Hoosiers stumble at Illinois to 6th straight loss

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Last year’s infamous chest bump pales in comparison to the in-game beat down the Fighting Illini laid on the Hoosiers Saturday.

After holding their own but losing in their first two conference games, IU coach Tom Crean and his team got the kind of Big Ten welcome many had been bracing for all season.

A 31-point thrashing marked the biggest loss by the Hoosiers in the rivalry’s 161-game series.

IU’s orange rivals to the west opened the game on a 21-2 run and never relaxed their grip of the lead. The Illini led by 25 at the half and continued to humiliate the traditionally proud basketball school in the second half, brushing off the Hoosiers 76-45 and handing their longest losing streak – at six – since 2004.

Crean saw the writing on the wall early and called for a timeout just 87 seconds into the game after Illinois hit their first three shots. But things soon “snowballed” and the game got out of hand, much like it did a month ago against Kentucky, Crean said.

“It seemed for awhile that everything that could possibly go wrong … just did,” Crean said.

Maybe it was payback for last year. Maybe there were lingering feelings of bitterness from Eric Gordon’s recruitment. Or maybe it was Illinois coach Bruce Weber wanting to backup his June forecast that, “Indiana will suck.”

Either way, Illinois and a sold-out Assembly Hall (the first sellout of the season) came out thirsty. Thirsty for the Hoosiers’ crimson blood.

“They jumped on us early, and obviously we couldn’t handle the pressure,” freshman guard Nick Williams said. “We tried to come back later but it was too much for us. Today, we couldn’t handle the pressure. Most of it was us, but some of it (was them).”

Crean aired a laundry list of problems the Hoosiers experienced Saturday, from getting a hand up on a shooter to finding players on his bench who can contribute in short spurts.

In search of that spark, Crean played 13 different Hoosiers Saturday. When asked by a reporter after the game about his bench usage, Crean interjected.

“I don’t know if I wanted to go that deep,” he said.

In addition to Illinois’ hot shooting (51.0 percent for the game, 13-of-25 from beyond the arc), the team scored 31 points off of IU’s 19 turnovers. While the Hoosiers out rebounded the Fighting Illini 35 to 23, they were beat in almost every other facet of the game.

“They were excellent. We never matched them,” Crean said. “We never matched that toughness or that mentality that they had.”

Absent from a majority of Saturday’s melee was Devan Dumes, the team’s leading scorer. Crean benched Dumes from the starting line-up after the junior guard missed the team bus, something Crean called an “honest mistake.”

When Dumes did finally enter the game six minutes in, it lasted only briefly. The junior suffered a sprained ankle running back on defense did not return. A team spokesperson said Dumes would undergo an X-Ray when he returned to Bloomington and his teammates were hopeful he’d be ready to go Tuesday.

After halftime, Dumes slowly made his way back to IU’s bench on crutches. For the remainder of the game, Dumes sat behind the bench dejected and demoralized, barely raising his head high enough to utter a word to anyone.

Williams picked up some of the offensive load in Dumes’ absence, leading IU with 12 points. Freshman guard Verdell Jones, playing in his hometown of Champaign, added 10.

Far after the game had already been decided, Crean continued to coach with his trademark emotion and passion, barking orders to plays and subbing others in-and-out frantically. He ignored heckles from students in the Orange Krush and stared forward, in search of ways to make his team better.

In the postgame press conference, with new IU Director of Athletics Fred Glass watching from the back of the room, Crean continued to look toward the future rather than acknowledge the misery of the losing streak and the past.

“We are rebuilding in a lot of ways and the one that thing that I’m going to stay true to is that I plan to be here for a very long time,” he said. “I plan to get this staff to where it has to be and to where this is a meaningful game.”