Indiana Basketball Pitches NCAA Tournament Bid: 'Certainly Think There's a Case'

CHICAGO — Darian DeVries has no choice but to have the conversation he’d long pushed to the side.

Indiana basketball’s first-year coach admitted postgame he and his staff haven’t reached the point of deciding whether the Hoosiers will play in a non-NCAA Tournament postseason event if they’re invited. Those plans, DeVries said, will be finalized after discussions with his coaching staff, players and administration.

While Indiana’s March Madness aspirations crashed and burned in a span of six losses over the final seven games, DeVries emphasized focusing solely on the next contest. He wanted to block out noise, eliminate distractions and keep the weight of the NCAA Tournament off his players' shoulders.

Now, after Wednesday night’s 74-61 loss to Northwestern (15-18, 7-15 Big Ten) at the United Center sealed an early exit from the Big Ten Tournament, there may not be another game or opponent — and the budding reality of a postseason-less March appeared to hit as tears swelled in the locker room.

The Hoosiers (18-14, 9-12 Big Ten) entered Wednesday firmly on the fringe of the NCAA Tournament. They were projected largely as the last team in the field or one of the first on the outside trying to earn the right to dance.

Indiana, with a run in the Big Ten Tournament, had a chance to book its first trip to March Madness in three years. Instead, the Hoosiers’ bus never left the station.

Opportunity missed. Resume finished. Indiana’s season may have met its final date — but the Hoosiers are clinging onto hope for a March miracle.

DeVries made his argument postgame.

“I think the biggest thing we've talked about, when you're a bubble team, we've had a lot of Quad 1 games,” DeVries said. “I think the biggest thing for us is a lot of those Quad 1 games were against the top 10, 12 teams in the country. I think we had seven or eight of those losses were Quad 1 were against the top 12 teams in the country.

“That's a challenging schedule. If you put other bubble teams in the same situations, we've been able to be really competitive despite that challenging schedule. Then you have wins against Purdue and UCLA and Wisconsin and some of our Quad 2 wins.

“I certainly think there's a case there. Whether it ends up being enough, we'll see. That's something that I think this team, they've gone through it this year. They've continued to fight and battle and came away with some good wins along the way to back that up.”

Indiana is ranked No. 38 in the NET, and while the Hoosiers have played a difficult slate — they’re No. 44 in strength of schedule, according to ESPN — their resume isn’t littered with quality wins. They’re 3-11 against Quad 1 teams, owning wins over Purdue, UCLA and Wisconsin, and 6-14 against Quads 1 and 2 combined.

Indiana junior guards Nick Dorn and Jasai Miles each cited the Hoosiers’ Quad 1 wins as reasons within their pitch to the NCAA Tournament committee, and Miles said Indiana would pose a challenge to whoever it plays, should it get the chance to lace its shoes one more time.

“I mean, we're going to play hard,” Miles said. “I feel like we can give anybody a game. I think we'll be a tough out for anybody. I think we can make a run. But at the end of the day, it isn't (our) place. So, we just got to wait and see what they say.”

Sixth-year senior guard Tayton Conerway, who scored 14 points against Northwestern, said he knew the Hoosiers needed some teams to win and others to lose, but he didn’t want to make an argument until gleaning the resumes of those around Indiana.

“Just got to wait and see what happens now,” Conerway said postgame. “Hope it all works out and we get another chance.”

With tears still resting on his eyes, senior guard Conor Enright said Indiana will likely take Thursday off before working out and staying prepared in the lead up to Selection Sunday. It’ll be tough, Enright said, not knowing what’s going to happen.

For Sam Alexis, this is foreign territory.

The senior forward won the national championship last season at Florida, which lost only one game after Feb. 1. The Gators’ run was rooted in momentum, something Alexis noted the Hoosiers didn’t have entering the Big Ten Tournament after winning just one of their final six regular season games.

“I feel like God puts you in different spots,” Alexis said. “Last year, he showed me how it feels to win. This year, he's shown me a lot more adversity. At the end of the day, we're going to see what the future holds. I don't know what we're going to do.”

Indiana appeared a safe bet to make the NCAA Tournament in mid-February. The Hoosiers won five of six games in the heart of Big Ten play, and DeVries’ team, once full of new and unfamiliar faces, seemed to be turning the corner.

Then, Indiana took the wrong exit.

The Hoosiers still entered the Big Ten Tournament with the right to dream about March Madness, about putting on their dancing shoes, about playing on the sport’s biggest stage and getting to live their own One Shining Moment.

But as its offense fell silent and its defense ran out of answers for Northwestern’s offense, Indiana may have taken its last gasp Wednesday night — and now has to hold its breath until Sunday night, when it learns the fate of its status on life support.

“Whatever happens, happens,” Miles said. “We knew we wanted to control our own destiny, win a couple games and really lock it up. But we lost this one tonight. So, now we just got to wait and see.”