The numbers say this edition of IU basketball is every bit as bad as you think they are

Losers of eight of their last ten games, Indiana appears on track to finish with an overall losing record for just the 18th time in the last 100 years.

But peeling back the onion a bit, things are even worse than just the basic won/loss record.

Holistically, analytics site KenPom.com says Indiana is the No. 105 team in the nation as of Sunday evening based on adjusted efficiency margin (difference between a team’s offensive and defensive efficiency).  For context, there are only 82 high major college basketball programs.

Adjusted efficiency margin has become an important part of the formula used by the NCAA Tournament Committee to examine and sort Division I programs.  In very simple terms it measures the difference between how many points per possession a team is expected to score vs. how many they are expected to allow, against the average Division I team.

IU has not finished a season worse than No. 82 according to that measure since the 2009-10 campaign, when Tom Crean’s second team was ranked No. 194.  And that No. 82 squad was Crean’s third team the following year, a 12-20 group that went 3-15 in the Big Ten.

The data on KenPom goes back to the 1997 season and thus includes the last four seasons of the Bob Knight era.  If you ignore Crean’s first three years, IU has never had a team worse than No. 94.  That was Mike Davis’ 14-15 team in 2003-04.

Woodson’s previous worst team was his first, when IU finished No. 48 in 2021-22.  Archie Miller’s worst team was his first as well, the No. 71 ranked 2017-18 squad.  Crean’s worst team in his final five years was the No. 63 2013-14 team.  All of Kelvin Sampson and Bob Knight’s teams were top-32.

Back in the current year, IU is the No. 13 team in the Big Ten, ahead of only Michigan in overall net efficiency.  They haven’t been that low in the league standings since Crean’s first three years either.

There are other less analytical but equally eye-catching ways to measure Indiana’s struggle this year.

The Hoosiers have lost eight games this season by double-digits (and two more by nine), and three of those double-digit losses came at home.

Indiana got swept by Penn State for the first time since 2008-09, another relic of Crean’s first three years.  They were swept by Nebraska for the second time ever and first time since 2013-14.  Overall IU is 0-6 this year against Penn State, Nebraska, Northwestern and Rutgers — teams that have had some recent success but aren’t thought of as traditional powers.

The Hoosiers lost both games to Purdue by 20 or more points.  It’s the first time that happened since the 1933-34 season.