CHICAGO — Darian DeVries spoke for nearly 11 and a half minutes to reporters, tasked with explaining what went awry. Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson sat some 20 feet away.
The two met on DeVries’ way out of the temporary media room inside the bowels of the United Center in Chicago.
Dolson patted the first-year Hoosiers head coach on the shoulder, telling him “It’s all right.”
DeVries then marched toward Indiana’s locker room — a 30-second walk away. There, he hugged his wife, Ashley, and daughter, Tatum.
All of it came moments after Indiana’s 74-61 loss to Northwestern on Wednesday in the Big Ten Tournament — a defeat that likely ended the Hoosiers’ NCAA Tournament hopes in their first season under DeVries.
“Like I told them, there's no going back,” DeVries said. “Every season you've got a certain amount of games you'd like to have back. Certainly, we felt like there's a little more in there for us that we would have liked to have gotten done.”
Perhaps five of Indiana’s final six regular-season games and Wednesday’s contest are ones the program wants back.
After defeating Oregon on Feb. 9 in Bloomington, the Hoosiers stumbled through the rest of the season. They suffered blowout road losses to then-No. 8 Illinois on Feb. 15 and then-No. 7 Purdue on Feb. 20.
Then they collapsed against Northwestern on Feb. 24 and suffered a 13-point defeat to then-No. 13 Michigan State five days later at home. The Cream and Crimson won by 30 points against Minnesota on Senior Night but lost by 13 at Ohio State in the regular-season finale.
Wednesday served as an opportunity, both for Indiana to add a victory to its March Madness resume and to begin its “next chapter,” as DeVries described after losing to Ohio State. But the Hoosiers will likely only compose one chapter.
Indiana led by as many as 10 points in the first half against Northwestern, but its offense went cold for much of the nine minutes before halftime. At that mark, the Hoosiers held a one-point lead.
The start of the second half was “interesting,” DeVries said. The Wildcats’ defense increased its physicality and slowed the Hoosiers’ movement.
“So, you ended up with a lot of windshield wiper offense,” DeVries said.
Indiana could only move the ball horizontally across the court — something DeVries said has hurt his squad across their loss-laden close to the season — and couldn’t find a secondary way to score.
The loss marked the end of six seniors’ collegiate careers, barring a surprise selection into the NCAA Tournament or acceptance of an invite to another postseason tournament, which DeVries said he’s yet to speak with university administration about.
Lamar Wilkerson, who fell just three 3-pointers shy of breaking former guard Steve Alford’s single-season record of 107 longballs, scored a team-high 17 points. He walked off the floor for potentially the final time in the Cream and Crimson with a white Gatorade towel draped over his head.
Redshirt senior guard Conor Enright and redshirt senior forward Tucker DeVries followed behind. The former spent four of his collegiate season under Darian DeVries, while the latter spent all five under his father.
Both recognized Wednesday was likely the final time they’d don an Indiana uniform.
“It really sucks that none of us are really going to put this uniform on again for a regular season or this tournament,” Tucker DeVries said. “It is what it is, but it's really frustrating.”
Indiana had 31 regular-season games to prove its worthiness of an NCAA Tournament bid. Whether it was four marquee nonconference games or 20 Big Ten matchups, the Hoosiers had numerous opportunities to bolster their resume.
But, instead of peaking toward the end of the season with the season’s greatest goals in mind — like winning the Big Ten, reaching March Madness and making noise — the Cream and Crimson didn’t play their best basketball.
“We made a lot of self-inflictions that cost us the games through that last stretch,” Wilkerson said. “Yeah, we just weren't hooked up like we were supposed to be.”
Now, the Hoosiers must wait until Sunday to learn their fate.
Senior forward Reed Bailey said the process “weighs on you” with the uncertainty around what’s next. Six Indiana careers appear over, while others can return to play with the next iteration of Hoosiers. But the Hoosiers have to look toward the bright side, Bailey said.
“Always keep that hope just in case because you never know what could happen,” he said.
If indiana’s first season under Darian DeVries did end Wednesday, he told his players — the ones he’s often said committed to something they couldn’t see — they were a “great” team to coach.
“They've represented themselves, our program, in a first-class manner,” he said.
Senior forward Sam Alexis said it meant a lot to be a part of Darian DeVries’ inaugural roster in Bloomington. In a few years — when Alexis predicted Indiana will get back to its winning ways — he wants to be remembered as a player who helped build the foundation of DeVries’ program
Enright, who saw DeVries’ capabilities at Drake University and now Indiana, believes in DeVries and the staff around him to do just that.
“I think you got the right people leading the group,” he said. “...Trust what they’re building.”
But the 2025-26 Hoosiers won’t be the ones who reap the benefits of the foundation they built. Instead, they walked off the court — presumably one final time — heartbroken at what could’ve been.
Follow reporters Dalton James (@DaltonMJames and jamesdm@iu.edu) and Nathan Shriberg (@NShriberg and naashri@iu.edu) and columnist Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki8773 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
