B1G Tournament loss to Northwestern becomes Indiana's latest missed opportunity in year one of DeVries era

The United Center, 1901 W. Madison St., Chicago, Illinois. The site of the first test in the Darian DeVries era of Indiana basketball — and the Hoosiers passed with flying colors.

Indiana beat Marquette 100-77 in the second game of the season, providing hope that year one of the DeVries era could be a success. But four months later, 122 days to be exact, Indiana was tested inside the same building.

And it will, in all likelihood, end up as the last test of DeVries’ first season at IU — because the Hoosiers barely showed up.

Indiana was noncompetitive for a very large portion of their Big Ten Tournament opener against Northwestern, dashing the hopes of an NCAA Tournament bid while putting all of IU’s weaknesses on full display in a 74-61 defeat.

But the season doesn’t boil down to an emphatic win back in November or a disappointing loss in March. We’ll remember the 2025-26 Indiana basketball season for the 32 games as a whole, and how the season’s ups and downs wrapped up with quite possibly the lowest valley of all.

Indiana sits at 18-14 with its season almost certainly over, and with a feeling of what could’ve been. So many winnable games slipped through the Hoosiers’ fingers, many more as defeats against teams IU felt like it should’ve beaten. And it all culminates in a season that felt like it could’ve been so much more.

“Every season you’ve got a certain amount of games you’d like to have back,” Darian DeVries said following the loss to the Wildcats. “Certainly we felt like there’s a little more in there for us that we would have liked to have gotten done.”

The loss to Northwestern in the Big Ten Tournament would certainly be one of the games that the Hoosiers would like to have back, as would their other matchup against Northwestern played just 15 days ago.

As would the Ohio State game, the Michigan State game, the Purdue game, the Illinois game, the USC game, the Iowa game and the Nebraska game.

So many chances, and so many missed opportunities to go along with them. If year one of the DeVries era will be remembered for anything, it’ll be having a chance at a big win — and completely falling flat.

“I just feel like we just got stagnant. We just weren’t playing our best basketball,” Lamar Wilkerson said after falling in Chicago.

Instant Analysis: Three takeaways from Indiana’s potentially season-ending loss to Northwestern

Indiana scored 24 points after the half, making only five field goals with just one made 3-pointer. The Hoosiers couldn’t make shots, plain and simple, and it allowed Northwestern to blow right past them.

And that came after a first half that was largely competitive. IU held a 37-36 lead and was up by as many as 10 points. Northwestern simply dominated the second half, though, and made the Hoosiers look straight-up silly.

The Wildcats are a talented group, but not one of the conference’s best teams by any means. With Indiana entering the conference tournament with NCAA hopes, it was playing for so much more than Northwestern was, but it didn’t appear that way.

IU played careless basketball for large parts of the ballgame, totaling 11 turnovers to Northwestern’s six. The Hoosiers just weren’t making smart plays, and even when a possession didn’t end with a turnover, there was a good chance that it resulted in a poor shot that didn’t find the bottom of the net.

“Just knowing that we could have and we should have won that game,” Conor Enright said on what the toughest part of Wednesday’s loss was. “We didn’t do the little things for a full 40 and left stuff out there. It’s tough to walk off the court and know we didn’t do everything we could.”

Tucker DeVries scored one point in the second half, while Enright and Sam Alexis both scored zero. That’s three starters with just one combined point — about the furthest thing from a winning recipe.

And with Wilkerson missing some time in the second half with an apparent ankle issue, the Hoosiers simply couldn’t score as Northwestern was going on its run.

“That’s been something that’s kind of hurt us a little bit, especially these last seven, eight games in the second halves. Just not being able to find a secondary way to score has been a problem for us in a lot of these games,” coach DeVries explained.

In almost all of Indiana’s 14 losses, there have been stretches where the Hoosiers fall completely cold. Against Northwestern, IU accompanied a non-existent offense with constant fouling.

As the Wildcats racked up points at the free-throw line, Indiana’s season was quickly slipping away. The Hoosiers desperately needed a victory, as they left absolutely no wiggle room after losing five of six to finish the regular season.

“Just down the stretch of the season, we weren’t able to capitalize on some of the opportunities we had,” Tucker DeVries said.

On the list of missed chances, Northwestern is at the top — twice. If Indiana could’ve beaten the Wildcats just once, it would’ve had at least a case to make the Big Dance. But that case is gone, as the Hoosiers didn’t just lose on Wednesday night.

They were embarrassed. It’ll be the last thing the committee sees on Indiana’s resume, and the latest of so many chances IU had to make a statement for its inclusion in the NCAA Tournament.

“If you put other bubble teams in the same situations, we’ve been able to be really competitive despite that challenging schedule,” coach DeVries argued.

But against Northwestern, the Hoosiers were less than competitive. Sure, it’s about the body of work more than a singular result, but the Hoosiers haven’t put together a full 40 minutes against a tournament-level team in over a month.

With so many other bubble teams losing, Indiana missed a chance to separate itself. It squashed any hope that still lingered after losing five of six, and the emotions after losing to Northwestern were about as far from the calls for optimism after beating Marquette early in the season.

Both in the same building, but on different ends of what ended as a disappointing season. Year one of the DeVries era is likely in the books, and it’s left with a sour taste in everyone’s mouths — coaches, players and fans alike.

And they’re all left to wonder what could’ve been. What this team could’ve accomplished if it played up to its potential. What a successful year one of Darian DeVries could’ve looked like.

Not yet a member of TheHoosier?  Join our community for Just $1 and get a complimentary year of The Athletic included with your membership. Join here!

Make sure to follow and subscribe to all TheHoosier social media platforms so you never miss any of our content including X, Facebook, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts.