'Lot to Fix': Indiana Basketball's Losing Skid Reaches 4, NCAA Tournament Hopes Dwindle

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — There were still 13 inconsequential seconds remaining when Darian DeVries decided he'd had enough, and he was still late to the party.

Indiana basketball's first-year coach put his right foot forward and started his trek toward Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, beginning another handshake line and ending another double-digit defeat after two hours of his team's thorough unbuttoning.

By then, Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall had already emptied, and it was growing emptier — fast. No area was more popular than the aisles headed toward the exits. Chants of "Go Green, Go White," arose from the Michigan State faithful.

The air, at last, had been taken out of the ball, out of Assembly Hall, and put into Indiana's free-fall.

The Hoosiers (17-12, 8-10 Big Ten) lost their fourth consecutive game Sunday, falling 77-64 to No. 13 Michigan State (24-5, 14-4 Big Ten) in Bloomington.

Once on the golden trail to the NCAA Tournament, Indiana's late-season spiral — three losses by double figures to ranked teams and a 72-68 loss to Northwestern on Feb. 24 — has it on the verge of an unceremonious March.

And the Hoosiers are still trying to decipher why their momentum, gained after winning five of six games in the heart of Big Ten play, has deserted them in the season's closing stretch.

"We're just not playing our best basketball as a group," sixth-year senior guard Lamar Wilkerson said. "There's a lot of things we have to fix. We've played some good teams, other than the one we choked on last week. I don't know. We have to find a way to get back to how we was at the end of January, beginning of February.

"If any time, it's right now. If we can get to that point right now, I feel like we'll be good going into March."

But March can be merciless, and Indiana witnessed it firsthand. The Hoosiers never led Sunday, and they trailed by two or more possessions for the final 36-and-a-half minutes. They didn't go quietly.

Indiana, which trailed 45-37 at halftime, mounted runs and pulled within 5 points in the second half. Michigan State, however, always had an answer. Sophomore guard Kur Teng scored 18 points on six 3-pointers, while redshirt sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr. and senior center Jaxon Kohler each added 21 points.

The Spartans outrebounded the Hoosiers, 22-12, after halftime, and they turned nine offensive rebounds into 12 second-chance points.

Each time Indiana drew close, Michigan State kept the Hoosiers an arm's length away. Each time fans rose to their feet and yelled at their lung's loudest level, they were often soon forced to sit back down. The shots weren't just silencers, but deflating blows to a fanbase waiting to erupt.

The Hoosiers stuck around, plugged away and gave themselves a chance. They made plays. But they didn't make enough — or get enough stops — to upset one of the Big Ten's best.

"Those are just plays we've got to make if we're going to win these type of games," fifth-year senior forward Tucker DeVries said postgame. "That's one of the best teams in the country. So in order to win those type of games, you've got to be on point in almost every aspect.

"I thought there were a few missing pieces tonight that kept us from really clawing back and finding a way."

Now, Indiana is left to pick up the pieces on the most damaging week of coach Darian DeVries' first year at the helm.

The Hoosiers lost by 20 points at No. 10 Illinois on Feb. 15 and by 29 points at No. 8 Purdue on Feb. 20. Both losses, while uncompetitive, didn't hurt Indiana's postseason aspirations, and IU returned to Bloomington with a three-game homestand ahead.

There was potential, if the Hoosiers handled business, to effectively seal a ticket to March Madness before the end of the regular season. But after blowing a 13-point lead to Northwestern, which entered the game 3-13 in Big Ten play, and falling short against Michigan State, Indiana's season — once so promising, so encouraging, so close to an NCAA Tournament bid — is on the ropes.

"There's a lot of season still left," Tucker DeVries said. "I know those opportunities are getting smaller, but our goals are still in front of us. We've said we're going to go down swinging. Going into this last home game, Senior Night, go down swinging and gain some momentum.

"If we go down swinging and it's not enough, then there's nothing we can do about that now. As long as we really stick together and give it our all these last few games and hopefully give ourselves a chance to be playing in that tournament."

Indiana has confidence in flipping the script on its season because it's done so once already.

The Hoosiers dropped four consecutive Big Ten games — three to ranked teams, the other at home to Iowa — in January before hitting their stride. History repeated itself in the fashion of Indiana's losing streak.

Darian DeVries hopes the magic behind the Hoosiers' scorching hot response to their first skid will show itself soon.

"It's a long season and we're almost at the end of it," DeVries said postgame. "We had a tough four-game stretch in the middle of it and bounced back and played some of our best basketball right after that. Similar deal, we had a rough stretch. There's a short amount of time here for the regular season and then Big Ten Tournament to go on a run.

"That has to be our mindset. That has to be our focus, just leave it all out there and finish the job. We have one more home game left. It will be a big game for us. We've got a Quad 1 in Ohio State and then the Big Ten Tournament. Our focus has to be on the next one and find a way to try to beat Minnesota."

Perhaps the hardest part to Indiana's defeat Sunday is the margin it saw once more against an elite opponent. The Hoosiers are 1-8 against ranked teams, including 1-7 in Big Ten play, and they're just 2-11 in Quadrant 1 games.

Darian DeVries said the Hoosiers "competed our asses off" against the Spartans. It still wasn't enough to slow Michigan State's offense, which shot 49% from the floor, went 12-for-24 shooting from 3-point range and averaged 1.351 points per possession. But the Hoosiers, if only marginally, take solace in their effort.

"That's part of playing really good basketball teams," Tucker DeVries said. "They played hard too. They get coached; they practice too. I think there's some times you walk away from losses and you really want those back. Obviously you want every single one back.

"There's times you go out there and you lay it all out there, and it's just not enough. I thought tonight was a little more on that side than the last previous losses."

Indiana felt it was playing "really, really good basketball," Darian DeVries said, when it capped a five-win-in-six-game stretch with a 92-74 victory over Oregon on Feb. 9. The Hoosiers haven't won since, and they've lost by an average of 16.5 points.

The shine of a new team is long gone. So, too, the patience from a fanbase promised a better product. Indiana has dug itself an undesirable hole, one the program has grown so accustomed to in recent years. The Hoosiers are nearing desperation mode.

The anxiety, the frustration and the pain of a program still struggling to discover itself — and less confident it has the right answers — showed while DeVries walked back to the locker room in front of a quiet, defeated Assembly Hall.

Time still remains for Indiana to salvage its first season under DeVries. But the Hoosiers now face a mountain as steep from opponent quality as fan discontentment. Where Indiana goes from here — how it ends the season — will ultimately decide the tone set in DeVries’ first season.

So, what's next?

As Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries walked off the dais in Indiana’s media room nearly 15 minutes after the game, DeVries raised his arm and patted Wilkerson’s back. The Hoosiers’ captains strolled out of the room, back to their lockers and, metaphorically, straight to the drawing board with hopes of finding the road to March Madness.

"We just finish strong," Wilkerson said. "One step in front of the next, prepare for this game Wednesday at home and then go on the road and play Ohio State and try to make a run in the Big Ten Tournament, and hopefully we'll be where we want to be."