BLOOMINGTON – Gabe Cupps knows Indiana has a free-throw shooting problem.

He’s not the only one. The Hoosiers, Cupps said postgame, shoot their weight in free throws at practice, trying to improve on the Big Ten’s second-worst collective percentage from the stripe.

On Sunday, after yet another game lost — this time 76-72, to Northwestern — in part because Indiana could not make nearly enough of its 21 trips to the free-throw line, Cupps said something perhaps more revealing than he knew.

“It just all comes down to confidence, and just the mentality you’re approaching the line with,”Cupps said. “I think it's much more mental than physical.”

More: Indiana coach calls Malik Reneau's performance 'awful'

Right now, frankly, a lot looks more mental than physical, for an Indiana (14-11, 6-8) team in pronounced danger of losing all grip on its season.

Deciphering body language is a dangerous science, and putting words into the mouths of people who never said them should be reserved for Tuesday morning quarterbacking. But it’s difficult to watch IU slog its way through games like these — games in which it is probably more talented and should probably win — and not come away with the feeling the Hoosiers have just begun assuming the worst.

“We’ve just got to keep working,” IU coach Mike Woodson said. “It's frustrating, because I thought we played well enough once we got back into it. The free throws bit us in the butt.”

The Hoosiers played poorly enough to be out of it in the first place.

Offense stumbling, Sunday’s hosts managed just 12 points in the game’s first 11 minutes. Fresh from a full week off, the Hoosiers looked sluggish and ponderous, like a team forced into thinking its way through that which should be instinct and second nature by now.

Eventually, they found their offense. They managed to lose the game almost everywhere else.

Northwestern (18-8, 9-6) outscored IU by six behind the 3-point line but by 10 at the free-throw line. The Wildcats outrebounded Indiana, and punished an already poor defensive rebounding team with 14 offensive rebounds and a 12-6 advantage in second-chance points.

Woodson lamented lost “50-50 balls” postgame, and he’ll have felt the same way about an 11-0 disadvantage in points off turnovers. At game’s end, the Hoosiers had hit just 12-of-21 free throws.

That’s the statistical explanation. To the naked eye, the quantifiable is simply the physical manifestation of the intangible.

Shots don’t fall at key times. Players do step to that free-throw line feeling pressure, not opportunity. Hoosiers are a half-step slow to loose balls when that half-step is the difference between possession and a foul.

Too often, Indiana plays like a team waiting for things to go wrong. For the unlucky refereeing decision. Or the stalled momentum because of the missed free throw. Or the open 3 rimming out just when the energy in this building is rising and shots like those count for more than just their points.

Woodson attributed much of Sunday’s offensive frustration to free throws and looks he classified as good, just missed.

“You watched the same game I did,” he said. “You’ve got to make shots. We had some good looks and we just didn't knock them down. Nothing scientific about it. We moved the ball well enough to get open shots. You got to step up and make them. It's that simple.”

But right now his team looks for all the world like an outfit expecting those shots to miss.

Basketball (like any sport) is a confidence game. Teams that have it play like they’re moving mountains. Teams that don’t, well, you get the idea.

There is no getting around Indiana’s youth, nor the Hoosiers’ deficiencies. They will not become a good 3-point shooting team overnight. Their rebounding problems aren’t going away anytime soon.

Some of what plagues this program as currently constituted will need to be sorted out in the summer.

Trouble is, it’s seeping into the floors and walls right now. IU plays too aware of its own limitations, more cowed by them than strengthened in some collective effort to push back against them.

Woodson and his staff actually drew up an impressive game plan for Boo Buie, Northwestern’s free-scoring lead guard. The Hoosiers blitzed every Buie ball screen, Kel’el Ware defending excellently without fouling to push Buie away from the basket while the defense behind him rotated back into position.

So Northwestern coach Chris Collins flipped the point of attack, running many of the same actions through Princeton transfer Ryan Langborg on the other side of the floor. IU couldn’t flip with him. The communication and execution that held Buie to 14 points on 3-of-14 shooting collapsed trying to guard Langborg, who finished with 26 points, four made 3s and six assists.

The sign of a limited team? Yes. But it’s difficult to escape the feeling those limitations are now weighing down Indiana’s basketball, counting for double in undoing whatever good work the Hoosiers can manage.

That’s not meant to do down Northwestern. The Wildcats led for nearly 35 of Sunday’s 40 minutes and deserved to. IU battled until the game’s final possessions, but the Hoosiers’ last real threat probably fizzled five minutes into the second half. They spent the rest of the afternoon bound by their own fears, trying to outrun the long shadow of their weakness and eventually succumbing to more than just their latest opponent.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball loss to Northwestern points to a mentality problem