FanHouse VerdellJones

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.

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.