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I don't pay much mind to the idea of a moral victory, but Northwestern played a really solid game Sunday in a loss to the Indiana Hoosiers.
The offense was ugly in the first half, with Northwestern trailing 31-17. But in the second, Bill Carmody switched to a 1-3-1, and Indiana was completely not ready for it. Stops followed, Jared Swopshire and Reggie Hearn made huge buckets, and Northwestern cut the lead to five after a big run. That got cut to five again with about three minutes left, but the math wasn't there and Northwestern ended up with a loss - but a pretty decent effort.
A win would've been nice, but you can't expect that vs. Indiana. They had the shots and stops in the second half, but they dug themselves too big a hole due to bad offense. They're gonna drop from No. 2, but they're a top ten team. This was a team everybody expected to get blown out of the gym over and over again, but in their past two outings, they've shown that they have some fight in them. This is still a basketball season.
Maybe next time, Gus Johnson. Maybe next time.