Schedule gets tougher after Iowa

February could be a brutal month for the Hoosiers if they can’t find a way to beat the Hawkeyes tonight.

Already immersed in an 11-game losing streak, IU (5-15, 0-8) faces its arguably toughest stretch of opponents this season following Iowa.

After tonight the Hoosiers will play ranked Big Ten opponents in four of their next five games and face the possibility of having their losing streak extended to 17.

The first ranked challenge comes Saturday when IU coach Tom Crean will go against his friend and former boss Tom Izzo.

Izzo’s team, No. 14 Michigan State, is currently No. 1 in the conference.

Three days later, IU travels to Minnesota to face the No. 19 Gophers, a team it already lost to this season. The Hoosiers will then welcome No. 21 Illinois on Feb. 15 – another team they lost to – followed by a Feb. 19 showdown against an unranked Wisconsin team.

The treacherous five-game stretch concludes in Boiler country when the Hoosiers travel to West Lafayette to battle No. 13 Purdue for the first time under Crean.

On Tuesday, Crean acknowledged the program plays in “a very good league.”
“We’re getting better,” he said, “but so is everybody else.”

Following Purdue, the Hoosiers, the only team in the conference with a sub-.500 record, will have a good chance to break their losing ways against Northwestern. The Wildcats, to whom IU lost by only two points on the road, travel to Assembly Hall on Feb. 25.

Passion for the present, building for the future
You won’t hear any IU players admit the losing streak is taking a toll on them, but Crean has begun to notice some side effects from the slide.

“It is starting to wear on these guys a little bit,” Crean conceded. “The fact they are working so hard but not seeing that success for it.”

Crean said he knows the losses have been hard on the coaching staff as well and that he is aware it’s been the same way for his players. So he’s tried to instill a “great resolve” in the program and keep his players’ focus on the big picture.

Not only is Crean trying to improve his team day to day, but he’s also searching for players who have the “moxie to last through this and be here through the long haul.”

“We’re not just trying to put a team on the floor,” he said “We’re trying to bring back one of the greatest programs of all time.”

Coach cannot hear his players now
As positive as IU’s first-year head coach usually is, he’s continued to harp on and be disappointed with his team’s lack of communication.

Be it in practices or in games, Crean said Tuesday he has been “disgusted” with the team’s inability to converse on the court.

The team is at a “tipping point,” Crean said, asking rhetorically if the players will talk to one another on the floor or continue to struggle with their mouths closed.

“We have got to quit shooting ourselves in the foot in things we can control,” he said.

One reason the Hoosiers have struggled to communicate is the team’s lack of leadership, something Crean said isn’t the team’s fault. About 70 percent of the team’s scoring and minutes played this season have come from freshmen.

The need for ‘D’
Saturday’s 93-81 loss to Ohio State marked more than just tying the school’s longest losing streak in history.

The Buckeyes’ 93 points were the most an opponent has ever scored in Assembly Hall. The previous record was held by Michigan, who scored 92 points against IU in 1993.

In addition to allowing Ohio State to shoot 64 percent for the game, Crean said the team “didn’t do a good job of denying (Evan Turner) the ball.”

The guard/forward scored a season-high 29 points against the Hoosiers and pulled down 10 rebounds.

Crean said the Hoosiers wanted to have the lanes covered to limit Turner’s ability to get to the rim. But IU often got caught in the wrong defense, and with the Buckeyes’ abundance of good players, the Hoosiers didn’t want to double too much and let a player like Jon Diebler beat them from the perimeter.

“It’s hard to cheat off anybody on Ohio State,” Crean said.