Indiana University Athletics
DIPRIMIO: Believe It - All Postseason Things Possible For Indiana
3/12/2019 6:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By: Pete DiPrimio, IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The bubble looms in all its March Madness misery -- sweating out victories, agonizing over potential NCAA Tournament at-large-bid-costing mid-major conference-tourney upsets (see favorite Wofford holding off UNC-Greensboro in the Southern Conference tourney Monday night) -- and yet this much is certain amid Indiana postseason uncertainty:
Hope lives.
"It's all in front of us," IU coach Archie Miller said.
You'd better believe it is.
The Hoosiers (17-14) opened the regular season 12-2. They ended it 4-0. That 16-2 stretch included six Quad 1 wins with two victories over Big Ten co-champ Michigan State and wins over top-20 Wisconsin and top-25 Marquette.
Only 17 other teams can match or surpass the Hoosiers' Quad 1 victory total, a major factor for the NCAA tourney Selection Committee.
"Our resume speaks loud of what we're capable of doing," Miller said during Monday night's radio show.
In so many ways, the Hoosiers should be a NCAA tourney lock. That they are not is due to a 1-12 run that threatened to ruin everything.
It still might if IU doesn't do something significant in this week's Big Ten tourney at Chicago's United Center. Its first shot comes Thursday against Ohio State (18-13), which returns previously suspended center Kaleb Wesson, who averages 14.6 points and 6.7 rebounds.
The Buckeyes beat IU at Assembly Hall during the regular season, 55-52.
"This is a championship-type game for us," Miller said on his radio show.
IU's late-season surge is due to many factors, including better offense (92 and 89 points in its last two games), improved rebounding, solid defense and reduced turnovers (the Hoosiers had just 13 total in their last two games), but Miller focused on one factor above all others:
"Attitude."
"I think the big thing is focusing on our attitude," he said during Monday's Big Ten teleconference. "There's time where you go on these ups and downs where your attitude is masked by wins and when you lose you see everything so to make the best out of our situation was to collect our attitude as a team.
"Our staff has been willing to embrace guys and make them better by challenging them, but at the end of the day you can't have any slippage when you don't have any room for error. I think we have some guys right now with great attitudes and our practice habits have been good as any these last few weeks.
"I think one or two wins in this business removes the cloud from over you and the players having experienced some wins down the stretch is a good thing. Confidence is such an amazing thing to watch come and go, and I think right now our team has as much confidence as we have had all season."
IU seemed poised to challenge for a Big Ten title, and more, after its fast start. It had two of the conference's best players in freshman guard Romeo Langford and senior forward Juwan Morgan, a highly regarded newcomer group and plenty of depth and talent.
Then came a series of injuries that sidelined heralded freshman Jerome Hunter, freshman Rob Phinisee, freshman Race Thompson, senior Zach McRoberts and junior De'Ron Davis. Junior Devonte Green was suspended for three games.
As a result, practices were disrupted, confidence faded, team chemistry fractured and effort suffered. Criticism came hard and fast.
This was not what Miller, or anyone in Cream 'n Crimson circles, had expected.
"Every coach sits down at the beginning of the season and says to himself, do we have the ability to do A-B-C," Miller said.
"For us, it was going to be a mesh of a lot of new guys, five freshmen, a grad transfer, second-year returners, and two seniors. How are we going to mesh these guys?
"I think at the front end we saw a good team that we could play a lot different combinations with, but that got derailed with injuries and we weren't able to find that chemistry.
"Now, we have become a deeper team here as of late and we've had some more guys get in the game, which helps with morale. Without question if you've watched us play in the last couple of weeks, you would see a good team that is playing hard. At the end of the year that's all you hope for, making the best out of everything. "
Beyond that, Miller added, it comes down to rebounding and limiting the turnovers.
"Those are the two big things going into the tournament -- you can't control how you shoot or who is injured, but you can control if you're rebounding and not turning it over."
IU's strong finish enabled it to earn a first-day bye in the Big Ten tourney. Still, to win the title and get the automatic NCAA Tournament bid, the Hoosiers will have to win four games in four days.
"It's hard to win that many games in a row," Miller said on his radio show, "but you have to be excited.
"This is a great time of year for college basketball. If you're in that mix, that's where you want to be. That's where we are."
Beyond that, Langford earned second-team All-Big Ten honors and made the conference's all-freshman team after averaging a team-leading 16.6 points, plus 5.3 rebounds. His 68 assists tied Devonte Green for second on the team to Rob Phinisee's 78.
Langford lost out to Michigan's Ignas Brazdeikis for Big Ten freshman of the year.
Morgan made conference honorable mention after averaging 14.8 points and a team-high 8.4 rebounds. He also earned Big Ten player of the week honors after leading the Hoosiers to victories over Illinois and Rutgers while averaging 22.5 points and 8.0 rebounds.
"You couldn't have asked for two better performances from him," Miller said of Morgan. "He was an anchor inside.
"Juwan deserved all conference. I thought Romeo probably should have won freshman of the year based on his numbers, but Michigan had a fantastic year, and (Brazdeikis) was a big difference maker on a team that competed for the Big Ten title. Winning probably helped that cause."
