BLOOMINGTON — Having recently returned from winter break, Indiana students made it clear they were deeply disappointed with the state of the IU basketball program throughout the course of a 94-69 loss to Illinois on Tuesday night at Assembly Hall.
They started chanting “Fire Woodson” midway through the first half as the Hoosiers trailed by as many as 30 points and restarted the chant multiple times even as another section of the arena tried (and failed) to drown them out with chants of “Go IU” during one timeout.
While the attendance fell far short of the announced sellout (17,222), the lower bowl was mostly full at tipoff. The same couldn’t be said coming out of halftime after droves of fans headed to the exits and left large portions of the arena empty.
“I love our fans and I respect our fans, but it’s up to me to get our players to play at a high level,” IU coach Mike Woodson said. “That’s my job and I’m going to continue to work in that area and hope that our fans will hang in there with us.”
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It was a different tone than Woodson had last year when he addressed fans at Assembly Hall during senior day festivities and thanked the “true, true fans.”
“And I am the coach here,” he said at the time. “Understand that. I’m not going anywhere.”
Indiana forward Luke Goode, who was facing his former team Tuesday, also addressed the fanbase’s obvious disappointment.
“I understand it,” Goode said. “We got embarrassed. We have to wear this jersey with more pride as Indiana players. This program is too historical and too great to be represented like that.”
Woodson acknowledged the team’s record during his tenure against top competition has fallen short. He’s 76-45 at his alma mater in three-plus seasons, but just 35-32 in the Big Ten during and 14-31 record against Quad 1 opponents. The Hoosiers are combined 31-41 against Quad 1 and 2 opponents.
They have also lost six conference games by 20 points or more and 13 games by 15 points or more.
“We’ve had some good games against big time opponents over the three years,” Woodson said. “The record doesn’t indicate that.”
Woodson said he’s keeping his focus solely on the this season as he looks to navigate IU out of its recent slump. Things don’t get any easier for the Hoosiers as they play four of their next five games on the road and face a string of top 25 opponents — No. 15 Purdue, No. 19 Michigan and No. 12 Michigan State — in the coming weeks.
“Long season, man,” Woodson said with a sigh. “I mean, you can’t throw in the towel.”
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
