The nervous looks and jittery panic that came with a 17-0 scoring run allowed by IU against Michigan on Jan. 25, part of an eventual 69-46 home loss, was supposed to signal the low point of this IU season.
The moment that would either galvanize Head Coach Archie Miller and his team or force them to face their reality in the Big Ten landscape.
Instead, it was a nearly 11-minute segment of game time stretching from the end of the first half into the start of the second half of a 66-58 loss to Rutgers on Wednesday night that took its place.
During that portion of game time Rutgers outscored IU 27-3, including a 22-0 scoring run that allowed the Scarlet Knights to take the lead for the first time in the game.
A 10-point IU lead became a 14-point deficit, the Hoosiers failed to overcome, condemning the team to a seventh-straight loss.
“Everybody in the whole world wants to see obviously if we’re going to respond at some point and time," Miller said. "I think we will.”
IU, now 12-9 overall and 3-7 in conference play, is in its worst run of form since a nine-game slide to close the 2010-11 season. But for most of the first half against Rutgers, it seemed like IU had sorted out its issues.
Freshman guard Romeo Langford had a quick eight points early in the game, while patient offensive play from freshman guard Rob Phinisee and sophomore guard Al Durham allowed IU to have a 10-point advantage twice in the first half.
Despite Rutgers out-rebounding IU 45-32 for the game, IU initially shot well from outside to negate the size advantage.
But the final four minutes of the first half began a period of nightmarish basketball for IU at both ends of the court.
Missed jump shots, turnovers and foul trouble plagued IU as Rutgers went on a 9-0 run to enter halftime down by just one point.
On the Big Ten Network prior to the game, Miller said he wanted a high energy level from his bench players in the game, as well as accountability on the part of his players. The opening to the second half provided neither, as IU committed three turnovers in the first three minutes of the half.
It was from the second of these turnovers, a bad pass by Phinisee, that Rutgers took the lead for the first time in the game via a layup from junior forward Eugene Omoruyi. He finished with a double-double performance of 14 points and 10 rebounds, and was one of six Rutgers players to score during that 27-3 run.
A pair of layups from IU sophomore forward Justin Smith finally stemmed the scoring tide, but the Scarlet Knights led by at least five points for the rest of the game.v
While the game began with the look of being a balanced scoring night for the Hoosiers, it finished with the team's key scorers once again contributing without much help.
Langford led IU with 20 points, senior forward Juwan Morgan had 15 points and Durham had 11, but the other seven Hoosiers who played combined for 12 points, including just two from the bench.
"What we have is what we have," Miller said. "And those guys got to understand they gotta bring it."
Rutgers’ 19-2 advantage in bench points also went a long way in helping it defeat IU in Piscataway for the first time since joining the Big Ten and for the second consecutive time after last season’s conference tournament win.
IU’s next game comes with a Saturday matchup in East Lansing against No. 6 Michigan State. IU hasn't won at the Breslin Student Events Center since 2013.
