ALTERNATE TITLE: The night Tom Crean’s frustration finally got the best of him.

Tom Crean had enough.

The turnovers. The poor defensive rotations. The other team carving up his squad like a Thanksgiving turkey. His Hoosiers lacking the effort, fire and resolve he demands.

So after a questionable foul call on Bobby Capobianco midway through the second half, Crean launched into a verbal attack on the ref who called said foul. He took a swig of his drink. The profanities continued to fly out of his mouth. He kept going. And going.

Another T.

Eruption:

As Crean walked off the court to exit, he turned back around the free-throw line to bark some more, and assistant coach Tim Buckley had to restrain him. Just off the court and walking through the entranceway, Crean was maniacal, screaming and yanking his head from side to side. He popped into a room to the side of the corridor under the stands and kicked the door. And that same rage was still bouncing around his soul when the camera finally cut.

Who knows. They might have needed a straight jacket to contain him.

And you know what? I loved it. Loved it because sometimes there’s that rage inside you that you can’t contain. Sometimes, when your frustration level is through the roof, when you’re the leader of a team on its way to its ninth straight loss, all it takes is that one little, teeny, tiny, itsby, bitsy thing to set you off.

It wasn’t about that foul call. It was about so much more.

Tom Crean had Hoosier Nation’s anger, frustration and disappointment swell up inside him tonight. We’re a big group. It was just too much to contain.

He needed to do this. Needed to try something else to light a fire under his team’s feet. Needed to use some other motivation or tactic. For that, I applaud him.

But alas, no amount of kicking and screaming was going to bring his squad back from such a huge deficit. Tonight, the Badgers owned Crean and his Hoosiers inside their own house in this midst of a long losing streak, and it was just too much for him to bear.

–

THE GAME IN AND OF ITSELF:

Tom Pritchard might have been as frustrated as Crean tonight, what with his technical in the first half, and his cheap shove on Mike Bruesewitz in the second half. But for the first time since I can remember, IU actually was running a nice little pick-and-roll set with Pritch, and he got some nice, easy looks. The Hoosiers got some efficient, high-percentage buckets tonight. I repeat, the Hoosiers got some efficient, high-percentage buckets tonight. Add in this team’s best strength — their offensive rebounding of which they grabbed 14 tonight — along with some takes to the hole, and they actually won the points in the point battle 30-24.

Add in the ten free throws IU hit, and that gets you to 40 of IU’s 46 points. Which means they only made three jumpers all night — two of which came on their first four points of the game. (Which is pretty insane, if you think about it. Seriously. Think about it.)

But yeah: props to IU for showing something inside tonight.

Everything else? Not so great. Because Wisconsin holds the ball so long on offense and waits to get the best shot, they kill a ton of clock. As such, they allow 57.1 points per game — good for first in the Big Ten and fifth in the nation. So a team like IU that has been scoring in the high 50s the past several game to begin with is going to see a dip in scoring. Hench the 46 points in total.

The Hoosiers just had no answers for Wisconsin’s clockwork offense. They allowed them to shoot 54.7 percent and a scary-good 73.7 percent from 3-point land (8-of-11).

And of course, the same things that I talked about yesterday reared their ugly heads tonight. Turnovers? Eighteen of them, which lead to 21 points for the Badgers. Blocked shots? The Badgers had nine — nine! — of them tonight. Poor shooting? They shot 35.3 percent from the field. IU’s other strength besides getting offensive boards is free-throw rate. They got to the line 20 times to Wisconsin’s 15, but only made 10 of them.

Making things that much tougher to swallow? This 32-point loss was the program’s worst ever at home. Never has a team that’s suited up in the cream and crimson lost so bad inside Assembly Hall.

It’s enough, to well, turn a Midwest Man into the Incredible Hulk, ain’t it?

“Indiana didn’t show up,” Dakich told Dave Revsine immediately following IU’s 83-55 loss. “It was the third straight game. This time they lose by 28. Two previous games by 17. Without much energy, without much pride.”

