Men's Basketball

No celebration for Hoosiers in Champaign

There will come a time this year when the IU men’s basketball team – overmatched and undersized – will take the floor in some Big Ten city and brave the odds to beat a better conference opponent. Champaign was not that city.

3s bury Hoosiers

Absolutely demolished, the IU men's basketball team was felled by the sharpshooting Fighting Illini.

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.

Weber: ‘Indiana will suck’

Last time IU traveled to Champaign to take on Illinois, the game was one of the most highly anticipated matches of the year.  Led by then-coach Kelvin Sampson and freshman star Eric Gordon, the Hoosiers played in front of a volatile Illini crowd. When IU won, it boosted its record to 19-3 while Illinois dropped to 2-9 in conference play.  Just 11 months later, things have dramatically changed, but the bitterness across the border remains. Although Sampson has been exiled from college basketball and Gordon has moved on to the NBA, Illinois coach Bruce Weber continues to add fuel to the rivalry between IU and U of I.

Dusting off the chart:

Wednesday’s overtime loss to Michigan left a bitter taste in the mouths of even the mildest of Hoosier fans. Imagine how Tom Crean felt.

Bisons stampede Hoosiers in final pre-conference tune-up

Before Sunday’s game, most Hoosier fans likely couldn’t tell you where Lipscomb even was. But the team’s 74-69 upset victory against IU might have put them on the map.

Certain of nothing: Hoosiers felled by Northeastern

In their first five minutes, these new members of the IU men’s basketball team looked like their bygone brethren, putting the hatchet to a lesser opponent with Christmas 72 hours away. Any resemblance thereafter was purely coincidental.

Hoosiers fall to Northeastern 55-42

Pulling away to a speedy 12-3 lead against the visiting Northeastern Huskies, the IU men’s basketball team looked like they used their nine-day layoff to full advantage.But then the Hoosiers became colder than the weather outside Assembly Hall.

LIVE BLOGGING: IU vs. Northeastern

Join reporter Ryan Gregg and basketball columnist Zachary Osterman as they blog the Hoosiers' matchup with the Northeastern University Huskies live from Assembly Hall.BLOG: Basketblog

Hoosiers tossed out of Rupp by Wildcats, lose 72-54

LEXINGTON, KY — Kentucky started the game on a 22-4 run and never looked back, crushing the IU men's basketball team 72-54. As they have all season long, IU grappled with turnovers. In all, the Hoosiers turned the ball over 15 times in the first half and were unable to recover from the run Kentucky generated from the mistakes.IU  never brought the Wildcats' lead within single digits after their initial run.The rout is IU's second in as many road games this season. The Hoosiers lost to then-No. 15 Wake Forest 83-58 on Dec. 3 in Winston-Salem, N.C.

RUNNING THE FLOOR: Regional showdown, possible throwdown

This one means a little bit more. Games like these always do. Players and coaches yarn on about how truthfully, every game is the same, none is taken more seriously than another, etc. But IU-Kentucky isn’t just a rivalry – it’s a tradition. Need proof? Turn CBS on at 4 p.m. Saturday and see if you don’t hear everything you need to hear from what Tom Crean called “one of the great atmospheres in the country.”Games like this are circled in red. Games like this are the reason Tom Crean left a successful, well-built program at Marquette for a team in tatters. Games like this define seasons – and often careers.

Different game, different Story

On a team that IU coach Tom Crean calls “thin,” Malik Story has been a valuable commodity. Coming off the bench or starting, playing power forward or point guard – wherever Crean has been lacking, he’s turned to Story to fill the gap. No wonder Story has an open mind on what his role is for the Hoosiers. “(I do) whatever needs to be done,” he said. “Pass the ball, score the ball, whatever needs to be done.” While the whole season is a learning experience, perhaps no Hoosier has had to learn as much or adjust to as many different roles as Story. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound freshman came to Bloomington as a guard. He quickly learned he would need to fill the position of power forward, due to the lack of size on the squad.

RUNNING THE FLOOR: Brief return to normal

It had been months, but it really seemed more like years. This hall – as it’s purported – wasn’t close to capacity, but when those flags hit the parque surface, the floor rumbled like it hadn’t since that dead winter of nine months ago.

Men's basketball pulls it out in 2nd half

Maybe it was freshman Malik Story’s buzzer-beating 3 to end the first half. Maybe it was learning from their last two games against highly ranked opponents.  Whatever the reason, the Hoosiers uncharacteristically came out in the second half on fire, turning a four-point halftime lead into a second half laughter against TCU. “The first four minutes of the second half were really crucial in burying a team,” said freshman forward Tom Pritchard. “That’s what we had to do, and we did it.” In their four losses this season, the Hoosiers have been the ones buried and playing flat in the second half – they were outscored 167-109 in those games. But Wednesday night was a different story.

Men's basketball defeated by Zags in Indy

INDIANAPOLIS – After being trounced by No. 17 Wake Forest on Wednesday, IU faced another nationally ranked foe Saturday – Gonzaga.

RUNNING THE FLOOR: Not too shabby

As the IU men’s basketball team exited the first-ever basketball court inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday, the assembled thousands swathed in cream and crimson rose to their feet in applause.

Men's basketball faces another tough challenge in No. 5 Gonzaga

Gonzaga’s glass slipper no longer fits. Once an annual Cinderella story, the Zags have evolved into one of the top programs in the country. The northwest school that used to be regarded as the feel-good story of college basketball now has opponents worried sick about playing them. “There really is not anything that doesn’t concern us (about Gonzaga),” IU coach Tom Crean said in a Thursday teleconference. With a balanced scoring attack, talent at every position and “tremendous” chemistry, Crean said he thinks the Bulldogs have been one of the best teams in the nation for more than a decade. “I don’t think you’ll find any college basketball coach or player that has competed against them that wouldn’t refer to them as one of the best programs in the country,” Crean said. On Saturday, the Hoosiers (4-3) will try and create a feel-good story of their own when they face No. 5 Gonzaga at 1:30 p.m. in the Hartford Hall of Fame Classic in Indianapolis.

Running the Floor: Demon Deacons too much for young Hoosiers

Now the fun begins.

IU preps for talented point guards

On Wednesday, the Hoosiers will face one of the best floor generals in the country. Without an All-American in the backcourt, IU plans to use a point guard by committee approach to run its offense. In search of size and depth, IU coach Tom Crean played freshman Malik Story at the point position for the first time Sunday. Story, a 6-foot-5, 222-pound freshman from Los Angeles, has primarily played frontcourt positions this season, splitting time with freshman Nick Williams at power forward. But Crean said the Hoosiers would take advantage of Story’s versatility, playing him at as many as four positions this season.

Analysis: Wittman scores career high in IU win