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The bubble looms in all its March Madness misery -- sweating out victories, agonizing over potential NCAA Tournament at-large-bid-costing mid-major conference-tourney upsets (see favorite Wofford holding off UNC-Greensboro in the Southern Conference tourney Monday night) -- and yet this much is certain amid Indiana postseason uncertainty:
Hope lives.
"It's all in front of us," IU coach Archie Miller said.
You'd better believe it is.
The Hoosiers (17-14) opened the regular season 12-2. They ended it 4-0. That 16-2 stretch included six Quad 1 wins with two victories over Big Ten co-champ Michigan State and wins over top-20 Wisconsin and top-25 Marquette.
Only 17 other teams can match or surpass the Hoosiers' Quad 1 victory total, a major factor for the NCAA tourney Selection Committee.
"Our resume speaks loud of what we're capable of doing," Miller said during Monday night's radio show.
In so many ways, the Hoosiers should be a NCAA tourney lock. That they are not is due to a 1-12 run that threatened to ruin everything.
It still might if IU doesn't do something significant in this week's Big Ten tourney at Chicago's United Center. Its first shot comes Thursday against Ohio State (18-13), which returns previously suspended center Kaleb Wesson, who averages 14.6 points and 6.7 rebounds.
The Buckeyes beat IU at Assembly Hall during the regular season, 55-52.
"This is a championship-type game for us," Miller said on his radio show.
IU's late-season surge is due to many factors, including better offense (92 and 89 points in its last two games), improved rebounding, solid defense and reduced turnovers (the Hoosiers had just 13 total in their last two games), but Miller focused on one factor above all others:
"Attitude."
"I think the big thing is focusing on our attitude," he said during Monday's Big Ten teleconference. "There's time where you go on these ups and downs where your attitude is masked by wins and when you lose you see everything so to make the best out of our situation was to collect our attitude as a team.
"Our staff has been willing to embrace guys and make them better by challenging them, but at the end of the day you can't have any slippage when you don't have any room for error. I think we have some guys right now with great attitudes and our practice habits have been good as any these last few weeks.
"I think one or two wins in this business removes the cloud from over you and the players having experienced some wins down the stretch is a good thing. Confidence is such an amazing thing to watch come and go, and I think right now our team has as much confidence as we have had all season."
IU seemed poised to challenge for a Big Ten title, and more, after its fast start. It had two of the conference's best players in freshman guard Romeo Langford and senior forward Juwan Morgan, a highly regarded newcomer group and plenty of depth and talent.
Then came a series of injuries that sidelined heralded freshman Jerome Hunter, freshman Rob Phinisee, freshman Race Thompson, senior Zach McRoberts and junior De'Ron Davis. Junior Devonte Green was suspended for three games.
As a result, practices were disrupted, confidence faded, team chemistry fractured and effort suffered. Criticism came hard and fast.
This was not what Miller, or anyone in Cream 'n Crimson circles, had expected.
"Every coach sits down at the beginning of the season and says to himself, do we have the ability to do A-B-C," Miller said.
"For us, it was going to be a mesh of a lot of new guys, five freshmen, a grad transfer, second-year returners, and two seniors. How are we going to mesh these guys?
"I think at the front end we saw a good team that we could play a lot different combinations with, but that got derailed with injuries and we weren't able to find that chemistry.
"Now, we have become a deeper team here as of late and we've had some more guys get in the game, which helps with morale. Without question if you've watched us play in the last couple of weeks, you would see a good team that is playing hard. At the end of the year that's all you hope for, making the best out of everything. "
Beyond that, Miller added, it comes down to rebounding and limiting the turnovers.
"Those are the two big things going into the tournament -- you can't control how you shoot or who is injured, but you can control if you're rebounding and not turning it over."
IU's strong finish enabled it to earn a first-day bye in the Big Ten tourney. Still, to win the title and get the automatic NCAA Tournament bid, the Hoosiers will have to win four games in four days.
"It's hard to win that many games in a row," Miller said on his radio show, "but you have to be excited.
"This is a great time of year for college basketball. If you're in that mix, that's where you want to be. That's where we are."
Beyond that, Langford earned second-team All-Big Ten honors and made the conference's all-freshman team after averaging a team-leading 16.6 points, plus 5.3 rebounds. His 68 assists tied Devonte Green for second on the team to Rob Phinisee's 78.
Langford lost out to Michigan's Ignas Brazdeikis for Big Ten freshman of the year.
Morgan made conference honorable mention after averaging 14.8 points and a team-high 8.4 rebounds. He also earned Big Ten player of the week honors after leading the Hoosiers to victories over Illinois and Rutgers while averaging 22.5 points and 8.0 rebounds.
"You couldn't have asked for two better performances from him," Miller said of Morgan. "He was an anchor inside.
"Juwan deserved all conference. I thought Romeo probably should have won freshman of the year based on his numbers, but Michigan had a fantastic year, and (Brazdeikis) was a big difference maker on a team that competed for the Big Ten title. Winning probably helped that cause."
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