“It’s a business trip, so no time for fun and games right now”. So you’ve got to be active. “We’re going to prepare for Chattanooga just like Kentucky, and I feel like when we get to that game, we’ll be prepared for Kentucky”.
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IN (25-7) takes on 12th-seeded Chattanooga at 7:10 p.m. ET Thursday here at the Wells Fargo Arena, which seats 16,980 fans and will surely have quite a few IU and Kentucky fans for the pair of night games. The Seawolves are the No. 93 team in the land, per Pomeroy. The two schools last met in November 2010 in regular season play in Athens.
Last year’s tournament was only the fourth time since 1985 that a No. 12 seed didn’t beat a No. 5 seed.
We’re just not supposed to talk about it yet.
IN guard Yogi Ferrell (11) goes around Maryland forward Robert Carter (4) in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Maryland in Bloomington, Ind., Sunday, March 6, 2016. “It’s not just because it’s March Madness”.
So we dare to dream. Right after the contest, players were already talking about things they can improve on – turnovers, motion on offense – and looking forward to hitting the court in the Big Dance.
IN will play in its fifth NCAA Tournament having made previous appearances in 1983, 1994, 1995 and 2002.
Interestingly, Peyton’s dad, Rodney Woods, is a former Tennessee Vols standout and the elder Woods also coached Peyton in high school. The junior averaged a Southern Conference-best 2.3 blocks per game. There will be time to discuss the biggest win of Crean’s tenure at IN, the buzzer-beater to knock off No. 1 Kentucky IN December 2011, and the payback Kentucky exacted IN the NCAA tourney later that season on the way to the national title. Until then, nobody in blue and nobody in crimson is interested in talking about each other.
In Indianapolis, they’re happy – well, as happy as they can be after getting waxed, again, in the Big East Tournament by a Providence team that features two NBA Lottery picks, Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil. “Our coaches will work ahead [on scouting Kentucky]”.
Fine. If the combatants insist on shrinking the focus to the next game, I suppose we can stop dreaming and address what has to happen first. “This is another opportunity for us to go out and showcase what we’ve done all year”.
To travel so far as the Final Four in Houston, the Hoosiers will first have to survive the wars of a loaded East Regional.
When Foster was head women’s basketball coach at Saint Joseph’s, the term “mid major” wasn’t as heavily used as it is today. When they heard that, they said, ‘That’s who they’re playing.
Bench play will also be vital in this tournament and the Hoosiers have some good bench players to get that done with players like OG Anunoby, Max Bielfeldt, and Nick Zeisloft. More importantly, they are helping their teams win because they’ve had four years to develop chemistry with their teammates, learn their coach’s system and recognize what their opponents are doing in certain game situations.
The best part of Stony Brook is post player Jameel Warney, a 6-foot-8, 260-pound strongman who can attack Kentucky’s interior weakness. “They have two of the best in country in Ulis and (Jamal) Murray. They catch people in rotation a lot and they drive and may get bumped on the perimeter or drop it off inside”. And us being a low program, we’re under the radar.
For Indiana, it must confront an opponent that will be every bit as comfortable ripping and running as the Hoosiers are.
Historically, the 12-5 matchup is a notorious trap for the higher-seeded team. IN is prone to committing turnovers, which could make dealing with that press paramount. The Mocs did collect some solid non-conference wins against power conference teams in IL and Georgia along with Dayton who is in this year’s field.
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“I just told these guys just to play free”, Ferrell said.
