Another blowout loss comes with boos from the home crowd. The season is off the rails for Indiana basketball — if it wasn’t already

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana basketball (14-12, 6-8) was blown out once again as it barely sniffed the lead in an 85-70 home loss to Nebraska on Wednesday night.

Indiana has now lost seven of the last nine games including three straight games inside Assembly Hall.

After falling behind by double-digits in the first half against Ohio State, Purdue and Northwestern — the last three games — it happened again as Indiana saw a 20-point deficit entering halftime.

“When you get smacked in the face like we did the first half, you’re not going to beat anyone. We didn’t compete,” Indiana basketball head coach Mike Woodson said postgame. “I thought the second half we competed.”

Nebraska entered Wednesday with an 0-7 record on the road in Big Ten play with its margin of defeat being 12.4 points. The Huskers led for 39:11 and never trailed, leading by double-figures for the majority of those 39+ minutes.

Wednesday was the same story for Indiana; A huge deficit early in the game that then turns into a roaring second-half run … all to run out of gas and end up losing by double-digits. It has happened in nearly every loss, especially since Big Ten play began.

Indiana used a 20-6 run to start the second half and would cut the lead to just three points at the 11:27 mark. Then, it was a 14-1 run for Nebraska to put the game pretty much out of reach at the 6:19 mark.

Indiana would get no closer than 10 points the remainder of the game.

“Not putting full games together,” Woodson said. “That’s what frustrating.”

Indiana basketball has now lost games by 28, 21, 20, 20, 16, 15, 14 and 12 points this season. Eight of the 12 losses have been by 12+ points and six have been by 15+. Indiana’s 12 losses this year have come by an average of 14.3 points per game

“They’re down a little bit. You expect to be down,” Woodson said of the locker room. “The only way you come out of a rut, come out of a situation that we’re in, you got work your way through it. Nobody is going to feel sorry for Indiana basketball. They’re not. My locker room is down. As a coach I got to keep pumping them up and see if I can get them to overcome being down and get us back into winning ways.”

On Wednesday night, boos were out early and often as fans let the team hear it early in the first half, at halftime and at the end of the game.

Indiana has lost four of the last five games inside of Assembly Hall — with the four losses coming by an average of 13.5 points per game. A home court that Mike Woodson has been adamant about protecting has lost its advantage.

“You have to win at home in the Big 10,” Woodson said. “I said that when I first walked through this door. It’s always been that way. Figure the road out when you get out there, but you can’t lose games at home. Now we lost more games at home this year than we have in the last two years, and that’s kind of frustrating.”

“I mean, it’s part it. I can’t worry about that,” IU senior guard Trey Galloway said postgame about the boos. “I got to worry about helping my team, and we got to be focused on each other and can’t worry about the outside noise. Just be a unit and stick together.”

Unfortunately there has been little responsibility and accountability taken from the coaching staff — continuing to use the excuse of being young. They are 26 games into the season. There is no more youth at this point.

“We’re young, missing our senior point guard, trying to play a freshman at point guard. It’s tough,” Woodsons added. ” … We played well enough this year in spurts, but not well enough to complete ball games. That’s what makes it frustrating.”

It has been an embarrassing season for the Indiana basketball program and Wednesday was no different.

There are five games left on the schedule and one can wonder if Indiana will see another win before the end of the season.

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