Men's Basketball

Stepfather became part of recruit’s success

By Jordan Cohen · Monday, Jan. 26,2009 11:06 p.m.

Michael Morgan has always been there for his stepson Maurice Creek. They bonded through basketball early on, whether it was Morgan doing drills with Creek out on “the hill,” watching him play at the elementary school or pitting him against older kids at the local rec center. “If it weren’t for him working me out, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Creek said in a phone interview last week.

Dumes arrested for driving with suspended license

By IDS staff · Monday, Jan. 26,2009 2:11 p.m.

IU junior guard Devan Dumes was arrested around 5:20 p.m. Sunday on suspicion driving with a suspended license, IU Police Department Capt. Jerry Minger said.

IU guard Devan Dumes goes up for a shot during the first half of IU's 67-63 loss to No. 21 Minnesota Sunday at Assembly Hall. Dumes had 19 points in the game.

Hoosiers felled by Gophers, sustain 9th straight loss

By Tom Kirby · Sunday, Jan. 25,2009 11:33 p.m.

A near sell-out crowd in matching T-shirts, a Verdell Jones half-court basket and an early eight-point lead weren’t enough to stop IU’s losing streak on Sunday.

Loss wasn’t so smelly

By Zachary Osterman · Sunday, Jan. 25,2009 11:30 p.m.

This one wasn’t so bad. Yes, it was at home. Sure, the crowd was raucous, perhaps even a bit desperate. Obviously, the Hoosiers had their chances and could have won the game had they made only half of their 10 missed free throws.

IU guard Devan Dumes goes up for a shot during the first half of IU's 67-63 loss to No. 21 Minnesota on Sunday at Assembly Hall. Dumes had 19 points in the game.

White-out can't help Hoosiers shake 9th straight loss

By Tom Kirby · Sunday, Jan. 25,2009 4:35 p.m.

A near sellout crowd all donning the same t-shirts, a Verdell Jones half-court basket and an early eight-point lead weren’t enough to stop IU’s losing streak. The Hoosiers (5-13, 0-6) dropped their ninth game in a row, this one against Minnesota 67-63. The competitive game throughout came down to the Golden Gophers’ ability to execute down the stretch; and IU’s inability to.

Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith reacts as he watches his team play against Northwestern during the first half Sunday in Evanston, Ill.

Tubby Smith dodging sophomore slump

By Tom Kirby · Friday, Jan. 23,2009 12:29 a.m.

After a respectable 20-14 inaugural season at Minnesota last academic year, former Kentucky coach Tubby Smith’s Golden Gophers are off to an impressive 16-3 start and look to be on their way to the NCAA tournament. Smith, along with second-year Michigan coach John Beilein and Iowa second-year man Todd Lickliter, follows a trend of vast improvement among Big Ten coaches in their second seasons.

White-out a part of Glass’ basketball stimulus package

Friday, Jan. 23,2009 12:27 a.m.

It’s cold, it’s Big Ten season and the IU men’s basketball team is facing a ranked opponent – it must be time for a white-out

Momentum maturity

By Zachary Osterman · Monday, Jan. 19,2009 11:44 p.m.

Tom Crean calls it “winning time.” That moment – or more accurately, those moments – in every game when momentum hangs in the balance, when leads teeter on the edge of extinction, when winners and losers separate.

Nittany Lions extend Hoosiers losing streak to longest in program history

Sunday, Jan. 18,2009 3:28 a.m.

In one of their most winnable games in conference season, the Hoosiers fell once again, losing. Losing to Penn State inside Assembly Hall for the first time in school history. The game marked IU's eighth straight loss, the program's longest losing streak since 1964.

Saturday success hinges on 3-point defense

By Zachary Osterman · Friday, Jan. 16,2009 12 a.m.

There is no play more exciting or deflating in the game of basketball than the 3-point shot.

Freshman guard Verdell Jones looks for a pass during the Hoosiers 72-66 loss to Michigan Jan. 7 at Assembly Hall.

Men's basketball looks to stop the bleeding of a 7-game losing skid

By Tom Kirby · Thursday, Jan. 15,2009 11:54 p.m.

After the results of the two road trips in between – in which IU was knocked out early to Illinois and Ohio State by a combined score of 153-98 – being back in Bloomington can’t come soon enough for the Hoosiers.

A new year, a new jersey

By Matt Dollinger · Thursday, Jan. 15,2009 11:51 p.m.

In three seasons, Eric Gordon has gone from a man among boys to a boy among men. “Look how fresh he is!” screamed one of Gordon’s NBA teammates. “He got his draft suit on!” The former Hoosier wasn’t wearing the cream blazer he donned on draft night when he was selected seventh overall by the Los Angeles Clippers, but he was unusually dressed up.A herd of local reporters waited to interview Gordon as he changed meticulously following his hometown pro debut. If “E.J.” had his choice, he’d likely prefer to keep to himself by his locker. Instead, he was moments away from answering questions about the game-winning shot he made in double-overtime to lift the Clippers over the Indiana Pacers.

