‘I don’t think there’s a team in the country that we can’t beat’: Indiana basketball is confident the team deserves a spot in March Madness

Indiana basketball’s elimination from the Big Ten Tournament this afternoon doesn’t quite rule Indiana out of the March Madness Tournament.

Indiana had a strong finish to the regular season, winning five of its final seven conference games, creating a strong case for the team to make a postseason appearance.

Despite dropping its opening round game in the Big Ten conference tournament to Oregon, 72-59, Indiana head coach Mike Woodson believes his team has made a major argument this season to have a spot in March Madness.

“We’re playing some of our best basketball,” Woodson said regarding Indiana’s recent performances. “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… I don’t think today’s game is an indication of how we’ve been playing the last 2 1/2, 3 weeks.”

Woodson isn’t the only person heavily defending the status of Indiana basketball. A handful of Woodson’s players have spoken up on the situation, all agreeing that the committee shouldn’t overlook Indiana.

Similar to Woodson, Trey Galloway voiced his opinion that Indiana’s team has come together as of lately, playing its best basketball when it matters most.

“We know that we should be a tournament team,” Galloway said. “There’s a lot of opportunity for that. I think just those crucial losses that we had that were just so tight, one-possession games. The way we’ve been playing the last month and a half, we’ve been playing like a tournament team. I just think us just coming together and finding ways to get better. We haven’t played our best basketball until now.”

While Indiana did suffer close recent losses to Maryland, #10 Purdue, #24 Michigan and UCLA, the losses all were just by one to two possessions, reflecting Indiana’s true ability to compete against any team.

Luke Goode looked more at the statistical side of Indiana’s season, highlighting an extremely important stat regarding Indiana’s losses.

“We haven’t lost a quad two thru four game all season,” Goode said. “I don’t know when the last time when a team wouldn’t make the tournament with that resume. Regardless of quad one, I think we’ve done enough work here, for sure.”

Indiana’s late season hot stretch in Big Ten play resurfaced the team’s name in postseason talks. Recent ranked victories over #11 Michigan State and #13 Purdue, in addition to pulling off a season sweep against Ohio State, all have played a role in the narrative that Indiana has the talent to compete in the big show.

Goode also factored in how important it was for Indiana to be able to work together and make a late season push, after the team had a bit of a mid-season collapse.

“We kind of got punched in the face and weren’t able to recover and then throughout the season guys were coming and gelling together. I think we’ve really been able to come together and get through adversity. Think about the Purdue game, we were down double-digits at halftime, came back and won by 20. Examples like that are reasons why I think we could make some noise in the tournament.”

Only time will tell for the future of Indiana’s season as Selection Sunday creeps around the corner. The show is set for 6 p.m. ET this Sunday on CBS.

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