1972 - 1994?
Yep, but I'm old.
Any IU fan under the age of 30 can only have memories of 1st round NCAA flame outs as RMK became more disinterested, Neil Reed and Myles Brand, the ineptitude that was Mike Davis and his one lucky run to the final four, the Kelvin Sampson debacle, and Crean's two good years with Zeller that ended in disappointment in the round of 16 (along with his other four awful years (so far), which include cutting down nets after a loss, etc.).
In the 20 years since 1994 - IU has two Big Ten regular season titles (one shared four - ways), zero Big Ten tourney titles (and only one championship game appearance in 17 years), three sweet sixteen appearances, one elite eight, and one final four. And they've missed the NCAA tournament completely in six of the last eleven years.
The nightmare is getting old - below are IU's final AP Poll Rankings for these last 20 years, for the week the regular season ends and before the NCAA tourney begins:
'95 - unranked
'96 - unranked
'97 - unranked
'98 - unranked
'99 - 19
'00 - 22
'01 - 20
'02 - unranked (why the final four run was so unexpected)
'03 - unranked
'04 - unranked
'05 - unranked
'06 - unranked
'07 - unranked
'08 - unranked
'09 - unranked
'10 - unranked
'11 - unranked
'12 - 16 (thanks Cody)
'13 - 4 (thanks again, Cody)
'14 - unranked
'15 - ??
Those 23 years from '72 - '94 = 11 Big Ten regular season titles (3 shared), 14 sweet sixteens, 8 elite eights, 5 final fours, 3 national titles (plus an NIT and CCA title and NIT runner up). And IU finished ranked in the AP top ten twelve of those years (and in the top five in seven of those years):
'72 - 17
'73 - 6
'74 - 9
'75 - 1
'76 - 1
'77 - unranked
'78 - 13
'79 - unranked
'80 - 7
'81 - 9
'82 - unranked
'83 - 5
'84 - unranked
'85 - unranked
'86 - 16
'87 - 3
'88 - unranked
'89 - 8
'90 - unranked
'91 - 3
'92 - 5
'93 - 1
'94 - 18
This post was edited on 1/6 11:03 AM by CutterAndy