BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Many factors went into the Indiana men's basketball team's run to its second Big Ten Conference regular-season championship in the past four seasons.

It started with the return of star point guard Yogi Ferrell for his senior year after a brief flirtation with the idea of leaving early for the NBA. It continued with the arrival of a strong freshman class and the addition of a key graduate transfer.

But what most outside the team's locker room and coach Tom Crean's small circle of friends and family — including a couple of football coaches named Harbaugh — don't know is how a fall trip to Baltimore played into the Hoosiers' surprising season.

The four-day visit served as the foundation for helping to turn around what had been an underachieving and fractious Indiana team the past two years.

Standing outside the media room Sunday night at Assembly Hall after his team's 80-62 win over Maryland, the once-embattled Crean talked about what the trip ultimately meant to the Hoosiers.

“The biggest thing to me was watching television when the riots were going on” after Freddie Gray's death in police custody, Crean said. “That hit me. It was like, ‘How do you give back to someone?' I knew we couldn't make a tremendous impact, but I wanted to give something back.”

With the help of his brother-in-law, Ravens coach John Harbaugh, Crean started making plans. Crean said he was put in touch with the Baltimore Police Department, and a visit to the Goodnow Community Center was set up.

“We wanted to make sure there was a community effort that we could give,” Crean said. “It's not like we were going in there thinking you could change the world. If you can go in there and help a couple of people, then it was well worth it. We turned it into a great leadership trip.”

The Hoosiers flew into Baltimore on a Thursday night and headed to the Naval Academy on Friday morning, where they practiced at Alumni Hall and shared a meal with midshipmen. After returning to Baltimore that afternoon, the Indiana team visited the recreation center.

According to longtime center director Gloria Jenkins, the Hoosiers spent several hours with about 40 children, ages 6 to 16.

“It was originally going to be a shorter time, but once the players and the children became engaged with one another, it went on and on,” said Jenkins, who has been involved with the center since it opened in 1995 as a Police Athletic League center and has been its director for 11 years. “It was a great time. The children had a ball, and the Indiana Hoosiers did as well.”

Jenkins said she was surprised at “how warm and friendly the coaching staff was, and that just moved down to the team. They talked to us about what it's like getting up early in the morning and what they need to do. They talked about the academics and their goals.”

At Christmas, Jenkins said she received a card at the center signed by the team's players and coaches.

“I thought that was great,” she said. “Who would have done that?”

Junior forward Troy Williams said the trip to Maryland benefited him personally and his team collectively.

“Going to the community center and seeing the kids, that was a great experience,” Williams said Sunday. “The kids probably stuck out the most to me because I used to be one of those kids, and being less fortunate, to see where I came from and seeing their happy faces, it shows that anybody can do it.”

Asked how it affected the team during the season, Williams said: “It brings humbleness to you. It makes you not big-headed or anything like that. An experience like that can change a whole person's mindset and makes you realize how grateful you are for things.”

On Saturday morning, the team visited the Ravens, attending a walk-through and meetings before Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns, then going through strength and conditioning training at the Ravens' facility in Owings Mills.

“The only bad part of the weekend is that they didn't win,” Crean said of a game the Hoosiers attended and the Ravens lost, 33-30, in overtime. “There's a bonding experience, but what happens with those guys is that they'll invoke those memories during the year. You never know what's going to hit them, but you want to give them as many experiences as you can.”

The Hoosiers also spent time at Johns Hopkins, where longtime lacrosse coach Dave Pietramala gave them a tour of the Cordish Lacrosse Center. Pietramala spoke for about 20 minutes, then had a question-and-answer session.

“We talked about the pressure at being an athlete at a place with high expectations, and how it's important to carry yourself and comport yourself in a class manner and to represent yourself, your program and your family the right way,” Pietramala said this week.

Crean said the impact of the trip was not felt immediately. The Hoosiers struggled for the first month, losing to Wake Forest and Nevada-Las Vegas in the Maui Invitational. After returning to the mainland, they were crushed by then-No. 7 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the Atlantic Coast Conference-Big Ten Challenge.

With many questioning Crean's future in Bloomington, Indiana reeled off 12 straight victories to jump into contention with Maryland and Iowa, both top-10 teams, as the league's early front-runners. As the Terps and Hawkeyes faded down the stretch, the Hoosiers kept winning. They lost, however, to eighth-seeded Michigan, 72-69, on Friday in the Big Ten tournament.

Forward Max Bielfeldt, who transferred to Indiana for this season, said leaving Bloomington for a few days before the season brought the team closer together.

“With so many new pieces on the team, so many new guys with transfers and the freshmen coming in, it was kind of like a road trip before any real games came, because you had guys living in the dorms, guys in apartments. It was kind of nice for us to go out there and have that bonding experience,” Bielfeldt said.

don.markus@baltsun.com

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