After letting recent games against Iowa and Northwestern slip away in this eight-game slide, IU has reached that point.
The only remaining contest are at Iowa, Northwestern at home and contests against Wisconsin and Purdue.
I think any realistic IU fan would probably rule out Wisconsin at home and certainly swallow their pride to submit to the fact that IU might be bound to lose when it takes for West Lafayette.
The other two games are debatable. Northwestern has performed well, but they are capable of being beaten.
IU is flat out a more talented team than Iowa, although it slipped up when the Hawkeyes came to Bloomington and supplied the loss that began this spell of losses for the Hoosiers.
The only way to know whether IU will win either of the two aforementioned games is to do a bit of analysis.
Northwestern
What Northwestern has working in its favor the most is its 3-point capabilities.
It shoots 36 percent as a team and piled on those shots when IU took for Evanston, Ill.
They also have a player in John Shurna who can hurt IU on the inside where it is weakest.
Crean said after the Minnesota game Saturday that he went small because he didn't get what he needed from the inside guys.
IU's Feb. 7 trip to Northwestern was no exception.
Shurna had 16 points and five rebounds, sparking many of the runs that led to Northwestern's 78-61 win.
IU also proved that its ability to defend the 3-pointer is still a weakness. Minnesota shot 45 percent on 9-of-20 shooting as a team Saturday.
Until IU can play better defense outside the arc, it will continue to have problems with clubs that evenly distribute scoring and shoot well as a team.
Iowa
Anyone who has seen these two teams play throughout the Big Ten season would probably agree that IU only needs to impose its will on the game to come out with a win.
That's easier said than done.
If we've learned anything during these eight losses IU has strung together, it's that the will and fight has been missing at some points in the season.
Crean said it was there Saturday, and it seemed that way for a bit of the second half.
But against Iowa, IU only needs to show up with the intention of running them off the floor.
The Hawkeye roster is full of freshmen, and they aren't an extremely athletic or talented team.
Even back at Big Ten media days in October, Todd Lickliter knew he was in for a long season.
His team caught a break against IU, like the Hoosiers had against his team in the 2008-09 season.
But if the Hoosiers want to end this season free of the longest standing losing streak in IU basketball since the 40s, it'll have to grab a win in these next five games.
Even with all the losses of last year's 6-25 team, the lone Iowa win broke the defeats into streaks of eight and nine.
In a year where they've shown obvious signs of progressing from a year ago, the Hoosiers need to win a game before the season ends.
There's my slanted notion of what IU needs in order to pull one out before the season ends.
What do you all think of IU's chances?
