Photo courtesy of IU Athletics |

“Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems,” 17^th-century French philosopher René Descartes famously theorized.

It can be funny how often such ancient theory can become today’s rhetoric.

After a 15-1 start that was equally as impressive as it was unexpected, Indiana Hoosiers became synonymous with the No. sign in front of it.

A beatific ambiance had once again surrounded these Hoosiers wherever they traveled.  

Insert needle-coming-off-record sound bite right … here, on the ropes in the thick of the Big Ten schedule – a home game against Minnesota exactly one month ago.

To its dismay, IU was upset by unranked Minnesota 77-74 in a game that was not as close as the final score.

IU’s letdown against the Golden Gophers – dropping its first game since receiving a top-10 ranking – jolted an alarming swoon in performance.

After being shellacked in Columbus by the Buckeyes just three days later – a team IU had already beaten – the Hoosiers surrendered a second half, double-digit lead on the road to Nebraska, whom everyone many consider to be a bottom-feeder in the Big Ten.

The walls had come down on these Hoosiers. Beatific had turned to berate, and Tom Crean and his young team had paid the price for being just that, young.

“We’re not a team that’s been through it enough because we still have so many young guys that are playing crucial minutes at this time of year,” Crean said. “We’re right in the thick of it and we’ve never been here before.”

This declaration from Crean did not come on the bus home from Lincoln, Neb, but after the Hoosiers defeated Illinois this past Thursday night, their second big win in as many games.

college basketball team, at any level, is a forever mutating and evolving creature.

What can be easily lost in the midst of a three-game losing streak is that the ultimate stamp of legitimacy comes one game at a time in March, not at the tail end of a brutal seven-game stretch to open the Big Ten season.

But ironically, the biggest detractors to attaining your ultimate goal can often be triumphs.

“We went through a little drought where we kind of forgot that edge that you got to have, especially after we beat Ohio State,” Crean said. “I think anytime where you have success like that and you haven’t had as much as a group, it’s real easy to fall off a little bit and I think we did.”

It is times like these – blowing a 13 point lead at Nebraska or scoring just two points in the final 4:05 at Wisconsin – that can steel, or as Crean puts it, harden you.

“Our guys are a little bit more hardened now, and I think that’s a big part of it,” Crean said when asked about his team’s killer instinct against Illinois.

As Purdue crept back into last Saturday’s game – wilting IU’s 11-point second-half lead down to just four – the Hoosiers did not crumble.

Leading 63-59, Cody Zeller caught the ball and faced the basket, and a roaring Mackey Arena – one of many first experiences for the young freshman this season – Zeller buried the shot, and more importantly, the energy running rampant throughout the crowd.

After a Will Sheehey block, junior forward Christian Watford barreled his way to the line and knocked down two free throws.

Finally, leading 67-61 with 2:14 to play, the growing pains stopped when freshman guard Remmy Abell buried a 3-pointer from the corner.

Cody Zeller was named Big Ten freshman of the week Monday for the sixth time. Photo courtesy of IU Athletics.

Dagger.

The Hoosiers had a commanding nine-point lead, a lead they would not surrender.

“Being in all of these different experiences of losing a Nebraska game or Minnesota game have come back to help them in a lot of ways,” Crean said. “We want to come back down and grind it out.”

Thursday night’s game against a desperate playing Illinois team – much like Minnesota – followed script.

Instead of relinquishing a late lead, IU added to it.

Just as it did against Purdue, IU turned a 63-59 lead into 70-61. And then 77-65. As the final horn sounded the scoreboard read 84-71.

Back-to-back wins against its two most formidable Big Ten rivals. Back-to-back convincing wins against two teams that saw a freebie on the schedule a year ago.

“We didn’t get down on ourselves at all. We just kept on working,” Watford said. “We lost some tough ones that we thought we should have won but we know that we’re still a good team that can come in and get it done.”

hile Crean and his players currently battle an elongated period in-between games, these Hoosiers find themselves more experienced now, more battle-tested and more hardened. But most of all, they are deeper.

While the main rotation has been battered by injuries since early December – Will Sheehey, Derek Elston and starting guard Verdell Jones have all missed multiple games – Matt Roth has flourished off the bench.

Roth has not only shot the ball at an alarmingly efficient rate – 55 percent from three-point range – but has not been a liability defensively.

“He’s on the court in a very physical, athletic game holding his own defensively, playing team defense and at the same time you have to guard him on the offensive end,” Crean said of Roth’s play.

Whether it’s been Roth’s clutch shooting, Remmy Abell’s ability to infuse energy or Tom Pritchard’s unmistakeable physicality off the bench, the Hoosiers have plugged the holes opponents saw as vulnerable earlier in the year.

One month later and IU has the second highest 3-point and offensive efficiency in the nation, and oh ya, that fancy No. sign still appears next to its name.

“The ceiling is limitless for this team. We’re constantly getting better every day,” Jordan Hulls said. “We lost a couple games in the process but we’re still getting better. That’s the main thing.”

One area the Hoosiers have demonstrably improved in is executing under pressure.

A motley collection of youth, several times this season – against Kentucky, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Nebraska – these Hoosiers have failed to do so.

“You have to execute under pressure, that’s one of the greatest forms of toughness and team basketball you can play,” Crean said. “But you have to perform through contact to play under pressure and our guys are getting better at that.”

In fact, it’s become a rule they’re quite often referring back to.