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The Indiana basketball program is coming off of a 1-1 record this past week, which resulted in them dropping three spots, landing at No. 17.
Despite a gutsy effort to storm back from being down double-figures, Indiana ultimately lost at Northwestern 64-62 before bouncing back and getting a tough home victory over Illinois 71-68.
Indiana is currently 19-8 overall and 10-6 in the Big Ten.
The Hoosiers are currently in third place in the Big Ten standings.
After a three-game losing streak at the start of January, Indiana went on a five game winning streak and have won nine of their last eleven games. Hoosiers are 4-1 in the month of February thus far.
Indiana senior forward Miller Kopp returned to Northwestern one final time after transferring from there two season's ago. While it was not the best performance from him that game, he did bounce back vs Illinois with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
"Well, you know, that night is over," said Kopp after the Illinois win. "It wasn't fun, but it is what it is, and it's over. I've got an amazing support system around me with teammates, with coaches, with Scott Dolson, just letting me know that they're with me and behind me and have my back no matter what for as long as I'm here and on."
"For me, it was just about locking into this game, and my teammates needed me and I needed them, and we got it done."
During the Illinois win, Indiana senior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis surpassed Indiana head coach Mike Woodson as fifth all-time scoring in the programs history. While that is a amazing individual accolade, both Mike Woodson and Trayce Jackson-Davis have bigger, team-focused goals.
"I couldn't be more proud of a young man than Trayce today," Mike Woodson said after the Illinois win. "That record has -- I've been sitting in that spot for a long time, and for him to surpass it, man, it's special. It just means the body of work that he's put in over the years, but he can't stop there. It's just points. He's still staring at two things, a Big Ten title and a national title, and that's where I'm trying to get him."
"I mean, it's an accomplishment," Jackson-Davis added. "Again, I'm going to probably look at it more during the end of the year, but I'm just glad that we found a way to get that one (Illinois). They were fighting. They were clawing. They were without one of their best players, and those dudes showed a lot of heart here. Just finding a way down the stretch and getting stops when we needed to, it was big for us.
Purdue remains the top ranked team from the Big Ten at No. 5 and the only other team from the conference that is ranked besides the Boilermakers and Indiana is Northwestern at No. 21. Maryland and Illinois each received votes as well.
Indiana will travel to Michigan State for a showdown with the Spartans tomorrow night.
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