Packer, Knight to analyze NCAA

By Associated Press · Wednesday, Jan. 14,2009 12:02 a.m.

LAS VEGAS – Former IU coach Bob Knight, the winningest coach in Division I history, and former CBS sportscaster Billy Packer plan to analyze the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in a series of one-hour television programs taped at a race and sports book on the Las Vegas Strip.

IU freshman forward Tom Pritchard dunks the ball in the second half. Pritchard led IU scoring against Ohio State with 16 points.

RUNNING THE FLOOR: IU must see through the losing

By Zachary Osterman · Tuesday, Jan. 13,2009 11:45 p.m.

Back in my tender high school years, I played football, the proud second-generation Riverwood Raider that I was. My sophomore year, we went completely winless, 0-10, only pulling one victory when it was discovered that an opponent plied the use of an ineligible substitute. It was a rough year to be sure, but we hired a new coach the next March, Harris Rainbow (seriously), a young, energetic soul with real vision for the program. Old coach Rainbow, all of 25, set about trying to instill a sense of pride and toughness into our listless program. He did a good job in the preseason.

Ohio: the home of 2 different Hoosiers

By Zachary Osterman · Tuesday, Jan. 13,2009 12 a.m.

Eric Arnett and Tom Pritchard probably could not be more different. Pritchard is the new face of IU basketball, a loyal, late-blooming commit who weathered the storm that was Kelvin Sampson and is now a likely Big Ten Freshman of the Year candidate. He’s a blossoming post presence Tom Crean may rely on for years to come. Arnett won’t even be on the basketball team another week. Brought on in the fall as an extra body in practice, Arnett makes his real living as a pitcher on the IU baseball team, and a rather accomplished one at that. Arnett could dress but not play this year for the Hoosiers, who didn’t want to count another scholarship against their limit. He’ll return to the baseball team following tonight’s game at Ohio State.

No celebration for Hoosiers in Champaign

By Zachary Osterman · Monday, Jan. 12,2009 12:38 a.m.

There will come a time this year when the IU men’s basketball team – overmatched and undersized – will take the floor in some Big Ten city and brave the odds to beat a better conference opponent. Champaign was not that city.

Illinois’ Demetri McCamey drives to the basket ahead of IU’s Broderick Lewis in the first half of Saturday’s game in Champaign, Ill. The Hoosiers fell to the Illini 76-45 for their sixth straight loss.

3s bury Hoosiers

By Tom Kirby · Monday, Jan. 12,2009 12:34 a.m.

Absolutely demolished, the IU men's basketball team was felled by the sharpshooting Fighting Illini.

IU freshman Daniel Moore (3) pancakes Illinois' Trent Meacham (1) as he dives for a loose ball in the second half of a 76-45 IU loss in Champaign, Ill. The defeat was the Hoosiers' sixth consecutive and eighth in their last nine games.

Hoosiers stumble at Illinois to 6th straight loss

By Matt Dollinger · Saturday, Jan. 10,2009 7:08 p.m.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Last year’s infamous chest bump pales in comparison to the in-game beat down the Fighting Illini laid on the Hoosiers Saturday.After holding their own but losing in their first two conference games, IU coach Tom Crean and his team got the kind of Big Ten welcome many had been bracing for all season.A 31-point thrashing marked the biggest loss by the Hoosiers in the rivalry’s 161-game series.IU’s orange rivals to the west opened the game on a 21-2 run and never relaxed their grip of the lead. The Illini led by 25 at the half and continued to humiliate the traditionally proud basketball school in the second half, brushing off the Hoosiers 76-45 and handing their longest losing streak – at six – since 2004.

Freshman guard Verdell Jones goes for a baket as Michigan's DeShawn Sims attempts a block Wednesday at Assembly Hall. The Hoosiers face Illinois on the road this Saturday.

Weber: ‘Indiana will suck’

By Tom Kirby · Friday, Jan. 9,2009 12 a.m.

Last time IU traveled to Champaign to take on Illinois, the game was one of the most highly anticipated matches of the year. Led by then-coach Kelvin Sampson and freshman star Eric Gordon, the Hoosiers played in front of a volatile Illini crowd. When IU won, it boosted its record to 19-3 while Illinois dropped to 2-9 in conference play. Just 11 months later, things have dramatically changed, but the bitterness across the border remains. Although Sampson has been exiled from college basketball and Gordon has moved on to the NBA, Illinois coach Bruce Weber continues to add fuel to the rivalry between IU and U of I.

Dusting off the chart:

By Matt Dollinger · Friday, Jan. 9,2009 12 a.m.

Wednesday’s overtime loss to Michigan left a bitter taste in the mouths of even the mildest of Hoosier fans. Imagine how Tom Crean felt.