IU loses five straight during break

    After two seasons of deep struggles, many yearned for this year’s version of IU basketball to turn the ship, with hopes of a .500 record and a postseason tournament invitation.

Winter break may have quelled some of those expectations.

The Hoosiers (9-7) lost twice in the IBN Las Vegas Classic and then opened the Big Ten slate with three losses.

A simple explanation for these losses is that the competition has gotten much tougher. In the Hoosiers’ 6-0 start to the season, only one opponent — Wright State — currently has a record better than .500. The combined win-loss record of teams that IU has beaten is 48-91.

In the five-game losing streak during winter break, however, those opponents had a combined 59-16 record.

IU opened winter break with two wins against weaker opponents: Southern Illinois Edwardsville and South Carolina State.

The team then traveled to Las Vegas and dropped both games out West — a 67-61 loss to Northern Iowa and a 78-69 loss to Colorado. In each game, IU trailed by double digits, rallied to make the game close but failed to win either.

The Hoosiers returned to Bloomington for the Big Ten opener, which resulted in a loss to Penn State. IU struggled in its second conference game against the nation’s No. 2-ranked team, Ohio State, and then lost on the road to Minnesota on Tuesday.

One major concern that arose out of break is IU’s frontcourt struggles. IU’s three “big” men — sophomores Derek Elston and Bobby Capobianco and junior Tom Pritchard — average 9.2 points and 8.5 rebounds combined. The Hoosiers were outrebounded in all but one of the losses.

But after a four-point loss to No. 21 Minnesota on Tuesday, IU coach Tom Crean remained positive about getting a Big Ten win.

“We’re getting better. We’re a better team than we were in Las Vegas,” Crean said after the Minnesota loss. “This team just deserves to get over the hump and know what that feel likes to win one of those games. It’s coming. I have no doubt.”