'No Way in Hell We Should've Lost': Indiana Basketball Rues Collapse vs Northwestern

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — His head dropped. His eyes faced the floor. Lamar Wilkerson, with words and mannerisms full of dejection, defeat and demoralization, placed two fingers over his eyes and listened to Tucker DeVries, eyes puffy and voice cracked, try to explain the unexplainable.

This Indiana basketball team has built an identity on resilience, on survival, on finding ways to win games it shouldn't — even after succumbing to increasingly-common second-half struggles. On Tuesday night, the Hoosiers' wall came crashing down. Their identity broke.

Nothing broke harder than their hearts in a 72-68 loss to Northwestern (12-16, 4-13 Big Ten) inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.

"It's just a game we shouldn't have lost," Wilkerson said. "It's one of those self-inflicted losses, as you say. We was the reason we lost. Kudos to Northwestern. They played a good game, but there is no way in hell we should have lost this game. We just being frankly honest."

Indiana, which entered as 9.5-point favorites, largely held control. It led by 13 points in the first half, by 11 points in the second half and, after DeVries made a fadeaway, by 8 points with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game.

Then, the Hoosiers fell silent. They didn't make a shot for nine-and-a-half minutes. They missed clean looks and became stagnant on offense. They struggled slowing Northwestern star senior forward Nick Martinelli, couldn't get enough stops and didn't corral loose balls on defense.

Indiana not only lost control, but momentum. The Hoosiers, coach Darian DeVries said postgame, let Northwestern hang around. They didn't put the Wildcats away when they had the chance.

Eventually, Indiana needed to make a play. Before the Hoosiers' final huddle, videos of past heroics played on the big screen levitating above Branch McCracken Court. Clips as unmistakable as Christian Watford's game-winner against Kentucky, as recent as Robert Phinisee's game-winner vs. Purdue in 2022, as old as Steve Alford's buzzer-beater at Michigan in 1987.

But there were no Watford's, no Phinisee's, no Alford's in the Hoosiers' huddle. Only a group that's become so good, so consistent, at standing strong in the eye of the hurricane — until it met a purple storm it couldn't handle.

Indiana felt Tucker DeVries was fouled on a potential game-tying 3-pointer with 3 seconds remaining. The referees didn't call it. The Hoosiers were out of luck and out of time, for reasons far beyond the silence that could've been filled by a whistle.

"Ultimately, man, shouldn't have came down to the ref," Wilkerson said. "We shouldn't have put the ref in the position to make that call. When we was up, we shouldn't have got comfortable. We just got to do better, man. We just got to do better."

Indiana's NCAA Tournament hopes took a significant hit Tuesday night. Despite a 20-point loss to Illinois on Feb. 15 and a 29-point drubbing at Purdue on Feb. 20, the Hoosiers were still in an advantageous position to put on their dancing shoes.

Handling business against Northwestern, which entered Tuesday five games below .500 and 3-13 in conference play, served as the starting point. Indiana didn't need heroics in its four-game sprint to the finish line, only to beat the teams that, on paper, it should.

The Hoosiers felt victory on their fingertips. They led for over 34-and-a-half minutes, but they didn't lead when it mattered. The savory taste of success suddenly turned into the grotesque, stomach-wrenching, pain-staking smack of defeat.

"We just couldn't hook it up as a team," Wilkerson said. "As a group of seniors, we got to be better. Me personally, I have to be better leading this team, stepping up. We could have made some plays down the stretch that could have helped us.

"It's just one of them ones that hurt, man. This hurt our resume. Now, we have to try to go get these next ones and put our focus towards that."

Perhaps most difficult to swallow is Indiana (17-11, 8-9 Big Ten) thought it flipped the script of its season. After losing four straight games in mid-January, the Hoosiers won five of their next six in the middle of Big Ten play to position themselves in the NCAA Tournament field.

Though lopsided, Indiana's losses to Illinois and Purdue — both ranked in the top 15 — on the road were inconsequential to its postseason resume. Tuesday night wasn't. The Hoosiers' loss to Northwestern currently ranks as a Quadrant 3 loss, their first defeat outside Quad 1 this season.

It is, by both metrics and expectations, Indiana's most stunning loss under Darian DeVries. It's also perhaps the most damning.

"I mean, it was a tough loss," DeVries said postgame. "We have a big home stand here. This was the first game of it. We're at that point in the year where games have become very meaningful and it was an opportunity. We certainly wanted to get started off on the front of the home stand with a good note.

"Didn't happen."

In his postgame address to his heartbroken locker room, DeVries told his players they "have to make sure we put it away." The Hoosiers, no matter how distraught, how devastated, after Tuesday night, have little time to dwell on a resume-staining loss.

DeVries does, however, want his team to look in the mirror and figure things out before the Hoosiers host Michigan State on Sunday. Some of them already have.

Tucker DeVries said he felt he let the team down. Wilkerson, too, by not making enough plays down the stretch. The senior captains, those who set the example for their teammates, took a definitive stance after Tuesday night's letdown.

And with three games separating Indiana from the Big Ten Tournament, the Hoosiers recognize the potential pitfall of their shortcomings. With their backs against the wall, they're leaning on their past, on their proven ability to respond after losing streaks, with hopes of formalizing one final push toward March Madness.

"I think as a group, this one hurts pretty bad," Tucker DeVries said. "I think it's important for us to realize we still got three opportunities. This one hurts, but we're not out of the mix by any means. Our season is not defined by this game. We have gone through a rough patch in the season. We responded and know we're capable of doing that.

"Coming off a loss like this, there is no better opportunity than hosting a really good Michigan State team. We got to come prepared for that one a lot better, a lot more hooked up and take advantage of these opportunities. They're starting to get fewer."

Indiana has no choice but to keep moving forward, Darian DeVries said. The Hoosiers lost their margin for error Tuesday night amid an ill-timed shooting slump, an inability to slow the Big Ten's leading scorer and an all-around inexcusable crumble.

Energy inside Assembly Hall felt subdued before the game. There were harmless boos when Northwestern took the floor before tipoff. There was an applause, albeit not a loud one, when Indiana jogged onto the court for the final time. There was just enough of a cheer for Darian DeVries' entrance to draw attention.

Over the next two hours, fans went through a rollercoaster of optimism, anxiety and anguish. A night once full of promise ended with anger toward officials, toward the result and toward the realization that Indiana's spot in the NCAA Tournament field is far from a foregone conclusion.

There have been no losses in DeVries' first season more crushing or confusing than Tuesday. Indiana has time to right its wrongs — but it will have to do so with an unexpected purple-inked smear on its resume.

"I feel like this was an opportunity for us that we really had to take advantage of, seeing how few opportunities we have," Tucker DeVries said, "and to have one of our last ones go like that is a tough one. But in the short conversations we've had, we know the opportunities that are left.

"It'll hurt, but we got to flip this page quick. Those opportunities are getting lower."