There’s just no time to relax in the Big Ten.

The Hoosiers were reminded of that the hard way on Thursday night, squandering a 14 point lead to an inferior Illinois team, and ultimately losing at the buzzer, 74-72.

Tied at 72 with 0.9 seconds left in the game, Tyler Griffey was left completely unguarded on an inbounds play at the baseline. With no defender on him, he laid the ball up and in as time expired to give the Illini the upset victory over Indiana.

If anything, the game was a revealing one. It demonstrated and exposed two major weaknesses with this Indiana team: 1) the ability to close out games defensively, and more importantly, 2) turnovers.

If it sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Just as recently as the game preview, I was expressing my concern about this team’s need to take care of the ball.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

The Illini generated more than 37% of their total points (28) directly off of turnovers and were able to capitalize when it mattered most, including the final play, which was only allowed to happen because of… a turnover.

As we’ll see in our Four Factors, Indiana excelled in all but one area: Turnover percentage.

FOUR FACTORS: INDIANA vs. ILLINOIS

eFG% TO% OR% FTR INDIANA 59.00% 22.22% 27.59% 26.00% ILLINOIS 52.59% 14.29% 22.22% 22.41%

Looking at the box score, you’re going to have a bit of trouble finding a statistical category that the Hoosiers didn’t come out on top on.

So how did they lose? Well – you guessed it – turnovers.

It’s easily the greatest area of concern: The Hoosiers are ranked 214th nationally in turnover percentage, and it showed.

Down by eight with under 3 minutes remaining, they only scored two points, but they only were able to get off two shot attempts because of multiple turnovers.

This afforded the Illini extra possessions, allowing them to hit four of their last five, in addition to two free throws.

If the Hoosiers can’t take care of the ball, they can’t even give their offense the opportunity to even take enough shots to win games.

While not completely damning to their title chances, Indiana will be hard-pressed to make a run unless this issue is seriously addressed before the tournament. I don’t know about you, but I think Columbus would be a pretty good place to start.

Next up: Sunday, February 10th, @ #10 Ohio State (17-5 overall, 7-3 Big Ten)