Less than a year ago, Indiana stumbled into the Big Ten tournament as the last-place seed and quietly went home after a first-round loss to Penn State to finish 12-20.
Now the Hoosiers are the story of the college basketball season, zooming as high as No. 7 in the polls and posting wins over a No. 1 (Kentucky) and No. 2 (Ohio State) team.
But the candy-striped bandwagon, which visits Nebraska on Wednesday, hit a bump last week.
Indiana (15-3, 3-3) lost to Minnesota and Ohio State. After the second setback, IU coach Tom Crean spent almost an hour talking to his team before meeting the media.
"We had a tough week in that we didn't feel we played up to the standards we had been playing with,'' he said Monday. "We're just not making shots the way we had.''
But Crean said his long postgame message was a simple reminder to his team to stay on message as a rebuilding program after going 28-66 the previous three seasons.
"They've done a really good job of understanding we are on a climb here,'' he said. "The moment that we let down our guard — especially with the urgency it takes to win these games — we should never forget that everybody can beat anybody.''
Player honors
Player of the week: Illinois guard Brandon Paul. The 6-foot-4 guard from Gurnee, Ill., scored a career-high 43 points and added eight rebounds and four blocked shots in a 79-74 win over Ohio State.
"He had the night of a lifetime,'' Illini coach Bruce Weber said. "And he really didn't start the game very well. He had three or four turnovers right away. He airballed his first shot and banked in his second. Then he got going.''
Freshman of the week: Minnesota's Joe Coleman. The 6-4 guard from Minneapolis averaged 15.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in road wins over Indiana and Penn State.
Stat of the week
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery has been called for five technical fouls so far this season and got his hand slapped by the Big Ten office for slamming a folding chair on the floor during a 95-61 loss at Michigan State.
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