.

THE BAD: LOOOOONG SCORING DROUGHTS.

IU still seems to be figuring things out in the half court. When they got out in transition in the first half, they made some heady decisions. But when they were forced into half-court sets, there still seems to be a lot of indecision, and it’s clear this is still a facet of the their game that’s a work in progress. However, there was good ball movement in stretches.

But when you add in a night of awful shooting — IU shot a woeful 23-70 from the field (32.9 percent), 7-of-26 from three-point land (26.9 percent) and 15-of-22 from the charity stripe (68.2 percent) including the front end of one-and-one’s in the second half — and some poor shot selection (Devan Dumes, I’m looking at you) on top of some inexperience in the half court, it’s incredibly difficult to pull out a victory, especially against a team of Maryland’s caliber.

There’s a reason IU had had 20 offensive rebounds tonight: they had plenty of misses to gobble up.

THE UGLY: LATE-GAME FOULS, THE SLATE AHEAD.

This is a minor, petty gripe, and I know a game is never over till it’s over, but IU seemed to be fouling when they were down 12 or so with around 30 seconds left. It prolonged the sting of the loss, and that’s never fun.

IU has week a off, and then takes on Pitt — another fringe Top 25 team — at Madison Square Garden. The following Saturday, they have Kentucky  — one of the best teams in the nation — at home. If they don’t start shooting better, they may be out of those games far earlier than tonight’s affair.

At some point, IU is going to put it all together, and beat a team that has more talent and experience. They have too much talent, and will only continue to get better. But don’t expect it to come until Big Ten play starts.

Long hit the game-winner with the teams tied at 65 and the hand of Jordan Hulls in his face.

“That’s a tough shot,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “It’s the one when Jones gave up the three because he didn’t rotate out fast enough that killed us. It’s never the last play. It never is.”

After Long’s shot, George Mason (3-2) fouled the Hoosiers before they could get a shot off and Jeremiah Rivers made the first free throw and intentionally missed the second.

Rashad Whack secured the rebound for George Mason, was fouled, and hit the second of two free throws. A desperation half court heave by Maurice Creek didn’t draw iron as time expired.

The loss was the third in four days for Indiana (2-3), which was led by 15 points from Maurice Creek and 13 from Verdell Jones. Bobby Capobianco came off the bench, scored his first points in an IU uniform and finished with seven points and 10 rebounds, five offensive, in 17 minutes.

Despite the tough trip, Crean was pleased with his team’s effort.

“The second half we played much better and finally started to look like a team,” Crean said. “We played our best half of basketball and grew up. That doesn’t mean we didn’t make mistakes and we didn’t miss shots and didn’t have turnovers, but we started to grow up. And that’s exactly what has to happen as we move forward with this team and we are going to continue to build on that.”

Long scored 18 to lead George Mason and Mike Morrison added career highs of 17 points, 13 rebounds and seven blocked shots, a tournament record. Luke Hancock, Creek’s teammate at Hargrave Military Academy chipped in nine points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

(The four factors are explained, here.)

Pick to Click: Creek

Crean on his rotation: “We’ve got a lot of determinations to make. How do we really want to play? I’m trying to play to many guys right now. But we want to run. Are we going to all out after it and press more? Are we going to shrink the bench? I don’t have a rotation.”

Crean pleased with Capobianco’s play: “We had a real heart-to-heart the other night about him taking the steps. And it was really at a crossroads. He’s got it in him. He’s been very, very serious since our first night. And he always practices hard, but he always doesn’t play with confidence. This is on the plus side, going home to have him step in and play like that. But at the same time, he’s gotta learn to play through the contact. He can’t throw the ball up.”

George Mason is young, but it’s different at Indiana: Crean: “Those guys, when they’re in there young, they’ve got people handing it down. They didn’t have to send off everybody because of drugs and because of academics. All of these programs have had people hand it down. It may not have been great players handing it down, but we don’t have that.”

Improved free throw shooting: Indiana hit 21 of 28 free throws, including 10 of 10 in the first half.

No production from Pritchard or Dumes: Pritchard went scoreless and grabbed just one rebound in 14 minutes and Dumes, Indiana’s leading scorer last season, also went scoreless and committed two turnovers in seven minutes.

