Thoughts on a 73-64 loss to the Golden Gophers:

A sparse Barn crowd. A Minnesota team dealing with injuries, losers of three straight.

Didn’t matter.

Welcome to the Big Ten, new-look Hoosiers.

Niko Medved and the Golden Gophers had the game plan to slow down Indiana’s offense. On the perimeter, deny Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries in-rhythm 3-point looks and make sure they don’t kill you on back cuts. Live with others, like Tayton Conerway, shooting them.

Live, too, with Indiana’s bigs getting opportunities against your depleted frontcourt 1-on-1. Keep the score down, the pace slow. Play hard, give max effort and see how it goes.

While Indiana scored on its first six possessions and countered Minnesota’s defensive strategy effectively, the Hoosiers scored on just eight of their final 23 possessions in the first half. Indiana has looked fluid, comfortable and in control offensively for much of the season. But as this game wore on, the Hoosiers appeared anything but. Possessions stalled. Little came easily. The Minnesota crowd got into it and Indiana seemed to wilt under the spotlight of its first true road game of the season.

The Hoosiers responded early in the second half to Minnesota’s physical style, going hard to the rim and looking for fouls. The problem was that the free-throw shooting just wasn’t there. Reed Bailey got fouled early, making 1-of-2. Not much later, Wilkerson was fouled and went 1-of-2. Conerway then missed two in a row. Next up was Bailey again, making 1-of-2.  Then Sam Alexis missed two straight on a trip. These all came in the first seven and a half minutes of the second half, Indiana going just 3-of-10 from the line. The Hoosiers finished the contest 12-of-20 (60 percent) from the charity stripe.

After those Alexis missed free throws, Minnesota went on a run. Isaac Asuma hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 43. Cade Tyson followed with a 3-pointer of his own. A third 3-pointer during this stretch at the 9:25 mark by Jaylen Crocker-Johnson put the Golden Gophers up eight points, 53-45. The Hoosiers cut it to two points on a DeVries 3-pointer in transition after a Wilkerson steal at the 7:49 mark, but that was as close as they’d get the rest of the way. Minnesota bumped the lead out to 10 with 4:08 to go. Indiana did make a run at it by going to a full-court press that flummoxed the Golden Gophers a bit. And Wilkerson did find some success on back cuts on his way to 15 points. But the Hoosiers couldn’t get enough shots to fall to pull out the comeback, getting the deficit down to three points with 2:00 to play before settling on a nine-point loss.

The Hoosiers scored just .97 points per possession in this one, a season-low. Their effective field goal percentage of 47.3 was the second-lowest of the season thus far. After hiking up some 3s late to try and get back into it, Indiana also finished just 8-of-27 (29.6 percent) from 3-point range. Minnesota turned the ball over on 24.2 percent of its possessions, which helped Indiana to 22 points off turnovers.

Bailey mustered just a 1-of-5 performance with four rebounds in 20 minutes of action. Aside from his performance at Kansas State, he’s struggled against physical frontcourt play this season. Sam Alexis fared better off the bench with 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting, pulling in three boards in 19 minutes.

This won’t be the last time Big Ten opponents dare Indiana’s frontcourt and supporting cast to beat them.

For a night, it worked.

For the season? Indiana’s got to figure it out.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

See More: The Minute After, Minnesota Golden Gophers

• Ohio State and Indiana remain the top two undefeated teams in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.
• The two teams will face each other in the Big Ten title game for the first time as No. 1 and No. 2.
• The winner of the conference championship will secure a spot in the Rose Bowl and a top seed in the playoff.

BLOOMINGTON — The College Football Playoff committee kept the lone undefeated teams, No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana football, in the top two slots in the penultimate rankings released on Tuesday night.

It sets up the a first of its kind No. 1 vs. No 2. in the Big Ten title game this weekend in Indianapolis.

The Hoosiers (12-0, 9-0 Big Ten) have been nipping at OSU’s heels for five straight weeks in the CFP rankings. The winner of the conference title game will lock up a spot in the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten’s highest-ranked team and top seed in the bracket.

“I had the opportunity to be a part of a couple of those at Alabama,” IU coach Curt Cignetti said Sunday. “We played Florida and (Tim) Tebow and Urban (Meyer) one verse two, two years in a row. It’s going be a great atmosphere.”

Based on the current rankings, Indiana would faced the winner of a matchup between No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 10 Texas A&M.

The good news for Ohio State and Indiana is that the changes the CFP made to their strength of schedule metrics during the offseason should prevent the team that loses this weekend from falling out of the top four, the cutoff for receiving a first-round bye.

Under the new formula, the metrics rewards teams for defeating high-quality opponents while minimizing the penalty for losing to such a team.

Week 5 CFP top 25 rankings

1. Ohio State 12-0 (-)

2. Indiana 12-0 (-)

3. Georgia 11-1 (+1)

4. Texas Tech 11-1 (+1)

5. Oregon 11-1 (+1)

6. Ole Miss 11-1 (+1)

7. Texas A&M 11-1 (-4)

8. Oklahoma 10-2 (-)

9. Alabama 10-2 (+1)

10. Notre Dame 10-2 (-1)

11. BYU 11-1 (-)

12. Miami 10-2 (-)

13. Texas 9-3 (+3)

14. Vanderbilt 10-2 (-1)

15. Utah 10-2 (-2)

16. USC 9-3 (+1)

17. Virginia 10-2 (+1)

18. Arizona 9-3 (+7)

19. Michigan 9-3 (-4)

20. Tulane 10-2 (+4)

21. Houston 9-3 (N/R)

22. Georgia Tech 9-3 (+1)

23. Iowa 8-4 (N/R)

24. North Texas 11-1 (N/R)

25. James Madison 11-1 (N/R)

How does the College Football Playoff work? 

The 12-team field features the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked schools. The four highest-ranked schools are seeded one through four and receive a first-round bye. 

The remaining schools will be seeded 5-12 based on their final ranking. If any of the five highest-ranked conference champions are outside the top 12, they will be seeded at the bottom of the bracket. 

Those eight schools will play in the CFP first round with the higher seeds hosting the lower seeds on campus (or a designated site picked by the higher-seeded team). The committee doesn’t modify the bracket to avoid rematches and there is no re-seeding. 

The top four seeds will be assigned to the quarterfinals hosted by the bowls, in accordance with historic bowl relationships. The Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl are hosting the quarterfinals this season.

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