Bloomington, Indiana – For decades, Assembly Hall served as Indiana’s safe refuge.
As recently as December, Indiana outperformed then-No. 2 Kansas for approximately 35 minutes at home. On their home court, the Hoosiers established that they could compete with anyone in the country, as they had done so many times before.
Indiana is now 14-11 and 6-9 in the Big Ten, and it has lost its previous three home games: Penn State by 14, Northwestern by four, and Nebraska by 15 in an 85-70 defeat on Wednesday, when the environment was more toxic than supportive for the majority of the night. None of those teams have the talent of Kansas. Penn State is below.500. Northwestern and Nebraska are on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, but they must finish well. At Assembly Hall, all three dominated the game, leading by double digits over Indiana.
Indiana is 10-5 at home this season, marking the first time it has dropped three straight home games without a crowd since the 2020-21 season. Archie Miller did it in his second season, 2018-19.
The boos were strongest Wednesday night, when Indiana entered the locker room down 51-31 at halftime.
“It’s part of it,” Indiana senior Trey Galloway said of the boos. “I don’t have to worry about it. I have to care about aiding my team, and we have to stay focused on each other and ignore the outside distractions. Just be one unit and stick together.”
“I’ve heard crowds groan and get upset over bad play from their team, but tonight was the first time I’ve ever seen the student section and the rest of the crowd boo their own team multiple times,” Nebraska’s Josiah Allick wrote on X Wednesday night.
It had to be one of the Hoosiers’ worst halves of the season, as Keisei Tominaga scored 18 points, Nebraska shot 9-for-19 from three, and the Cornhuskers averaged 1.4 points per possession.
“We had no defensive effort, I thought, in the first half,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson admitted. “We were just not ready to touch. They hit some difficult threes, but you can’t have halves like that.”
Indiana center Kel’el Ware went to the free throw line with 13:59 remaining, down 57-44. He missed his first free throw, and spectators reacted with sighs and shaking heads. Ware was equally upset, gripping his fists and talking to himself as Indiana’s season-long free throw trouble persisted. The crowd rose to their feet and roared for the 7-footer, only to see him miss his fourth consecutive foul shot.
