Hoosiers hope to snap losing streak

Just one more game, and then the IU men's basketball team gets to enjoy the comforts of home. And home has never looked better to the Hoosiers, who are struggling their way through four trying road games. Three of the games have gone the other way and have subsequently dropped IU from the rankings for the first time all season.\nBefore home, however, the Hoosiers (14-6, 4-3 Big Ten) travel to Evanston, Ill., for the 9 p.m. game to take on the Northwestern Wildcats who are experiencing a disheartening streak of their own. The Wildcats are 8-10 for the season and have not picked up a victory since before the start of the Big Ten season, making them 0-7 in the conference. \n"It'll be nice to be home again," Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said. "Our first five out of seven games were away, so it will be nice to shoot on our own court. But to be truthful, in the early part of the season, we hadn't played that well at home, and we're struggling right now."\nJust like the Hoosiers, the road has not been kind to the Wildcats, who have only played two of their last seven games at home. The two home losses for Northwestern include Michigan, which currently occupies second place in the Big Ten, and the Iowa Hawkeyes, who went on a 3-0 conference run, until three recent consecutive losses have plagued them. \nEven though in the away games the Wildcats have lost by a combined score of 361-284, Northwestern has done a better job of keeping the scores close at home. They lost by a mere five to Iowa and dropped the game against Michigan by seven points.\nFor the game against IU, Carmody said the Wildcats will need to pound the ball inside to compete.\n"We have to do something. We are just struggling to get the ball inside, and you are going against an Indiana team that every time you turn around, they are blocking your shots," Carmody said. "But we have to do that somehow ... get into them and draw some fouls."\nNot that the Hoosiers are having much luck pinpointing how they are going to be able to pick up a victory on the road. Following the Purdue game, the Hoosiers knew mentally they needed more intensity and effort. But those factors were absent in the Michigan State loss, when an open State player drilled a three-pointer to bury the Hoosiers.\nThe week following the Spartan loss, IU had admittedly some of the most intense practices in preparation for the tough Louisville team. And for a little over 20 minutes against the Cardinals, it seemed the Hoosiers had overcome their inability to compete on the road. But as IU learned the hard way, a lead means nothing if it isn't maintained for the entire game.\n"Our main goal is to win the Big Ten, and in order to do that, you have to win on the road," senior guard Tom Coverdale said after the 95-76 Louisville loss. "Starting right now, I told the guys, we have to start making a run, and it starts at Northwestern. We have to find a way to win. I thought if we could play the way we played in the first half (against Louisville), and do it for 40 minutes, then we could be a really good team. But until we learn how to do that, we are a long way away."\nIU and Northwestern, which is tied for last place in the conference with Penn State, have already faced each other once this season, when the Wildcats traveled to Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers heated up offensively in the 71-57 win on Jan. 15, shooting just over 60 percent from the field and just under 60 percent from beyond the arc. \nIU also out-rebounded Northwestern by grabbing 14 more boards. The Hoosiers haven't been able to out-rebound a team in its last four attempts on the court. The last time was against Illinois on Jan. 18 in Assembly Hall, when the Hoosiers grabbed nine more in the win.\nBut IU hasn't let the recent losses affect the team's season goals.\n"We're sitting here in a situation where it's a majority of road loses," IU coach Mike Davis said. "We're sitting here at 14-6. Last year, we only had 18 wins going into the Big Ten tournament, and we won one game there, so that gave us 19, and you saw what we did last year. It's not a panic situation. The league is good, (and) it's hard to win on the road in this league"