FanHouse Devan Dumes

As the buzzer sounded in Conseco Fieldhouse early Thursday evening, the Indiana Hoosiers had lost to Penn State by a count of 66 to 51. Tom Crean's first season as head basketball coach had mercifully concluded. The Hoosiers will miss the NCAA Tournament for only the third time since A Season on the Brink was published. They will miss any sort of postseason play for the second time since 1977. In fact, this was -- statistically speaking -- the worst team in Indiana basketball history.

The funny thing? I was much more relieved when last season ended, and I guarantee I'm not alone among Indiana alumni.

The Big Ten has enjoyed something of a renaissance in 2009. Often maligned in past seasons, due to tumbling conference RPI rankings, they still need to have a collectively strong showing in the NCAA Tournament to silence the naysayers. For now, though, they can bask in the glory of sitting second in conference RPI and having up to a whopping nine teams in Big Dance contention.

Obviously, they aren't getting nine in. The more likely figure is seven at this point -- which could easily move up or down in the case of a few upsets this coming weekend across the nation. While there are several other story lines, the main one coming from Indianapolis Thursday through Sunday will be the bubble implications.

A few weeks ago I did a halfway point roundup for the Big Ten, in which I buried Wisconsin and hailed Penn State to no end. Boy, do I look like an idiot now. Since then, Penn State crumbled, while Wisconsin has done a 180.

The Nittany Lions were embarrassed by Michigan, lost at home to Wisconsin, and handily lost at Purdue. They now sit just 6-6 in conference play, and their RPI has plunged into the 80s. With road trips to Illinois and Ohio State -- not to mention hosting Illinois and Minnesota -- it would appear they are fading back into obscurity.

In their ninth try, the young Hoosiers finally gave Tom Crean his first Big Ten win as the head coach of Indiana University. This was the first win for Indiana in nearly two months, as they had tied a school record with 11 consecutive losses. Still, this seemed like a natural progression, as they had been keeping games close for the past three weeks.

Behind the hot shooting of Devan Dumes, the Hoosiers built a 20-point lead early in the second half. Down the stretch, however, Iowa closed the gap, coming within three on a few different occasions.

If you want a game recap, you can check one out. Here, we focus on more than that. The one thing I will say that is left out of the recap is the six missed free throws in overtime by the Hoosiers. Those all came before a few tack-on free throws by the Wolverines. Simply put, IU still should have won, if they could just hit their damn charity shots.

What is the fallout for each team?

Indiana

This game showed that the Hoosiers, no matter how hard they play, are simply not in the same league as the rest of the Big Ten this season in terms of talent. When you have a 20 point lead at home with only 18:46 left in the game, it should be in the bag.

The problem is that Indiana doesn't have the type of player who can take over and ensure the lead doesn't get blown -- like D.J. White could have. The leadership is lacking because no one who played significant minutes last year is back -- with all due respect to my boy, Kyle Taber. The talent is lacking because Tom Crean has basically had to start over.