The humiliating loss, IU’s sixth straight, dropped the Hoosiers to 9-15 overall and 3-9 in the Big Ten. And while the outcome was not unexpected, the lack of resistance Indiana showed from the opening tip was discouraging.

There was no fight. There was no determination. And perhaps most disturbing, the effort on defense was non-existent.

Indiana looked more content to lay down and take a loss than engage in a battle with Wisconsin. And the final score, the worst loss of the season, was indicative of that.

“We’re having a major confidence issue in the sense of playing through anything that is even remotely tough to us right now,” Indiana head coach Tom Crean told Don Fisher on the postgame radio show. “We’ve got to get that mojo back of that toughness that we had.”

The outcome was never in doubt as the Badgers (19-6, 9-4) led by 20 before the second television timeout and shot 53 percent in the first half.

In all, Indiana surrended 10 3-pointers to Wisconsin, led by seven from Jason Bohannon, who scored a career-high 30 points.

“We’re not keeping the dribble in front of us right now,” Crean said. “That’s why we’re trying to play some different things defensively. We’re just not really helping with a purpose. We never got off to a great start with our defense, they got a ton of confidence and we just gave up far too many open shots.”

Indiana also reverted back to early season form in the turnover department, coughing it up 21 times. Wisconsin won the battle on the glass, 33-26, and had 18 assists to just 10 turnovers. Trevon Hughes — 16 points — and Jordan Taylor — 11 points — joined Bohannon in double figures.

Christian Watford scored 15 points to lead Indiana, but shot just 4 of 12. Verdell Jones, battling flu-like symptoms, added 11 points in 33 minutes.

+ Box score

Of course, these numbers are not the only determining factors once the ball is tossed up, but they certainly point to Wisconsin being heavily favored.

A couple of things really stand out for the Badgers: First, their turnover percentage is a ridiculous 15.5 percent, good for fourth in the country. The Hoosiers, by comparison, turn it over at a clip of 21.7 percent.

Second, Wisconsin’s defensive rebounding percentage is third nationally. Translation: Good luck getting to the offensive glass. Indiana is doing a respectable job on the offensive boards, but they’re going to need an extraordinary effort in that category to keep this competitive. That means Jeremiah Rivers and Verdell Jones really need to crash the boards.

Pomeroy is calling this a 71-53 win for Wisconsin and puts the chances of an IU win at three percent. Given Bo Ryan’s success at the Kohl Center and the fact that Wisconsin is coming off its first home loss of the season to Illinois, this prediction does not seem far fetched.

+ Game notes for Indiana’s exhibition opener against Grace, a NAIA opponent. {IUHoosiers.com}

+ One of Indiana’s top recruiting targets in 2012, North Central’s D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, recently underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus and will be out several weeks. {Indianapolis Star}

+ Mike Hutton writes that Indiana is on the fast track with Tom Crean at the helm. {Gary Post-Tribune}

+ Kyle Neddenriep looks at five players from around the state who are under the recruiting radar, but ready to soar. Indiana is mentioned with several including Kellen Dunham, Jared Drew and Collin Hartman. {Indianapolis Star}

+ John M. over at the Indiana SBNation site previews the returning players in Indiana’s backcourt. {Crimson Quarry}

+ Andy Katz ponders the question: Could this finally be the year at Northwestern? {ESPN.com}

+ Katz writes that Wisconsin doesn’t mind being picked low in the Big Ten. The Badgers are looking for their 12th straight NCAA berth this season. {ESPN.com}

There’s not a lot to write about this game that hasn’t been written already this season. The regular season is over. IU finishes up the Big Ten season with a 1-17 record.

The Hoosiers shot relatively well from the field in Madison (54 percent), but committed 16 turnovers, missed nine free throws and were out-rebounded 28-19. That’s not exactly a recipe for winning basketball games.

The Badgers, on the other hand, hit 52 percent from the field, hit 7 of 14 from 3-point range and knocked down 26 of 32 free throws.

Verdell Jones set a career high with 23 points as did Nick Williams with 19 points.

With that, we’ll leave it in your hands. Thoughts about this game, the regular season as a whole and your predictions heading into a 5PM ET matchup on Thursday with Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament are welcome in the comments.