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BLOOMINGTON – Dan Dakich wasn’t surprised. But a whole lot of people certainly are.
Indiana received an eight seed for the NCAA tournament and will face Arkansas in the first round Friday in Raleigh, N.C. IU’s game will follow North Carolina’s game against the winner of Tuesday’s play-in game between Coppin State and Mount St. Mary’s.
Most projections had the Hoosiers (25-7) seeded between fourth and sixth, but IU tumbled after losing three of its last four games.
“It happens,” senior forward D.J. White said. “We’re just happy to be in tournament. You can’t dwell on something like that. There are a lot of teams that didn’t make it. We’re just happy for the opportunity. Going into it, we really didn’t know where we would be because of the early exit from the Big Ten tournament.”
If IU gets past the Razorbacks (22-11), it will likely face top-seeded North Carolina. The Tar Heels (32-2) are the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament and are playing in their backyard and a No. 16 seed has never defeated a No. 1 seed.
Since the seeding process began, the Hoosiers have received an eight or higher seed just three other times.
They were the No. 8 seed in 1990 (lost to California, 65-63), a No. 9 seed in 1995 (lost to Missouri, 65-60) and a No. 8 seed in 1997 (lost to Colorado, 80-62).
“I have a lot of feelings on (the seeding),” Dakich said. “There’s probably a lot more involved in it than winning and losing. But it doesn’t matter, the feelings. We have to play Arkansas on Friday and you have to play well and then you get a game on Sunday. It doesn’t matter what anybody feels. It’s just a matter of what you have to do.
“I’m excited about it. If we’re a good team, you have to beat good teams. We get to go right off the bat against a good team. … You have no alternative but to be excited and ready to go.”
Before the Hoosiers can think about a matchup with North Carolina, they have to get past Arkansas.
This is just the second time the teams have met. IU defeated Arkansas 75-50 on Dec. 15, 1949.
The Razorbacks finished second in the Southeastern Conference’s West division. Arkansas defeated Vanderbilt and Tennessee to reach the SEC tournament final, where it lost to Georgia 66-57.
Eric Gordon and Lance Stemler were among the players who watched that game Sunday afternoon. Neither imagined they were getting an early scouting report on their opponent.
Sonny Weems leads the Razorbacks in scoring, averaging 14.3 points per game going into Sunday’s final.
“I’ll watch (video) until 4 in the morning. I’ll go to Starbucks and get as big a gallon of coffee I can, we’ll sit there and get it figured out so when we come in (today for practice) we’re good to go,” Dakich said.
Much has been made of IU’s play down the stretch.
The Hoosiers suffered a stunning 59-58 loss to Minnesota in Friday’s Big Ten tournament quarterfinal when Blake Hoffarber made a buzzer-beater.
“We lost in the last 20 seconds to Penn State (68-64 in overtime on March 9). We lost in a last-second shot (Friday) against Minnesota. It’s a fine line between winning and losing,” Dakich said. “We’re playing better defense in the last three games than we have all year. If we’re a team that’s supposed to be as good as what we were projected to be, we’ll have a chance to prove it the first weekend.
“If we play the way we are capable of playing, we can play with most anybody. We’ve also proven the other way over the course of 30 games. Guys know the whole survive and advance. Now we have to go prove it.”
lpope@jg.net
