Lost season?

The IU men's basketball team has lost its last four home Big Ten games by a combined total of nine points. The team's greatest home loss in the conference season came Saturday against Ohio State University (12-13, 4-8 Big Ten) by three points, 59-56.\nIU (12-12, 6-7) beat the Buckeyes back in Jan., 69-61, in Columbus, but Saturday, it was OSU's turn to do the celebrating. While its players celebrated the road win midcourt, the IU players walked to the locker room feeling emotions most IU teams rarely feel -- the emotions dealt with after a loss at Assembly Hall.\n"We come out so flat at home," sophomore guard Bracey Wright said. "It seems like we're just lost out there."\nSophomore guard Ryan Tapak said the team doesn't have time to be down on itself and he doesn't understand why it's been so hard for the team to win at home.\n"I grew up in Indianapolis, and it was never hard," Tapak said. "I always watched the IU games that were at home, and it's almost a guaranteed victory. We're doing the little things that are costing us basketball games right now."\nIU made only 33 percent of its field goals Saturday, while OSU made 50 percent. Neither team did well from behind the arch, with both IU and OSU making less than 30 percent of those shots. \nSophomore guard Marshall Strickland was the leading scorer for the Hoosiers with 13 points. \nWith under a minute left in the game, the Hoosiers were in the exact same position they have been in their last three home losses. It was a tied ballgame.\nIU scored its last field goal of the game with 3:44 on the clock. OSU's last field goal came at a more timely moment with only 15 seconds left. It gave them the lead, 56-58. After OSU guard J.J. Sullinger's good jumper, IU called a timeout. \nIU coach Mike Davis set up a play for Wright to score for the Hoosiers, but the OSU defense put two players on Wright, forcing him to pass the ball to a teammate. \nSenior forward A.J. Moye was wide open.\n"I knew as soon as I got it that as soon as I came off that ball screen that they would double me," Wright said. "And I knew that A.J. would be wide open, and when I caught the ball, I wasn't even thinking about trying to get that shot because I knew he'd be right behind me and open."\nWith six seconds left on the clock and Moye wide open, Wright passed the ball to his teammate in which he said he had so much faith.\nBut Moye missed the shot. \nDavis said while you normally want to go into overtime in a situation like that, Moye was wide open and took a good shot. \nMoye was then forced to foul OSU's Terence Dials to get the ball back for IU. While Dials' first free throw was good, he missed the second. \nSenior center George Leach grabbed the rebound, giving IU one last shot at the tie. \nThe four seconds on the clock weren't enough to set up a play, and Wright threw the ball across the court only for it to hit the bottom of the net and the game to be over.\nWright had his arm around Moye and was doing a lot of talking as the two walked off the court together.\n"I told him I live with that shot 10 out of 10 times," Wright said. "I know he can make it, and I have so much confidence in him that there's no reason for him to hold his head down because he missed that shot, because I'd give it to him every time in that situation and wouldn't think twice about it."\n-- Contact staff writer Natalie A. Trout at natrout@indiana.edu.