It's known as one of college basketball's shrines. With five national championship banners overseeing the floor, Assembly Hall has provided IU with a distinct homecourt advantage since it opened in 1972, where the Hoosiers have won more than 86 percent of their games.\nThat shrine is crumbling. \nIU is only 4-3 at home this season, with all four of those victories against teams from mid-major conferences. Last season, the Hoosiers finished below .500 with a 6-7 home record.\nTo restore Assembly Hall's reputation, the Hoosiers will have to reverse the current trend of struggling at home in their Big Ten home opener against Wisconsin Saturday. Wisconsin has beaten IU the last two times they've ventured south to Bloomington, including last year's 70-52 shellacking. The Badgers have also knocked off IU six of the last eight times they've played.\nThe odds seem long for IU, with the Badgers recent dominance coming after IU's 5-7 start, including a 73-52 Big Ten opening loss at Northwestern Wednesday. The 21-point deficit was IU's worst loss to the Wildcats since 1914.\nIU coach Mike Davis said after the Northwestern game that the Hoosiers won't have any hangover following the loss.\n"We are not going to get down by losing to Northwestern," Davis said in a statement. "They have got a great team with a chance this year. A lot of good teams are going to come in here and lose."\nPicked third in the preseason Big Ten predictions, Wisconsin is 10-2 this season after winning on the road against Purdue Wednesday. Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan's team is lead by junior Alando Tucker's 15.5 points per game followed by leading rebounder and the team's second high scorer, senior Mike Wilkinson.\nTo beat the Badgers while protecting Assembly Hall, IU will hope to resurrect a struggling offense, which ranks second to last in the Big Ten with only 61.8 points per game. It won't get any easier Saturday against the Badgers as Wisconsin ranks second in the conference in scoring defense.\nIt's quite a conundrum for the Hoosiers, who've been struggling with turnovers of late. IU posted 17 turnovers against Northwestern.\n"I think we gave up something like 27 points of turnovers (against Northwestern)," Davis said. "It's something that we've really struggled with the past three or four games. What we talked about coming into (the Northwestern) game was if we turn the ball over, forget about it and get back and play defense. We didn't do that, though."\nAnother loss Saturday would drop the Hoosiers to 0-2 in the Big Ten and further fade their already fleeting NCAA tournament hopes while Assembly Hall would witness IU's sixth home conference loss in nine games.
Steijn suspended: \nDavis announced Wednesday that freshman center Lucas Steijn would be ineligible for the second semester. Steijn didn't dress for two games in December as he was working on catching up academically. Steijn will still work out with the team.\n-- Contact staff writer John Rodgers at jprodger@indiana.edu.
