I’ve been saying this for a while, so I might as well blog it: the Indiana Hoosiers are a dangerous basketball team. Men’s or women’s squad, take your pick.
On the heels of the news that former IU women’s coach Jim Izzard committed suicide (Izzard was one of the coaching casualties in the purging that started in the late 90s) came a big upset win over Minnesota in the 2006 Big 10 Championship tourney. IU actually had a long-shot chance at an at-large seed in the NCAA tourney before upsetting the 4th-seeded Gophers. Now, they face hated in-state rival — and former school of new head coach Sharon Versyp — Purdue in a semi-final game today at about 3:30p. This is a rematch of the last biggest game ever for IU, the 2002 conference tourney which was won by a Hoosiers team coached by Kathy Bennett, Versyp’s predecessor. That year, the 5th-seeded Hoosiers beat the Boilers before becoming the lowest seed to win the young tourney the next game. This year, IU is a 6th seed.
The men’s team has been much more visible with all of the attention given to head coach Mike Davis’ resignation scheduled for the end of the current season. When that happens, though, is very much a mystery. With their 2-point road victory over Michigan, these Hoosiers picked up their second conference victory away from Assembly Hall (where they lost once, to Iowa) and — thanks to some other conference collapses in the state to the north — snuck past both Michigan teams to earn a first-round bye in this week’s conferencey tourney. They will play Wisconsin and avoid being in the same side of the bracket as the only team to beat them twice, Iowa. With the tourney returning to Conseco this year (sniffle … I don’t have the money or time to go myself, my first time missing this great event), we’re hopeful the Fieldhouse plays like a home game. This IU team can beat anyone in the conference, so they just need to be “on” this weekend.
