Indiana didn’t just lose to Wisconsin at home on Tuesday night. The Hoosiers showed that they are completely lost. And if Mike Woodson can’t find a compass or GPS to get these wanderers back on track, his first season will be lost as well.

No play better sums up the state of Indiana basketball this February than whatever pathetic thing it was the Hoosiers attempted on their final shot of the game.

After Woodson called IU’s final timeout with 18.4 seconds remaining, the ensuing play appeared to be drawn up by a 3-year-old squiggling lines around the grease board.

There was still plenty of time to attack the rim — indeed, one wondered whether Indiana should have tried to score quickly and put Wisconsin back on the line before even calling the timeout. But instead of attacking, the Hoosiers looked like they had been hypnotized in the huddle.

Nobody did anything.

As time wound down with nothing happening, 3 Hoosiers gathered in close proximity about 4 feet above the top of the key, where 1 of them would be tasked with launching a shot that had a snowball’s chance in Miami of tying the game. Parker Stewart ended up drawing that ill-fated straw.

The result was predictably dire. With everything faltering around him, Stewart rushed a shot that missed by a country mile.

The consequences of this late-game fiasco could be devastating for Indiana.

For the second time this season, the Hoosiers blew a second-half lead to the Badgers. And just like the first one, this was an unquestioned choke job.

Wisconsin outscored Indiana 8-0 in the final 1:40 to sneak out of Assembly Hall with the 74-69 win. The Hoosiers missed their last 5 shots, and hit just 1 of their last 10. The lone make was a bit of a fluke, with point guard Xavier Johnson tracking down a rebound that missed so badly it somehow found its way to him in the middle of the paint for a putback.

But that kind of ineptitude is what we’ve come to expect from Indiana’s offense.

Indiana’s offense is offensive to watch

There is a common denominator that defines Indiana’s winless February.

The inability to score.

Tuesday night marked the 5th straight game where the Hoosiers scored less than a point per possession. That streak actually started in a 69-55 win over Maryland on Jan. 29, but it’s hard to find other Big Ten opponents as beatable as the Terps.

Per KenPom.com, Indiana is 13th in the B1G in offensive efficiency and 14th in effective field goal percentage. They’re 13th in 3-point percentage and free-throw percentage. Chances are your eyeballs could tell you that was the case without the need for analytics to clear it up.

The lone sign of offensive encouragement against Wisconsin is that Trayce Jackson-Davis broke out of his recent funk.

Jackson-Davis shot below 50% from the field in IU’s previous 3 losses in the current streak, but was back to his usual form against the Badgers. He was 10-of-13 from the field and 10-of-14 from the line in a 30-point effort.

Unfortunately, Race Thompson remains his lone teammate who poses a reliable scoring threat. And there’s little reason to think that’s going to change.

For instance, Woodson has started Miller Kopp all 25 games even though Kopp hasn’t cracked the 8-point barrier since Nov. 30. IU has to get more than 5.8 points per game out of the guy who is 4th on the team in minutes.

But if Kopp’s the best option available — and he very well could be — this team’s offensive limitations are stark.

Woodson might not have a viable solution until he can bring in a new recruiting class. Unrelenting defense appears to be the only way this team can win.

After 6 years without an NCAA Tournament appearance, that’s not something Indiana fans want to hear. They desperately want this group to be good enough to make it.

And from November-January, it looked like the Hoosiers were good enough. But serious work remains to be done if that’s going to happen.

Indiana’s NCAA résumé still needs a boost

At the moment, Indiana fans can remain thankful for Purdue. As strange a sentence as has ever been written, but also the truth.

Without its win over the Boilermakers, Indiana would be on the outside of the tournament bubble looking in at the moment. After its second squandered game against Wisconsin, Indiana is 2-7 against Quad 1 opponents in the NCAA NET rankings. That doesn’t make a very compelling argument for a tournament invite. But it would be a lot less compelling with 1 fewer Quad 1 win.

At the moment, 2 more Quad 1 opportunities remain on the schedule — at Ohio State and at Purdue. The Hoosiers beat both teams at Assembly Hall, so that offers some modicum of hope. But having to rely on road wins in the Big Ten is never an easy formula.

It’s possible the make-or-break game for Indiana — and Rutgers — will be when the Hoosiers host the Scarlet Knights on March 2. Both programs are moving toward the bubble on opposite trajectories, and a collision with high stakes feels inevitable.

Just 2 weeks ago, it felt like there was no way Indiana would be in such a position. But here the Hoosiers are. And until someone other than Jackson-Davis or Thompson can put the ball in the bucket, there may not be any digging out of this hole.