WEST LAFAYETTE – An Indiana basketball coach wants to put a photo of a Purdue player in the coach’s office.

That’s all one needs to know about the state of the Hoosiers’ program.

Indiana lost its 11th straight, and 20th of the season, falling to Purdue 74-55 Wednesday in front of 14,123 fans at Mackey Arena.

IU (9-20, 3-14 Big Ten) had never lost 20 games in a season before going 6-25 last year. Now the Hoosiers have reached the 20-loss mark two years in a row. The losing streak matches a school record, set in 1943-44 and equaled last year.

The Indiana coach – Tom Crean – praised Purdue’s Chris Kramer for his toughness by mentioning placing a photo of the guard at Assembly Hall. But it’s also a commentary on his team’s physical play.

“We’re a soft basketball team,” Crean said when asked about Indiana picking up fouls for setting screens. “I don’t have any other way of putting it. We’re not a physically aggressive team.

“We have to grow up. That’s what it is more than anything else. We don’t practice that way. We screen, and we screen each other, but then all of a sudden we see the other jersey and we’re not so good there.”

IU did outrebound the Boilermakers 36-28. But where Indiana’s lack of physicality showed was in its free-throw numbers (the Hoosiers only attempted five free throws) and in its inability to hold onto the ball. Indiana had 18 turnovers, which led to 22 Purdue points.

“We only shot five foul shots, so obviously we don’t have much of an advantage anywhere right now in the sense of how we can attack the basket,” Crean said. Purdue went 21 for 31 from the foul line. “We didn’t have a foul attempt in the first half. I guess we’re not physical enough.”

Foul trouble made matters worse. Derek Elston and Tom Pritchard fouled out. Bobby Capobianco and Devan Dumes each had four fouls.

“It was a huge deficit,” said Elston, who scored 13 points. “Me fouling out. Tommy fouling out. Bobby had four. The hardest part was staying on the floor.”

IU fell behind by 10 with 11:35 to go in the first half. The Hoosiers never cut the deficit to single digits again. It’s the eighth-straight double-digit defeat.

“We have to continue to learn that when that game is 10, 12, 14, it’s still a very wide-open game,” Crean said. “But your margin for error (is small) because we don’t have guys who are going to bail us out with a big play offensively or defensively.”

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