Someday, perhaps soon, these Hoosiers’ flaws will catch up with them.

Unless Juwan Morgan doesn’t allow them to.

Morgan, a player impressing opposing coaches to the point of head-shaking amazement week after week, at times single-handedly hauled Indiana back from the dead Saturday in a 71-68 buzzer-beater win the Hoosiers led for a total of 93 seconds.

“Rob (Phinisee) obviously will be the hero with the game-winner,” IU coach Archie Miller said, “but clearly, there's a lot of guys that did great things.

“Juwan Morgan had as good of a game as I've been involved in in a long time.”

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Chris Mack raved about Morgan a week ago, before and after his Louisville team lost by one point in Bloomington. Notre Dame coach Mike Brey called him “fabulous” a year ago, delivering a succinct, admiring, “God did he beat us up” after Morgan scored what was then a Crossroads Classic-record 34 points in IU’s win over the Irish in 2017.

On Saturday, Butler coach LaVall Jordan joined the chorus.

“Juwan Morgan is a heck of a college basketball player,” Jordan said, minutes after Morgan’s 35 points (the new Crossroads record) sank a Butler team that had every right to feel hard done by the final score.

The Bulldogs (7-3) were superb for all 40 minutes. They collapsed inside, hounded IU freshman star Romeo Langford, forced 15 turnovers. And that was just on defense.

Sean McDermott hit six 3-pointers, scoring a team-high 20 points and disappearing again and again inside IU’s defense only to reemerge wide open seconds later. Kamar Baldwin finished with 16 points, four assists and four rebounds. Down the stretch, he was an impossible cover. Even the offensive glass — not often the Bulldogs’ strength — proved their worth: They finished with 11 offensive boards, and 12 second-chance points.

“Give Butler a lot of credit, they're a heck of a team,” Miller said. “Have a lot of guys that have been in a lot of big ones and won a lot of big games.”

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Morgan outshined them all.

He finished with those 35 points on a jaw-dropping 14 shots. He only missed two all game.

He hit four of his team’s nine 3-pointers, and seven of its eight free throws.

He finished with two steals, two blocks and seven rebounds.

Robert Phinisee’s 31-foot 3-point heave to win the game as the buzzer sounded will be the moment that defines this game years from now, in the faded memories of IU fans. But none of it would have been possible without Morgan’s performance.

It was fitting Morgan broke his own record and moved past 1,000 career points in the same game.

He is the 52nd Hoosier in history to pass that career mark. At his current pace, assuming IU plays at least 23 more games this season, he’ll finish somewhere north of 1,400 career points, and he’s going to threaten the program’s top 10 all-time in rebounding.

It almost feels pejorative to say that’s not bad for a player who spent the first two years of his college career as an injury-plagued reserve. But that’s probably the only reason why we aren’t talking about Morgan the way he deserves.

Here, in his final season at IU, handed a team both frustratingly young and tantalizingly talented, Morgan has become not just the kind of big-time player, but also the kind of big-time personality, IU fans covet most.

“Every day is the same,” Miller said. “Game day is no different than practice. Very few guys that can eliminate moodiness, the ability not to feel tired. For about two years straight, through about 150 practices, that's what I get to see every day.”

Morgan is this team’s unquestioned leader.

“He’s turned into a really good leader,” Miller said. “Vocally, he’s a guy that has really evolved over the last year and some change.”

He is its dominant personality.

“We can lean on him when times get rough,” Langford said. “He's not one of the veterans that leads by example. He leads by example and his voice.”

As Saturday proved, when everything else is going wrong, he is the player who steers Indiana through the storm.

“You love having guys like that, that have that about them,” Jordan said postgame. “We have a few guys like that, two of them are sitting with me, that will step up and make big shots, no matter how the game is going. …

“That's why people talk about him as a good player, in the class that he's in.”

Indiana has problems it needs to address. Flaws it needs to fix. No one reasonable argues this.

The Hoosiers are turning the ball over too much. They still aren’t hitting enough of their free throws, an 8-of-10 performance against Butler notwithstanding. They’re young and banged up, and will probably remain both for the rest of the season.

They’re also 9-2, with five KenPom top-50 wins. One of those wins came on a neutral floor. Another, on the road. They’re 2-0 in conference. A team that a season ago couldn’t even scratch the NIT bubble would be safely in the NCAA tournament field if it were selected right now.

Don’t lose sight of what Indiana is purely to wonder what Indiana might become.

And don’t lose sight of what you’re watching, here in the twilight of Juwan Morgan’s Indiana career.

There were several program alumni courtside Saturday — Noah Vonleh, Wayne Radford, Keith Smart, Victor Oladipo. Few programs treasure past greats like Indiana, and the Bankers Life Fieldhouse crowd erupted when Oladipo was shown on the scoreboard. Erupted again when it was Smart’s turn.

Morgan will join them soon. Mack was adamant last week about Morgan’s NBA prospects, saying: “If he’s not a first-round pick, I understand why some of these guys get fired at the next level.”

After Saturday’s game, on his way back to IU’s bus, Morgan cut across the empty court at Bankers Life.

IU fans remaining in a suite behind what was the Hoosiers’ bench shouted “We love you Juwan!” still holding what appeared to be, ahem, adult beverages. Two fans in a midcourt suite on the other side of the arena, considerably younger, jumped up and down, tugged at their IU jerseys and shouted Morgan’s name over and over. Morgan smiled, ice pack strapped to his leg, and waved both ways.

He won’t be theirs much longer. IU fans should be doing whatever possible to enjoy him while they still can.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

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