Hoosiers look to end two-game losing streak

Twenty six days after facing off in an overtime thriller in Champaign, Ill., Indiana and Illinois will meet for round two at 3 p.m. Sunday at Assembly Hall.
 
The Fighting Illini defeated the Hoosiers 83-80 in their last meeting but both teams have since found themselves in the same place—toward the bottom of the Big Ten standings.
 
Illinois (13-7, 2-5) is searching for its first road win since Nov. 26. It suffered defeats at Georgia Tech, then-No. 4 Wisconsin, Northwestern and No. 17 Ohio State this season.
 
The Fighting Illini are in the midst of as tough a five-game stretch in conference play as any in the country this season. They were routed at home by then-No. 4 Michigan State on Saturday and they lost at No. 17 Ohio State Thursday. After facing IU, Illinois will return home for games against No. 10 Iowa and No. 9 Wisconsin in the first week of February.
 
The Hoosiers are looking to prevent a three-game skid, after suffering single-digit losses to Northwestern and No. 3 Michigan State in the week following their upset of then-No. 3 Wisconsin.
 
Sunday’s matchup between IU and Illinois could come down to which team’s star guard can make more shots down the stretch.
 
IU sophomore Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell (17.5 points per game) and Illinois redshirt junior Rayvonte Rice (16.6 points per game) are two of the top scorers in the Big Ten. They combined for 59 points on New Year’s Eve.
 
Both players have struggled recently to make a high percentage of their shots. Since they squared off on Dec. 31, Ferrell has made 25-of-75 shots (33.3 percent) and Rice has connected on 20-of-71 attempts from the field (28.2 percent).
 
With one-third of Big Ten play in the rearview mirror, IU's rotation is still undergoing changes.
 
With senior forward Will Sheehey sidelined with an injury for IU’s game against Michigan State, freshman guard Stanford Robinson and redshirt sophomore forward Austin Etherington started for the first time this season. Additionally, sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell saw the court for the first time since Jan. 4.
 
Senior walk-on forward Jeff Howard has seen a spike in his minutes in conference play. Howard is averaging 5.7 minutes per game this season, but he played a combined 33 minutes in the Hoosiers’ most recent two contests.
 
The Hoosiers lost to Northwestern and Michigan State after having second half leads in both games.
 
After the Hoosiers lost to the Spartans, IU Coach Tom Crean said his team has to continue finishing at the rim.
 
“For the most part, we just didn’t make shots that we were making around the rim, not necessarily layups, but just stuff that was right there,” he said. “We were getting where we wanted but we gotta finish.”
 
Crean said IU missed 14 layups in its home loss to Northwestern.

On the season, IU’s shooting percentage on attempts near the basket is worse than the national average, according to hoop-math.com. The Hoosiers have made 54.9 percent of their field goal attempts at the rim, which is six percent lower than the Division I average.
 
“If we’d finish better the other day, we don’t lose the Northwestern game, in all honesty,” he said.
 
While IU has squandered consecutive opportunities to earn Big Ten victories, Crean acknowledges that there is a lot of basketball to be played this season.
 
“The bottom line for us is to continue to improve, understand that two-thirds of the Big Ten season is still in front of us…and get ready for the next one,” he said. “This league obviously shows when you got some of the scores and games that you have in the first couple of weeks…just how powerful it is. And we’ve been right in the middle of that and we want to continue to be.”

Follow reporter Andy Wittry on Twitter @AndyWittry