Indiana athletic director Fred Glass is pleased with the buzz around his department as the IU Tailgate Tour begins. And that energy was palpable at the tour’s first stop in Fort Wayne on Tuesday.FORT WAYNE – Indiana had just annihilated North Carolina 83-59.
Tar Heels’ coach Roy Williams was asked during his postgame news conference whether he thought Indiana was the No. 1 team in the country.
“I think they are,” Williams said. “The thing I like about them is that they really are a team. They don’t have one guy that beats you up; they beat you up so many different ways.
“ … I definitely do believe that they deserve to be ranked where they are.”
Forty-five voters in The Associated Press men’s basketball poll agreed, as Indiana remained at No. 1 in the rankings released Monday.
Duke is No. 2. The Blue Devils received 20 first-place votes.
I had the Hoosiers at No. 1 and Duke at No. 2 in my ballot.
Duke picked up two more first-place votes from last week.
A case could be made for Duke. The 8-0 Blue Devils have wins against Kentucky, Louisville, Ohio State, Minnesota and VCU.
The Wildcats were No. 3 at the time Duke beat them in Atlanta. The Cardinals were ranked No. 2 when the Blue Devils topped them in the championship at the Battle 4 Atlantis. The Buckeyes were No. 4 when Duke defeated them at Cameron Indoor Stadium last week as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
That’s one impressive résumé.
But Indiana showed on Nov. 27 against North Carolina why it still has the top spot.
The Hoosiers’ 24-point victory against then-No. 14 North Carolina served as a statement. The game went from tied at 31 to over in no time.
Indiana is also 8-0. The Hoosiers have crushed the competition, with a point differential of plus-31.8. Indiana has two wins against teams in this week’s rankings, No. 15 Georgetown and No. 20 North Carolina.
