Hoosiers end regular season against Wildcats

When the Hoosiers walk into Assembly Hall on Saturday, they will enter as the Big Ten’s last-place team and with one of the worst records in IU history.

Saturday’s game might not change much, but it will be one final chance for IU to close out the season on a high note. And while one win won’t erase the other nine home losses, it will give the Hoosiers one bright spot before they enter the Big Ten Tournament on March 11.

Freshman forward Derek Elston — who notched 13 points and 7 rebounds in Wednesday’s 74-55 loss to Purdue — said that while their results don’t always show it, he and his teammates have not given up on the season. 

“We really are trying hard,” he said. “That’s the worst part about it. We really do go 100 percent, and to come out with a loss, it’s just heartbreaking, really.”

For the four players preparing for their last game Saturday, it will be more of a celebration of their career work, not the current season’s results. While they witnessed last year’s 6-25 debacle, most had hope that this year — with the addition of seven new players — would be different. And as they take the floor against the Wildcats, currently No. 7 in the Big Ten, the Hoosiers have little reason to be optimistic. 

Their first matchup in Evanston, Ill., on Feb. 7, which IU lost 78-61, came in the middle of the current 11-game conference losing streak, a record streak for IU men’s basketball.

Freshman guard Jordan Hulls, a Bloomington High School South grad who went undefeated in his senior year as the Panthers won a state championship, is not used to this kind of losing, but he said improvement is coming, even if it’s not visible yet.

“It’s very difficult, not just for me, but for the team,” Hulls said. “We’re working real hard in practice. We’re doing a lot of different things. We’re working our butts off. It’s going to come, and we’re getting better every day.”

IU coach Tom Crean has emphasized how much his team is learning and how this experience will help them later on.

“I do think that everybody going through this program — coaches, players, managers, you name it — you just gain down the road,” Crean said. “And I don’t know how much it’ll help Indiana for some, but down the road, the mental toughness you learn from having to deal with what we’re dealing with will help you in life. But it certainly isn’t helping us right now.”