Archie Miller has been telling his team that they have to be good to stay competitive in games, but great to win them. Recently, Indiana has been in games. Before Purdue, all of its first six Big Ten contests were decided by single-digits. Indiana closed the deal against Maryland, Penn State and Nebraska. But were unable in others like Northwestern and Wisconsin.
On Thursday against Purdue, by Miller’s ideology, Indiana was good. They were in the game, only trailing by one point midway through the second half. But they weren’t great. They couldn’t do enough down the stretch, falling 81-69 to a Purdue team that Indiana was statistically comparable to entering the night.