Indiana began the season with 12 consecutive victories.But coach Tom Crean said IU is a better team now than they were after capturing that 12th straight victory Dec. 22 against Maryland-Baltimore County.The No.Few saw this coming: Virginia 47, Indiana 7.
“We can’t make any excuses at all,” IU coach Bill Lynch said. “We got beat, pretty soundly.”
Beat to the tune of giving up 536 total yards.
Indiana turned the ball over in its opening possession. Virginia capitalized with a touchdown. That was the start of a very long day. The Hoosiers trailed 30-0 at halftime.
IU played without running back Darius Willis. The freshman missed his second game this year because of injuries.
Lynch said Willis was “kind of beat up after two weeks. Ankle, ribs, combination of things.”
“It does hurt us, but that was one of those kinds of games where they beat us so on both sides of the ball that I don’t think one guy would have made a difference (Saturday),” Lynch said.
Now the Hoosiers return home for the most important game of the season, taking on Illinois. Wobbling with three consecutive losses, Indiana has seen all of the momentum from the 3-0 start vanish. Indiana has given up 80 points in the last two games.
Illinois has had its own struggles, giving up an average of 29.7 points in its last three games, all losses.
One of the teams will get healthy Saturday.
