This is no longer good enough... We live in a world where the Indiana Hoosiers can go 16-0 and win a College Football Playoff, but cannot figure it out for the life of them down the stretch of Big Ten play on the hardwood. Basketball is a religion in Indiana, yet Darian DeVries' Hoosiers have been such a perpetual disappointment for weeks now. Their 74-61 loss to Northwestern has ruined their season...
In the wake of this NCAA Tournament-defining loss, CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein had something to say.
"10 years ago, Indiana won an outright Big Ten regular season title for the second time in four years under Tom Crean, beat Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament, and went to the Sweet 16 for the third time in five years."
He did not beat around the bush with this final jab when it comes to the state of things within Indiana.
"The Hoosiers haven’t been close to that type of success since."
Rothstein is a college basketball savant in every sense of the word, so he remembers ... everything!
10 years ago, Indiana won an outright Big Ten regular season title for the second time in four years under Tom Crean, beat Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament, and went to the Sweet 16 for the third time in five years.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 12, 2026
The Hoosiers haven’t been close to that type of success since.
Where things stand now, Indiana is almost certainly not going to be making the NCAA Tournament.
Darian DeVries did not get it done in year one leading Indiana Hoosiers
DeVries left West Virginia after one so-so season to take over at Indiana. He had tremendous success previously at Drake. One would think with better resources that Indiana would be able to bounce back to make the NCAA Tournament with greater regularity. Since getting to the Sweet 16 in 2016, Indiana has only made the NCAA Tournament twice in 2022 and 2023, both yielding early exits.
Simply, DeVries went way too portal-heavy in building up this team's roster, and it backfired on him massively. While we should give DeVries the benefit of the doubt ahead of year two at IU, year one will go down a huge, embarrassing failure. Even in a down season for the program, Indiana should be a top-68 team in the sport of college basketball. This does not have to be this hard, but here we are...
In the end, Indiana has lost its identity on the hardwood in the wake of Tom Crean's up-and-down run in Bloomington. Love him or hate him, he had a way of getting IU into the tournament and winning games. Clearly, the game passed him by quickly, as illustrated by his awful run at Georgia. That being said, if Indiana wants to still claim its status as a blue-blood, it can no longer be playing with its food!
If this season does not serve as an inflection point for IU basketball moving forward, what ever will?