Indiana not first with powerhouses obstructing path to basketball glory
Nancy Armour
narmour@usatoday.com USA TODAY Sports
DES MOINES Somewhere along the way, Indiana ticked off the college basketball gods. Or at least the selection committee.
Seriously. There’s no other explanation for the nasty road the Hoosiers face if they’re going to win their sixth national title. They already have gotten past Kentucky, their longtime and loathsome rival. Next up is North Carolina, a No. 1 seed as well as a five-time national champ.
Look all the way down Interstate 69, and overall No. 1 seed Kansas looms.
It’s a Who’s Who of college basketball blue bloods, the hardwood version of Murderers’ Row. To which the Hoosiers say, bring it. All of it.
“We have no intention of just showing up in Philadelphia (for the Sweet 16), being there for a few hours, lose and go home. We fully expect to keep going,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said after his team dismantled Kentucky 73-67 on Saturday.
“That’s what this team has done all year. Who we’re going to play, we will figure all that out. There is a real drive for each other. There is a real care for each other, and there is a real desire to get better.
“When you’ve got that, I’ll take our chances with that and let’s go see what happens.”
Sure, it’s easy to say that when you’re still riding the high of a big win. But Crean also has been around long enough to know how the NCAA tournament goes.
The first two days are total mayhem, the equivalent of 4-year-olds having open gym after sucking down a half-dozen Pixy Stix. You know there are going to be upsets, and schools previously unknown outside their ZIP code suddenly are on a first-name basis with the entire country.
But the anarchy is usually short-lived. For every year a Virginia Commonwealth or a Butler makes the Final Four, there are six or seven when it’s a power-conference-only party. By the time the second-round games are over, the party crashers are gone and order has been restored.
Take this year. For as wacky as the Round of 64 was — a record 10 double-digit seeds won games — the next round was disappointingly uneventful.
Three of the No. 1s are alive with Oregon playing late Sunday, but just two double-digit seeds made it to the Sweet 16. One is Gonzaga, which was mis-seeded and no longer qualifies as an outlier, anyway; the other is No. 10 Syracuse, which plays the ’Zags.
The Atlantic Coast Conference set a tournament record with six teams in the Sweet 16.
All of which means, it doesn’t matter which road you take in the NCAA tournament. Every one of them is going to have potholes and speed bumps the closer to the title game you get.
Indiana might have a nasty draw, but Wisconsin had to play North Carolina, Arizona and unbeaten Kentucky on its way to the title game last year. And the Badgers were a top seed! As a No. 7 seed, Connecticut had to get by Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 seeds to win the title in 2014. And on and on and on it goes.
You can be a low seed with a favorable draw or a high one with a minefield. If you don’t play well or make silly mistakes, you’re going to be joining the rest of the country on the couch soon enough. Cough, Michigan State, cough.
If you are playing well, maybe have a player or two who’s hot, you’ll find a way to get by whomever is in front of you.
“It doesn’t matter what seed you are,” said Indiana’s Thomas Bryant, who scored 15 of his 19 points in the last 7:32. “You’ve just got to be ready to play.”
And see where the road takes you.
“We have no intention of just showing up in Philadelphia (for the Sweet 16), being there for a few hours, lose and go home.”
Indiana coach Tom Crean
Go Hoosiers!
http://ee.usatoday.com/subscribers/...doc=USA/2016/03/21&entity=Ar01700&sk=5E0523FA
Nancy Armour
narmour@usatoday.com USA TODAY Sports
DES MOINES Somewhere along the way, Indiana ticked off the college basketball gods. Or at least the selection committee.
Seriously. There’s no other explanation for the nasty road the Hoosiers face if they’re going to win their sixth national title. They already have gotten past Kentucky, their longtime and loathsome rival. Next up is North Carolina, a No. 1 seed as well as a five-time national champ.
Look all the way down Interstate 69, and overall No. 1 seed Kansas looms.
It’s a Who’s Who of college basketball blue bloods, the hardwood version of Murderers’ Row. To which the Hoosiers say, bring it. All of it.
“We have no intention of just showing up in Philadelphia (for the Sweet 16), being there for a few hours, lose and go home. We fully expect to keep going,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said after his team dismantled Kentucky 73-67 on Saturday.
“That’s what this team has done all year. Who we’re going to play, we will figure all that out. There is a real drive for each other. There is a real care for each other, and there is a real desire to get better.
“When you’ve got that, I’ll take our chances with that and let’s go see what happens.”
Sure, it’s easy to say that when you’re still riding the high of a big win. But Crean also has been around long enough to know how the NCAA tournament goes.
The first two days are total mayhem, the equivalent of 4-year-olds having open gym after sucking down a half-dozen Pixy Stix. You know there are going to be upsets, and schools previously unknown outside their ZIP code suddenly are on a first-name basis with the entire country.
But the anarchy is usually short-lived. For every year a Virginia Commonwealth or a Butler makes the Final Four, there are six or seven when it’s a power-conference-only party. By the time the second-round games are over, the party crashers are gone and order has been restored.
Take this year. For as wacky as the Round of 64 was — a record 10 double-digit seeds won games — the next round was disappointingly uneventful.
Three of the No. 1s are alive with Oregon playing late Sunday, but just two double-digit seeds made it to the Sweet 16. One is Gonzaga, which was mis-seeded and no longer qualifies as an outlier, anyway; the other is No. 10 Syracuse, which plays the ’Zags.
The Atlantic Coast Conference set a tournament record with six teams in the Sweet 16.
All of which means, it doesn’t matter which road you take in the NCAA tournament. Every one of them is going to have potholes and speed bumps the closer to the title game you get.
Indiana might have a nasty draw, but Wisconsin had to play North Carolina, Arizona and unbeaten Kentucky on its way to the title game last year. And the Badgers were a top seed! As a No. 7 seed, Connecticut had to get by Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 seeds to win the title in 2014. And on and on and on it goes.
You can be a low seed with a favorable draw or a high one with a minefield. If you don’t play well or make silly mistakes, you’re going to be joining the rest of the country on the couch soon enough. Cough, Michigan State, cough.
If you are playing well, maybe have a player or two who’s hot, you’ll find a way to get by whomever is in front of you.
“It doesn’t matter what seed you are,” said Indiana’s Thomas Bryant, who scored 15 of his 19 points in the last 7:32. “You’ve just got to be ready to play.”
And see where the road takes you.
“We have no intention of just showing up in Philadelphia (for the Sweet 16), being there for a few hours, lose and go home.”
Indiana coach Tom Crean
Go Hoosiers!
http://ee.usatoday.com/subscribers/...doc=USA/2016/03/21&entity=Ar01700&sk=5E0523FA
