Indiana Hoosiers' Fall to CBB Irrelevancy Continues During Another Lost Season

The Indiana Hoosiers are one of the greatest programs in men's college basketball history.

Or at least they used to be.

They have played in 39 NCAA tournaments, reaching eight Final Fours and winning five national championships. In all three categories, the Hoosiers rank in the top 10. They are also just outside the top 10 in all-time wins with more than 1,800.

For more than two decades, Indiana practically was college basketball. From 1973-93, the Hoosiers finished in the top 10 of the AP poll 12 times and won a total of 38 NCAA tournament games, including three national championships.

Though there have been a few spirited challengers in recent years, that 1975-76 Hoosiers team is still the most recent to win a title with an undefeated record (32-0). 

Bob Knight's eventual exit from Bloomington was far from amicable, but it'd be next to impossible to relive that era of hoops without remembering Knight's red sweater (and often-red face) patrolling the sidelines of Assembly Hall.

Bob Jordan/Associated Press

But for the sizable percentage of college basketball fans who are 35 or younger, it's even more difficult to remember a time when Indiana mattered.

Sure, the Millennials have been informed that Indiana is a blue-blood program, but listening to Hoosiers fans talk about when the team was great is akin to hearing grandpa's tales of paying a nickel for a candy bar or walking 10 miles to school every day, in the snow, uphill, both ways.

Aside from one improbable run to the 2002 national championship game as a No. 5 seed, there's nothing about the past quarter century which suggests the Hoosiers are among the nation's elite.

Compare Indiana's play over the past 16 years to that of the other blue-blood programs—Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and UCLA—and you're likely to start singing that Sesame Street song in your head: "One of these things is not like the other; one of these things just doesn't belong."

Blue-Blood Programs since 2003-04 season:

Duke: 461-108 (81.0%), 15 NCAA tournaments, three Final Fours, two titles
Kansas: 468-103 (82.0%), 15 NCAA tournaments, three Final Fours, one title
Kentucky: 438-131 (77.0%), 13 NCAA tournaments, four Final Fours, one title
UNC: 447-131 (77.3%), 14 NCAA tournaments, five Final Fours, three titles
UCLA: 365-177 (67.3%), 11 NCAA tournaments, three Final Fours
Indiana: 290-224 (56.4%), seven NCAA tournaments, zero Final Fours

Records through Tuesday night.

Sum it all up and Indiana has missed more tournaments since 2004 (eight) than the other five teams combined (seven). And barring some sort of miraculous run through the Big Ten conference tournament—an event they have yet to win in 21 tries—the Hoosiers are likely to miss the Big Dance yet again in a few weeks. This fact remains despite IU finally ending a 1-12 streak with a surprise last-second win over Wisconsin on Tuesday night.

Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Initially, the big problem was an inability to recruit as well without Knight. From 1977-2000, Indiana signed 21 McDonald's All-Americans—just shy of one per year. But from 2001-10, the Hoosiers inked a grand total of three.

Recruiting improved drastically after the move from Mike Davis to Kelvin Sampson, but that's because he was breaking NCAA rules and got busted for it. Sampson was fired midway through his second season and sanctions were levied against Indiana in 2008, followed by the program going in the tank for Tom Crean's first three years as head coach.

That doesn't explain the current woes, though. That was more than a decade ago, and the Hoosiers even had a brief resurgence shortly thereafter.

Fueled by Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo, Indiana reached the Sweet 16 in 2012 and was a No. 1 seed in the 2013 NCAA tournament. The Hoosiers also had top-10 recruiting classes in 2012 and 2013 and seemed to be rebuilding one heck of a foundation.

However, that momentum vanished just as quickly as it appeared.

Five years and another coaching change passed before Indiana's next top-20 recruiting class. The Hoosiers missed the tournament one year after earning that No. 1 seed. And then before the 2014-15 season could even begin, one Hoosier hit another with a car in what became a microcosm of how anything could and would go wrong within the program.

Key players like James Blackmon, OG Anunoby, Juwan Morgan and Jerome Hunter suffered significant injuries. Other should-have-been-key players like Stanford Robinson, Luke Fischer and Curtis Jones transferred out before ever making a real impact.

This year was supposed to be different, though.

Winning the Romeo Langford sweepstakes by convincing the high school legend to remain in-state for his (presumed) only season of college basketball meant great things were coming for the Hoosiers. Archie Miller—finally surrounded with more talent than he could have dreamed of getting at Dayton—was supposed to have his breakthrough year, validating the school's decision to send Crean packing after the 2016-17 season.

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

Instead, the Hoosiers have wasted a great start to the year by losing 12 of their last 14 games. They are well on the way to just their fifth .500 or worse season since 1970.

At this point, the team just seems to be cursed.

It's entirely possible that Indiana will be great again one day soon. In spite of needing to replace leading scorers Morgan (senior) and Langford (projected lottery pick), there's plenty of reason to be optimistic about next season.

The Hoosiers have signed a 2019 5-star big man in Trayce Jackson-Davis, and they are still in the hunt for uncommitted 5-star small forward Keion Brooks. They'll also add Hunter as a redshirt freshman, joining his fellow 2018 4-star recruits Rob Phinisee and Damezi Anderson. Factor in the veteran leadership of De'Ron Davis, Devonte Green, Justin Smith and Aljami Durham and that could be a damn fine rotation.

Alternatively, it might be another season of battling for position in the middle (or bottom) of the Big Ten standings due to a combination of injuries, under-performing and general disarray.

If it's the latter and that continues to serve as Indiana's new normal for much longer, it might be time to discuss revoking its blue-blood status.

Recruiting information courtesy 247 Sports.

Kerry Miller covers men's college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @kerrancejames.