Men's basketball looks to stop the bleeding of a 7-game losing skid

Just 10 days will have passed between IU’s last home game against Michigan and its upcoming contest against Penn State 6 p.m. Saturday night.

But after the results of the two road trips in between ­– in which IU was knocked out early to Illinois and Ohio State by a combined score of 153-98 – being back in Bloomington can’t come soon enough for the Hoosiers.

“I know it seems like we’ve been gone a lot more,” Crean said after the team’s loss to Ohio State. “We need to go home and get locked into what we do.” 

Junior guard Devan Dumes, who sprained his ankle during the Illinois game, said the two road routs have taken their toll.

“Mentally, it’s tough,” Dumes said. “But I mean, we’ve got to keep fighting.”

The next fight for IU (5-11, 0-4) comes against Penn State and sophomore star Talor Battle. The point guard leads the Big Ten in scoring with 18.9 points per game and leads his team in assists with 5.5 per game.

Battle and senior guard Stanley Pringle will try to replicate the blueprint Ohio State and Illinois used to take out the Hoosiers, namely a barrage of early 3-pointers. Pringle and Battle shoot 50 percent and 41 percent from behind the arc, respectively.

Illinois guard Trent Meacham and Ohio State’s Jon Diebler were both able to get open early and drain threes.

Crean said if the Hoosiers hope to stop their longest losing streak since 1964, they need to come out swinging – or at least defending.

“We’ve just got to continue to understand that we’ve got to come out ready for a fight from the very beginning,” Crean said. “Where we have to be more committed to the backboards, more committed to the next pass and things of that nature.”

But IU can’t devote all of its attention to guarding the perimeter.

Balancing the Penn State attack is senior forward Jamelle Cornley. Though a small forward at 6-foot-5, Cornley shoots 50.7 percent from the floor and is the team’s leading rebounder.

Even though IU has given up easy 3s, the Hoosiers out-rebounded the Illini and Buckeyes.

“For us to compete in these games, we have got to be in the rebounding game,” Crean said.

Freshman Verdell Jones said the team can’t settle for moral victories.

“We’re still focused on winning games,” Jones said. “We’ve got to learn from these experiences and keep getting better.”