On Feb. 4, 2008, IU ended its 11-game losing streak (eight straight to start Big Ten play) with a win at home versus Iowa.
Tomorrow, the Hoosiers will seek to snap a nine-game skid in their battle at Iowa, a game between two teams tied at 3-12 in the Big Ten.
IU's Jan. 24 loss to Iowa started this losing streak, despite the Hoosiers entering the game 9-9 and 3-3 in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes were 7-12 (1-5 in the league) at the time.
With Penn State in the rear, but with a 2-13 conference record, the Hoosiers and Hawkeyes will do battle tomorrow at 6 p.m. with at least temporary rights to the No. 9 seed in the Big Ten at stake.
Below you'll find what IU coach Tom Crean had to say when asked about the possiblity of jumping ahead of the Hawkeyes.
Check back here on the blog and on idsnews.com later this weekend for more coverage of the game. Follow the game's live blog at 5:30 tomorrow.
I think (beating Iowa and moving ahead of the Hawkeyes in the standings) is all part of the equation.We were in the race and all of a sudden we lose that Illinois and Purdue game and that just took so much out of us mentally because we were right there.
All of a sudden I kind of saw this race kicking in, and we really wanted to be in the race, but I knew we weren't necessarily ready to do that at the level of some of those other people. But you want to be in it as long as you can and we should've been in it a bit longer, but we were not able to overcome the feeling.
I think that really led into that week with Ohio State -- well, kind of with Northwestern after they got up. (But) with Ohio State for sure, which was our poorest excuse for an effort all year.
At Wisconsin wasn't very good, but we didn't have a lot of things going right for us at that point with the sickness and all that kind of stuff.
(Iowa) was the game that we did not physically come out. We did defensively, we had 47 deflections and caused 20 turnovers. We did a lot of good things in that game, but it was the toughness aspect that really was the main culprit of why we weren't successful in that game.
So we've got to play a lot harder and better and hopefully that takes care of itself.
Big Ten standings (prior to Saturday's games)