Hoosiers win rebounding battle: Indiana out-rebounded George Mason 43-38, but were outscored 42-20 in the paint.

Watford struggles from the field: Christian Watford finished with 10 points, but shot just 3 of 13.

Up next: Northwestern State at 3:30 ET on Saturday at Assembly Hall. The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

• Box score

This is what this Hoosiers team can be. Running the break efficiently, not letting teams get set up on D, pushing the pace, getting controlled buckets in transition with Jeremiah Rivers and Verdell Jones leading the charge. It actually looked slow to me at points, because IU wasn’t trying to do too much — just simply taking what they were offered.

Rivers had a nice play during this stretch, as he grabbed an air ball and went coast to coast. But then Ole Miss turned up the pressure, started dominating inside, starting hitting shots, blocking IU’s shots, and IU began turning the ball over at an alarming rate. What was once a 20-11 lead quickly became a double-digit deficit.

Ole Miss just had too much to throw at the Hoosiers. They blocked a ridiculous 12 shots on both lines (starters DeAundre Cranston and Eniel Polynice had two each; Terrico White had one, while the bench picked up the remaining seven), and scored at will in stretches. They overpowered IU. The Hoosiers were able to make mini-runs here and there — something last year’s team would not have done — and had it to 69-61 with a bit over 5:00 to go. But after yet another turnover on a fast break (an errant Devan Dumes pass), that was basically it for their chances at a comeback.

THE BAD: TURNOVERS AND FREE THROWS.

So far this season, what killed IU last year is killing them this year. Sure, there’s more talent at pretty much every position. And a turnover from Rivers this early evening might not look as bad as a Daniel Moore one from last year. But the fact remains: this team is having an awful time taking care of the ball. They had 14 turnovers at half, and 21 for the game. Rivers led the way with six (though some of his drives to the rim were pretty, no?), while Maurice Creek had five. And free-throw shooting was bad again as well: the Hoosiers only hit 12 of their 27 attempts for 44 percent.

It’s tough to win a game, no matter how well you play otherwise, when you’re shooting under 50 percent from the free-throw line and turning the ball over more than 20 times in a contest.

I have faith the Hoosiers can correct the sloppiness as they begin to adjust to Crean’s up-tempo style. But sometimes with free-throw shooting you either have it or you don’t.

THE UGLY:

Tom Pritchard’s air-balled free throw. Back-to-back-to-back missed threes from nearly the same spot late in the second half: the first two from Dumes, the last one from Maurice Creek. The near empty gym:

And just like that, the Rebels reeled off a 28-5 run en route to a comfortable 89-71 win in the opening round of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Tip-Off Classic.

“I thought our guys responded to Indiana coming out and being aggressive, which you would hope an experienced team would do,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “We have some experienced guards and made some adjustments.”

Indiana had no answer on the inside for Ole Miss (3-0), which blocked 12 shots, out-rebounded IU 46-43 and shot 51.5 percent from the field.

Murphy Holloway scored a career-high 26 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Rebels and Chris Warren had 16.

“We tried to get Murph behind the zone, because they got so extended on the perimeter,” Kennedy said of Holloway. “It opened up some opportunities behind the zone.”

The Hoosiers (2-1) committed 21 turnovers, 14 in the first half, and shot just 12 of 27 from the foul line.

“We made too many mistakes to win the game,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said. “They were more physical and we didn’t do a great job of playing through that.”

After trailing by as many as 15 in the second half, Indiana had a chance to cut the lead to six with 5:40 remaining. But an errant pass from Devan Dumes to Jeremiah Rivers on a 3-on-1 fast break ended IU’s 9-2 run.

Maurice Creek led three Indiana players in double figures with 18 points. Verdell Jones added 17 and Rivers had 14. The bench, however, contributed just nine points.

“A loss is a loss,” Jones said. “We just have to come back and improve and get tougher.”

Pick to Click: Jeremiah Rivers

Up next: Boston University at 6:00 ET on Friday.

Tough game for Watford: The freshman from Birmingham (AL) hit just 2 of 10 shots and scored five points. Watford was averaging a double-double in his first two games.

