Indiana Basketball: Taking the next step (and a little history lesson, too)
Since 1995, Indiana Basketball has been to the NCAA tournament 13 times including this season.
Care to guess how many times IU has advanced to the Sweet 16 in those previous 12 tries?
The answer is once. The 2002 run to the national championship game is the only time since '95 that IU has been to the Sweet 16 or beyond.
and the Indiana basketball team are out to turn things around. And they hope to take the next step today:
Getting Indiana to the Sweet 16 and a possible rematch with No. 1 Kentucky or perhaps a game against No. 8 Iowa State.
"This is what you look forward to all season,'' Zeller said Friday. "We know if we play well, and play our kind of game we have a chance to advance. And really that's the only thing on our minds.''
Derek Elston
said the Hoosiers are very focused. He said the trip to Portland has been like a business trip. Elston said he knows that VCU is a quality opponent and he knows what the Rams accomplished last year but he said Indiana is trying to put together a run of its own in 2012.
"I think we have a lot of confidence right now and we're trying to build on that,'' Elston said. "We really only think about one opponent at a time and that's what we've done since we've been here.''
In the 13 NCAA tournament appearances since 1995, IU has won its first game seven times including this year. So in five of the last six Game 2's, the Hoosiers have come out on the losing end. One thing to note, however, is that this will be the best seed that IU has had in that span heading into the game with a Sweet 16 spot on the line.
Want to take a quick look back at some IU NCAA tournament history? Here's how the Hoosiers have fared since 1995:
From 1995-97, Indiana made three NCAA trips and got knocked out in the first round all three times. In '95, No. 9 seed IU lost to No. 8 Missouri, 65-60. In '96, the No. 6 seed Hoosiers lost to No. 11 Boston College 64-51. In '97, No. 8 seed Indiana lost to No. 9 Colorado 80-62.
In 1998 and again in 1999, IU advanced to the second game of the NCAA Tournament. In '98, the No. 7 seed Hoosiers beat No. 10 Oklahoma 94-87. Second-seeded Connecticut then ended Indiana's season with a 78-61 win. The next year, as the No. 6 seed, IU beat No. 11 George Washington 108-88. Third-seeded St. John's then knocked off IU 86-61 in what would be Bob Knight
's final trip to the NCAA second game in his time at IU.
The next year, which would turn out to be Knight's final season, the sixth-seeded Hoosiers got clobbered by Pepperdine 77-57 in Buffalo, N.Y.
That ushered in the Mike Davis
era. In Davis's interim season as the IU head coach, Indiana earned a No. 4 seed but lost in the first round to Kent State, 77-73. The next year was the magical one for the Hoosiers. The No. 5 seed, IU beat Utah by 19 in the opener and then played No. 13 seed UNC Wilmington in the second game. IU won that 76-67. It was then off to Lexington for the Sweet 16 where IU beat No. 1 Duke 74-73 before taking down Kent State 81-69 to reach the Final Four. There, in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, IU beat Oklahoma 73-64 before falling in the national championship game to Maryland, 64-52.
In 2003, IU had a No. 7 seed and opened with a 67-62 win over Alabama. The next game, though, Indiana fell to Pittsburgh 74-52. The Panthers were the No. 2 seed.
After two years out of the NCAA tournament, IU returned in 2006 as a No. 6 seed. It beat San Diego State in the first game, 87-83 before losing to Gonzaga 90-80 in Salt Lake City.
Under Kelvin Sampson
in 2007, the No. 7 seed Hoosiers beat Gonzaga in the first game before losing to UCLA in the second.
IU's final NCAA appearance before this one was in 2008 when Dan Dakich
led the Hoosiers, the No. 8 seed, against No. 9 Arkansas. The Hogs prevailed 86-72.
That leads us to today when No. 4 seed Indiana will take on No. 12 seed VCU.
Are the 2012 Hoosiers ready to take a step that only one team has made since 1995? We're about to find out.