The regular season ended Saturday for the Indiana men’s basketball team, and the Hoosier are back where they’ve been for the past six years – sitting on the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble.
But they still have chances to make the field.
A guaranteed route would be to win the Big Ten Tournament, which runs Wednesday through Sunday at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. But that’s something IU has not done in the 23-year history of the event. The Hoosiers have made the championship game only once, in 2001, when they lost to Iowa.
Most experts think IU can make the NCAA Tournament field of 68 with two or three wins in the Big Ten Tournament. Some think one win might do it.
“You can’t worry about the second game until you win the first game,” said coach Mike Woodson.
IU finished 18-12 overall and 9-11 in the Big Ten in Woodson’s first season as head coach. That left the Hoosiers as the ninth-seed in the Big Ten Tournament. They’ll face eighth-seed Michigan Thursday at 11:30 a.m. The winner gets No. 1 seed Illinois Friday.
“I think everyone in our locker room knows how much we need this game, and they're willing to do anything to win,” said IU junior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis. “We know where we stand, and we know that we have to go get this one.”
The IU-Michigan game could amount to a play-in game, with the winner getting an NCAA bid.
Jackson-Davis, who was named Tuesday to the All-Big Ten second team and all-defensive team, said just having a chance to make the tournament is a privilege.
“Even though we're fighting on the bubble of the NCAA tournament, we're still here, and we have pressure to perform,” Jackson-Davis said. “A lot of teams are looking in from the outside, and they have no chance of making it unless they win (their conference) tournament.”
Beating Michigan will be no easy task. The teams met just once this season, and the Wolverines buried the Hoosiers, 80-62, on Jan. 23. IU was coming off an at-home upset of then-No. 4 Purdue three days earlier.
“We did nothing right in that game, I mean, on both endings of the floor,” Woodson said. “Our defensive coverages were awful. It was one of those games where I just thought we didn't show up to play. They took advantage of it on both ends of the floor.”
The Hoosiers can’t afford to do that again if they want to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016.
Indiana was solidly in the tournament at the end of January, which found the Hoosiers 16-5 overall and 7-4 in the Big Ten. But a five-game losing streak in February left them bouncing between the “last four in” and “first four out” categories in tournament projections by experts.
Indiana ended the streak with wins over Maryland and Minnesota, but closed the season with losses at home to Rutgers and at No. 8 Purdue - by a combined five points.
“We've lost two tough games,” Woodson said. “You figure if you win one, maybe both of them, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation about trying to get into the (NCAA) tournament. We just would be worrying about the Big Ten Tournament.”
BIG TEN TOURNAMENT AT GAINBRIDGE FIELDHOUSE, INDIANAPOLIS
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
[13] Nebraska vs. [12] Northwestern, 6 p.m. (BTN)
[14] Minnesota vs. [11] Penn State, 8:30 p.m. (BTN)
THURSDAY’S GAMES
[9] Indiana vs. [8] Michigan, 11:30 a.m. (BTN)
Winner Game 1 vs. [5] Iowa, 2 p.m. (BTN)
[10] Maryland vs. [7] Michigan State, 6:30 p.m. (BTN)
