Redemption
Back in January, the Hoosiers lost to Northwestern by 21 points. They did one better tonight beating Northwestern by 22. ESPN says it was IU’s best game of the season, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
It’s nice to see the Hoosiers finishing strong, rather than stumbling into the NCAA tournament during the end of the Knight era. Now it’s time for the NCAA selection committee to put up or shut up. They say every year their emphasis is performance in the last 10 games. I think the strong schedule prepared them for this stretch. If the Hoosiers are left out of the tournament this year, I think that sends a strong message to major teams about their scheduling. The committee says they want to encourage tough schedules. If that’s the case, why punish a team for doing just that? Especially when their last 10 games were pretty strong (8-2 maybe? before Big Ten tourney)?
If they miss out this year, I say IU should fill up on cupcakes next year – like Coppin ST (13-13), William & Mary (8-21), Campbell (2-25!), and Morehead ST (11-16) (sound familiar, Kentucky?).
Let the madness of March begin!
correction
OK, so they finished the last 10 games 6-4, but they beat Michigan ST and should have beaten Wisconsin at the Kohl Center(buzzer beaters have been killer this year). They still finished with a winning record (15-12) after entering the Big Ten with a losing record (5-6).
mmmmmm….cupcakes….
– Homer Simpson