Hoosiers hope long shot turns into tourney bid

After defeating Northwestern Wednesday, interim head coach Mike Davis said the Hoosiers can beat any team in the Big Ten. The rest of the league might have something to say about that.\nFirst up for the Hoosiers is conference leader No. 4 Illinois at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in Assembly Hall. \n"My whole point for the last week and a half is to run the table," Davis said. "Our guys know that. We want to win four games for sure, because we want to get in (the NCAA tournament)."\nThen the Hoosiers play Tuesday at second-place Michigan State and next weekend at home against fifth-place Wisconsin.\n"This game is for second place," Davis said. "Saturday will be a really good test for us to see where we are as a basketball team. Right now our guys are playing with a lot of confidence." \nThree weeks ago, the Hoosiers were anything but confident. IU blew a 17-point lead Jan. 27 at Iowa, lowering its Big Ten record to 3-4, making them a long-shot to make the NCAA tournament.Since then, the Hoosiers have reeled off four consecutive victories, including triumphs on the road at Ohio State and Penn State, to improve their record to 7-4 and their standing to third place. IU sits two games behind Illinois. \nFor the Hoosiers to win the league, they would have to win all of their games, and Illinois would have to lose one of its final three games. Such a scenario would result in a tie between the Hoosiers and Illini. If Illinois (20-5) wins three of its next four games, the Illini will automatically clinch at least a tie for the title. If Illinois defeats IU and wins its remaining games, it wins the title outright. \nJunior center Kirk Haston has been a key component of IU's four-game winning streak. In those games he's averaged 24 points. Freshman forward Jared Jeffries has been IU's other consistent threat, averaging 17 points per game. The other member of IU's starting front line, sophomore forward Jeff Newton, played his best game of the season Wednesday night and will be an important factor in Saturday's game.\n"He just gives us a whole new dimension," Haston said. "When we have him going, it just takes a lot of pressure off some of the other guys that we have to rely on some for scoring. We have to get him doing that more consistently. He can just be a phenomenal player."\nIllinois, like IU, has a strong front line.\n"Illinois is very, very physical," said Northwestern coach Bill Carmody, who lost to the Illini 63-49. "They look bigger than these guys."\nIllinois has three players who average at least double-digits per game, including Frank Williams (16), Brian Cook (13) and Cory Bradford (10). Until Tuesday's game against Wisconsin, Bradford had made at least one three-pointer in each of his 88 career games --an NCAA record. The guard went 0-of-6 from the three-point line and scored just two points in the last-second win against the Badgers.