How Indiana Basketball Turned Around Once-Lost Season: 'We Really Found an Identity'

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — On a Monday night rooted in honoring its past, a night perhaps ruled by the announcement of late coach Bob Knight's forthcoming statue in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Indiana basketball offered another reminder its present, and future, are too worth celebrating.

There were wide smiles and energized yells. There were 3-point celebrations on offense and "seat belt" gestures on defense. And there were, perhaps more importantly, a collection of Indiana coaches and players as united, as together, as they've been all season.

The Hoosiers (17-8, 8-6 Big Ten) outplayed, outcoached and collectively dominated Oregon (8-16 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) in a 92-74 victory Monday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.

Indiana looked a long way from apathy. But less than three weeks prior, it was teetering on the precipice of disaster.

One night after Indiana football won its first national championship, Indiana basketball hit rock bottom in coach Darian DeVries' first season. The Hoosiers fell 86-72 at Michigan on Jan. 20, their fourth consecutive loss and third by 14-plus points.

Indiana's season was headed for life support. Now, the DeVries-led Hoosiers have never been more alive.

Monday night's victory, which came in front of members from Indiana's 1975-76 national championship-winning team, gave the Hoosiers their fifth win in their last six games. After Indiana's three-game winning streak came to a halt Feb. 3 at USC, it returned to Bloomington and handled business against Wisconsin and Oregon.

Aided by a rapid three-week turnaround, Indiana has surged into the NCAA Tournament field — and the Hoosiers, better yet, have discovered themselves.

"I think we just really found an identity at both ends of the floor," DeVries said postgame. "It's just gotten better and better and better."

DeVries saw flashes of this team, but the finished product took time to come together. DeVries watched Indiana take a 16-point lead over Nebraska in the second half before falling apart. He witnessed the Hoosiers in a tie with Michigan State on the road midway through the second half before allowing a 28-2 run in a 21-point loss.

There were certainly rough patches, DeVries acknowledged, but there were also reasons to cling to hope. He just needed Indiana to no longer be that team, the one that failed to play to its full potential for a full 40 minutes.

Yet while the Hoosiers worked to find solutions, their locker room — littered with upperclassmen — never splintered.

"During that four-game stretch, it would be really easy to point the finger at guys, but I thought we really stuck together," senior forward Tucker DeVries said postgame. "That's what's fun about this group.

"Even through that four-game stretch, I thought we came in every day at practice and continued to really work at what we needed to work on, and it's kind of resulting in this run that we been on a little bit so far."

Darian DeVries saw the same. Indiana's roster, which contains 13 scholarship players, is rich on experience but entered this season with minimal time together. Only two pairs of Hoosiers — Tucker DeVries and senior guard Conor Enright, along with North Florida transfers Jasai Miles and Josh Harris — had ever played with each other.

Indiana endured natural growing pains. It also persevered through more bumps and bruises than Darian DeVries expected his veteran-laden team to encounter. The Hoosiers allowed more games to spiral, more leads to slip, than DeVries thought his team should, given its experience in such moments.

Instead of running from the chaos, Indiana ran into it. The Hoosiers bonded closer. They grew stronger and more capable of weathering storms. And they never once so much as lifted a finger to point at one another.

Indiana, be it subconscious or not, decided it was all-in, together. The Hoosiers were either winning, or sinking, together. Now, they're reaping the rewards — together.

"Even during that losing streak, they never came to practice and hung their heads," Darian DeVries said. "They came to get to work the next day and they came to get better and go win the next one. That's all they really care about.

"That locker room, I mean, they have great energy, great enthusiasm, great love for the game and love for each other. You can tell they're really enjoying being out there and playing for everyone."

Indiana had plenty of reason for enthusiasm Monday night. The Hoosiers shot 60% from the field and scored 92 points in regulation, both their best marks since Dec. 9 against Penn State. They made 11 triples, won the rebounding battle and dished 22 assists on 30 made field goals.

Sixth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson engineered Indiana's offense. Wilkerson scored 41 points on 13-for-20 shooting from the field while going 6 of 12 from beyond the arc. Three other Hoosiers — Sam Alexis, Tucker DeVries and Nick Dorn — also reached double figures.

Defensively, Indiana held Oregon to just 44.6% from the floor and 7 of 19 from distance.

The Ducks entered Monday night tied for last in the Big Ten with one win, ranked No. 111 in the NET. They've now lost 10 straight games in a down season for coach Dana Altman.

Indiana's win won't significantly boost its NCAA Tournament resume nor serve as a highlight in Darian DeVries' first season at the helm. But on a night designed for smiles and celebrations, the Hoosiers enjoyed plenty of both — while relishing the progress they've made since their mid-January pitfall.

"I think we've gotten much better," Darian DeVries said. "Our floor spacing has been better. The ball movement has been better. Defensively, I think we've gotten more connected. I think there is still some work that we've got to continue to get better at as we wind down the season.

"I just like the effort they give every day."

The Hoosiers have five days to rest before hitting the road to face No. 8 Illinois at 1 p.m. Sunday in Champaign. It's a chance for Indiana to check another box off DeVries' to-do list: Beat a ranked team away from Assembly Hall.

Indiana's resurgent three-week span raised the ceiling and expectations for the heights DeVries' first Hoosier team can reach. Now, they're in the home stretch with momentum firmly behind them.

Whether Indiana peaked too early or is still climbing toward its apex remains to be seen. But the Hoosiers have rescued their season — and the foundation DeVries wants to lay — with their newfound success.

Indiana's losing streak served as a wake-up call. The Hoosiers answered. They haven't captured lightning in a bottle. They've merely found themselves — and their truest form is quickly growing into a hard-nosed, high-scoring, Bloomington-beloved winner.

"Basketball is a game of runs. I just feel like it's our run right now," Wilkerson said postgame. "You rather be playing your best basketball in March than January. We got a lot of things we got to go back to the drawing board and fix (after four straight losses), but that just opened our eyes and let us know, 'Hey, we got to be a lot better to play in this league and to get to March Madness,' punch that ticket."