BLOOMINGTON – Perhaps no Indiana player lost more in terms of individual ambitions when this season reached its abrupt conclusion than Devonte Green.

The Hoosiers’ win over Nebraska — what turned out to be the last game of Green’s career — should have cemented IU a spot in the field of 68. That in turn would have kept Green’s hope of reaching 1,000 career points alive, and given him and fellow senior De’Ron Davis their first NCAA tournament appearance.

Instead, Green and all his classmates across college basketball will have to come to terms with what might have been.

(All-time IU ranks in parentheses)

Season stats: 10.8 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 2.1 apg, 35.8 3-pt

Career stats: 954 points (55), 257 assists, 113 steals, 164 made 3s (12)

Maybe the most striking development of his senior season was the end of Green’s love-hate relationship with Indiana fans.

An undeniably streaky shooter with a penchant for flair, Green’s decision-making could get him trouble or make some for an opponent. It sometimes was a matter of inches and degrees, whether Green could manage to fit his pass through a tight window no one else even saw, or whether that third 3-point attempt would finally go down and get him going.

IU coach Archie Miller said numerous times Green could be unstoppable when confident, but sometimes placed more confidence in his offensive game than was good for him.

Green’s reputation for chance taking didn’t always jive with statistics, however. Green finished his senior season with a respectable 20.4-percent assist rate. He turned the ball over on a lower percentage of possessions than Robert Phinisee or Al Durham. He could sometimes be guilty of a rushed or reckless shot, but Indiana did not have a better pull-up jump shooter.

Still, Green undeniably lived on the edge enough for his missteps to be remembered as more glaring. But he also became an offensive spark plug for a team that needed more than a little spark over his sophomore, junior and senior seasons.

As he matured, it wasn’t hard to see a Tom Crean guard among Green’s skills — his pull-up shooting, his ability to spot a difficult pass, a wing span that helped him fill passing lanes and grab those 113 steals.

Instead, Green wound up comprising half of the last senior class that stayed, the last class that played under both Crean and Miller. In what turned out to be the last news conference of his career on March 6, previewing senior day against Wisconsin, Green nodded to fellow senior De’Ron Davis and said, “We’re the last two standing from the Crean era.”

“Not everybody did stick with it,” he continued. “I think that the fact that we chose to says something about us.”

Both players trained their sights on the NCAA tournament this season. If they didn’t reach it, they’d become the first four-year class at IU in 48 years not to reach the dance, and the first in the history of the modern tournament.

Had their season been allowed to continue, they almost certainly would’ve realized that goal. Instead, they saw their careers abruptly, painfully ended, Green’s just short of numerous personal or program milestones.

Green can at least walk away with a senior season of memories, safe in the knowledge that many of IU’s biggest wins — from Florida State to Ohio State to Iowa — don’t happen without him.

Maybe his senior season’s most revealing moments came near the end. In a Feb. 23 win against Penn State, during one of his hot streaks, Green pulled up his dribble and appeared to size up a long 3-pointer. He didn’t shoot it, though Assembly Hall begged him to, IU fans finally embracing Green’s haughty, defiant offensive style.

In the midst of another heater two weeks later against Wisconsin, Green slipped past his man and, as he reached the lane with a long-armed help defender in front of him, tossed up a floater.

The crowd urged him on again. “(expletive) it,” said one man sitting just behind press row.

The shot went in.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.