Off the mark from outside: The Hoosiers shot just 3 of 15 from behind the three-point line.

• Box score

And yet there I was, getting all goosebumpy as John Laskowski nervously interviewed Rivers at halftime. Rivers talked about his son, Jeremiah, his (Doc’s) excitement on his son’s announcement that he was considering Indiana as a destination, and his desire to just be a parent during IU games. He even had the IU hat on. It was pretty cool. And it was probably the most noteworthy thing about IU’s relatively lackluster win over USC-Upstate Monday night.

This year’s Hoosiers present a weird paradox. They’re not last year’s team, as much as Devan Dumes might wish they were. They’re definitely better — you can see the heightened level of play almost immediately, from Rivers to Christian Watford (man, is it nice to have an athletic big man with touch in an IU uniform again) to Derek Elston to Maurice Creek, who might just become my favorite player on this year’s team.

But this year’s Hoosiers are not a good team. There is a long way to go from “better than 6-25″ to “good.” And so while last year a win like Monday night’s might have been cause for minor excitement — IU led by 20! IU scored 69 points! — this year, it feels harder to process. So, am I supposed to be excited that IU seems borderline competent again? Or should I be depressed by the fact that an 18-turnover game at home against USC-Upstate has me considering excitement? See what I mean?

It’s hard to know how to feel about these Hoosiers in the same way it’s hard to know whether or not any of them are good. It’s too early to know. Gauging college basketball teams early in the year is always a foolhardy proposition. Gauging a team that will play four freshmen and a transfer significant minutes is especially difficult. But here’s what I noticed so far:

• There’s a reason Christian Watford was such a big-time recruit. Imagine this guy in high school. He’s tall, athletic, he has touch around the rim, he can — gasp — dribble. I can just picture the rows of scouts drooling at his NBA workouts in (let’s hope) four years. But for all of Watford’s natural talent, bigger, stronger players are going to dominate him in the paint. He’s weak. He’ll get stronger; I hear IU has a pretty nice new weight room. In the meantime, though, tougher opponents are going to beat him up. You can already tell.

• I really like Maurice Creek. It helps that my roommate’s girlfriend goes by Mo, so we can call now start calling her Maurice Creek instead of Maurice Jones-Drew. It also helps that Creek has a pretty complete game, including a three-point stroke that’s just mechanical enough to reveal some serious coaching on the part of someone very dedicated along the line. Creek is like a way, way better version of Dumes: He doesn’t hesitate and he doesn’t rush. He knows what he’s supposed to do and he does it.

• Jeremiah Rivers is maybe a little shakier than you’d like. Rivers is a solid defender and a great passer, but other than that he’s a little more careless with the ball than a lock-down point guard is supposed to be. For a second there, I thought I was watching Daniel Moore.

• Hey, is that Daniel Moore? I didn’t recognize the long hair, man! Good to see you again!

• IU is still not in shape. This will come, but for now the Hoosiers are all about pushing the ball up the floor until the time comes to get back on defense. Transition defense is sloowwwww. It looked almost as bad as Kentucky, only IU doesn’t have an insane John Wall to bail them out of embarrassing home losses. (Or a third of the talent. But who’s counting.)

• Gus Johnson doesn’t yell for just anything. A few times I was hoping Johnson would let loose with some of his trademark hysteria, but not today. He was in full workmanlike Johnson mode. The man has range, people.

• Jordan Hulls could overtake Moore’s spot as IU’s most adorable, scrappy, lovable little white dude. It helps that he’s way better at basketball, too.

• Pritchard is still Pritchard, still sluggish around the rim on offense, still frustrating to watch in the pivot, still a surprisingly effective rebounder. He should be a good counterpoint to Watford’s streaky athleticism, but who knows, right?

• Tom Crean did not go to the dry cleaner this week. Come on, Tom. A gold and blue tie? Pulling from the back of the closet in the discarded Marquette collection already? For shame.

• But hey, at least he wore a tie. USC-Upstate’s coach rocked an open brown shirt with brown slacks and a brown coat. Tremendous look, really. He may have liked the way he looked; I did not.

• Oh, and one more thing: College hoops is back. Like, officially. Feels good, right?