The Hall was packed, the crowd was loud and the team was beatable. But for the eighth straight game the Hoosiers lost, losing to Penn State inside Assembly Hall for the first time in school history.
It's been 38 days since IU got its fifth and most recent victory over Cornell on Dec. 10. After Saturday's game IU coach Tom Crean conceded that the "thrill of winning" is gone from his players.
"I just want to see them get a win so much right now," Crean said.
IU's cold shooting and timely Nittany Lions' baskets kept that from happening Saturday night. The Hoosiers (5-12, 0-5) mounted several second-half runs but failed to gain any ground on a resilient Penn State team, resulting in another humbling loss.
The men's basketball program that takes so much pride in tradition is now rewriting history: IU is now amidst the team's longest losing streak in over four decades. The last time the Hoosiers opened Big Ten season with five straight losses was 1944.
"We've won before, it's not like we haven't won a game yet," senior forward Kyle Taber said. "But it has been awhile. We know we're right there. We are just taking every step we can to get back to that point."
Thanks to $5 student tickets, implemented by new IU Athletics Director Fred Glass on Thursday, the Hoosiers had one of their largest and loudest home crowds of the season (15,626).
But the backing of a loud fan base wasn't enough. Penn State routinely hit momentum-busting shots in the final minutes every time the Hoosiers seemed poised to make a run. With 1:25 left, Penn State's Stanley Pringle hit a deep three-pointer that put the Nittany Lions ahead 10 and sent the loyal fans still in attendance home.
"Coming out and seeing the great support from the crowd...I really thought this was going to be the game we got a 'W,'" freshman guard Verdell Jones said. "Unfortunately, it wasn't. Hopefully, Minnesota will be."
Pringle (19 points) and the Nittany Lions' other three top scorers combined to score as many points as the Hoosiers' entire team Saturday. Junior guard Devan Dumes led IU with 13.
In search of perimeter defense and substitutes who could give him valuable minutes, Crean continued to tinker and toy with his rotation Saturday.
Against the Nittany Lions, Crean played 6-foot-6 freshman walk-on Broderick Lewis 16 minutes, despite the West Lafayette, Ind. native only logging 28 minutes prior to the game.
Freshman forward Malik Story - who has played 306 minutes in IU's first 17 games - only saw the floor for three minutes Saturday.
"I'm not playing guys for the sake of playing them," Crean said after the game. "I want people who want to be battlers, who want to win. Broderick is showing signs (of that)."
Crean went on to explain Story's absence be saying the freshman has lacked "a sense of urgency" in recent games and practices.
"We're not in a position to play guys through things right now, we're trying to be desperate...I want these guys to understand the train stops for no one," he said.
The Hoosiers now have eight days before they play their next game, when they host Minnesota on Jan. 25. Crean said he's been looking forward to the week off for quite some time.
"I was hoping we'd have a few more wins under belt," Crean said. "But we'll dive in, try and get better and understand that we're getting closer"
