BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball won’t be going dancing this year.
The Hoosiers (19-13) made a late push to reach the NCAA Tournament by winning five of seven games to close out the regular season. The turnaround started after coach Mike Woodson announced he was stepping down at the end of the season, but it wasn’t enough to earn them a spot in the field.
Woodson was looking to take IU to the tournament for the third time in four seasons, a feat it last accomplished from 2012-16 under former coach Tom Crean.
“I tip my hat to our guys because they could have thrown in the towel and they didn’t,” Woodson said after Indiana’s loss to Oregon in the Big Ten Tournament. “It hasn’t been easy for them based on what we’ve gone through as a team.”
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Indiana went into Selection Sunday with a No. 54 ranking in the NET, 4-13 record against Quad 1 opponents with three of those coming on the road and the 19th hardest schedule in the country. The Hoosiers were among the first four teams out alongside West Virginia, Ohio State and Boise St.
The Hoosiers were the only team in the Big Ten to beat a Michigan State team (No. 11 NET Ranking) that won the regular season conference title at the Breslin Center. They were also perfect (5-0) against Quad 2 teams and didn’t lose to any Quad 3 or 4 opponents.
Texas, Xavier, San Diego St. and North Carolina were the last four teams in the tournament.
They all ranked higher in the NET Rankings, but UNC was just 1-12 against Quad 1 teams and Xavier was just 1-9. The Longhorns had a worse overall record at 19-15 and were 3-5 against Quad 2 opponents, but they went and had seven Quad 1 wins including four teams in the top 20 of the NET.
Indiana came into the season with hopes of competing for a Big Ten title and a deep NCAA Tournament run after assembling one of the most talented transfer classes in the country. The Hoosiers signed three of the top 25 players in the transfer portal — Oumar Ballo (No. 2), Kanaan Carlyle (No. 15) and Myles Rice (No. 14) — per 247 Sports rankings.
It didn’t quite come together as Woodson envisioned and IU’s back-to-back blowout losses to Iowa and Illinois at midseason made him rethink his approach. He mostly abandoned pairing Ballo with fellow big Malik Reneau and put Bloomington South alum Anthony Leal in the starting lineup.
Leal brought some much-needed energy to the floor while Reneau embraced his role coming off the bench to give a scoring punch that was sorely lacking. Woodson also made a point of leaning on Leal, Trey Galloway and Luke Goode in crunch time.
While Woodson tried to make the point that the Hoosiers were peaking at the right time — “I don’t think that there’s a team in the country that we can’t beat if we come ready to play and compete for 40 minutes” — his argument was undercut by a pair of losses to Oregon in recent weeks that would have saved them from being on the bubble and ultimately left them on the outside looking in.
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NCAA Men’s Tournament schedule
- First Four: March 18-19
- First round: March 20-21
- Second round: March 22-23
- Sweet 16: March 27-28
- Elite Eight: March 29-30
- Final Four: April 5 (San Antonio, Texas)
- National championship: April 7 (San Antonio, Texas)
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
