BLOOMINGTON, Ind. • This wasn't supposed to be the year. Next year — that's the year Indiana basketball was going to be "back."

In fact, next season's heralded recruiting class has been popularly labeled "The Movement." As if the incoming players would usher in a new era for the storied, yet downtrodden Hoosier program.

But those future Hoosiers got beat to the punch.

This year's Indiana team, which hosts Illinois at 7 tonight, has done much of the leg work already, piling up impressive wins, returning to the top 25 in the polls, and finding itself not just in the mix for an NCAA Tournament berth, but for a good seed in the field.

After peaking at No. 7 in the Associated Press poll on Jan. 9, the Hoosiers (18-6, 6-6) have fallen back to earth in the rugged Big Ten. The now No. 23-ranked Indiana squad has gone 3-5 since reaching the top 10, including a loss to a Nebraska team that is 3-8 in the conference.

Nonetheless, the full season résumé is a dramatic improvement on the past three seasons. After former coach Kelvin Sampson's departure, and with it almost every player in the program, the Hoosiers have posted a combined 28-66 record under coach Tom Crean from 2008 through the end of last season.

But this year, with the addition of 6-foot-11 high school All-American Cody Zeller, the team is returning to the national conversation. It did so with a bang in December with a 73-72 home win against No. 1 Kentucky, the Wildcats' only loss to date, and a cathartic court-storming that lasted long after the buzzer sounded.

Three weeks later, the Hoosiers beat No. 2 Ohio State at home, becoming the only team this season to defeat the No. 1 and 2 teams in the country.

On Saturday, the Hoosiers added a third significant victory, even if it goes unnoticed by pollsters, by winning 78-61 at arch rival Purdue, ending the Boilermakers' five-game head-to-head winning streak.

The only thing left is to determine just what exactly being "back" means.

Purdue students mocked the Hoosiers on Saturday with T-shirts lampooning the 'being back' fan mentality, despite a sub-.500 conference record at the time.

Crean said the team's glad for the fans to see this team as back, but it also doesn't affect the team's approach.

"It's all part of the process here," Crean said. "You want that kind of enthusiasm. It doesn't have anything to do with how we practice or how we prepare for games, but I think it's great.

"Our fans have been through a lot, just like people in this program, especially the juniors and seniors in this program. It's a great feeling."

If it's been difficult to pinpoint why this team turned it around, it's because Zeller is the only significant new piece to a roster that's struggled mightily in the past.

But Zeller, who leads the team with 15.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, has opened the game up to allow veterans like Christian Watford and Jordan Hulls to make improvements as well this season.

The very fact Zeller takes up attention down low has helped IU to shoot well from long range. The team is third in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage at 43.1 percent.

If Illinois enters tonight's game knowing the Hoosier fan base desperately wants national respect, it's because it got an early taste last season.

After a 52-51 win against then-No. 20 Illinois, students rushed the court and Crean celebrated in the Assembly Hall foyer with the fans, in what became the highlight of a 12-20 season.

This year's game is a reversal of situations, in a sense. Now, Indiana's the ranked team, and Illinois, the more desperate one.

"It was a big win," Hulls said about last year's game. "But I don't know if the script is flipped because the Big Ten is so good this year, and we're going to get everyone's best shot."

Illini coach Bruce Weber is seeing this upcoming stretch of four games, which starts with Indiana, as integral to determining his team's end-of-season performance.

"We'll have to show some real character in the next two weeks," Weber said. "We have to play with emotion and with spirit, and we have to win the fight. … You know when it's happening and you know when it's not happening."

And in the past three years, an Indiana game would not have served as a launching pad for any important stretch of a season.