Hoosiers bounce back after Big Ten tourney

ATLANTA -- Senior Dane Fife sat with a stoic look on his face, looking straight ahead from the seat in front of his locker, still in his uniform 30 minutes after the game with Iowa had ended. Junior Kyle Hornsby was two lockers to Fife's right and in the same position.\nIn an adjoining room, IU coach Mike Davis was sprawled on the floor with his head on his chest and his hands on the back of his head as he and the rest of the IU coaches tried to figure out what had just gone wrong.\nWhat had happened was the Hoosiers had blown another close game, this time in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis March 7. A 15-foot, off balance jumper by Luke Recker as time expired sent Iowa into the tournament finals with a 62-60 win against the Hoosiers.\nIU had lost to Iowa two straight years in the Big Ten Tournament and each loss has been by two points. But the more disturbing trend is how the Hoosiers had continued to have trouble closing out tough games.\n"We have a nice lead going into the last minute, minute and a half and one way or another we find a way to lose games," Fife said. "We better learn how to win those games or it's going to be another one and done (in the NCAA Tournament)."\nJust over three weeks later, the Hoosiers are playing for the national championship against Maryland tonight. The reputation began to be solidified that IU could not close out tough games. At that point, the Hoosiers were 1-5 when a game is decided by less than three points.\nIU has come a long way since then. After cruising past Utah in the first round, the Hoosiers held off UNC-Wilmington late in the second half. And IU looked like a group of world beaters as the Hoosiers rallied and held on for a 74-73 win against No.1 Duke March 21. \nIU held on to its lead to knock off Kent State and the Hoosiers hit their free throws to close out Oklahoma Saturday night.\nAll this success has come on the heels of a recent history IU would like to forget. After a similar loss to the Hawkeyes last year, the Hoosiers bowed out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round to Kent State.\n"I just remember sitting there and thinking that this can't be happening again," Hornsby recalled Sunday. "We all talked about that. There was no reason we shouldn't go further."\nThe fear of following a tough Big Ten tournament loss with another first round exit in the NCAAs apparently has scared the Hoosiers into shape.\n"It was a tough loss, but it might have been a blessing in disguise for the simple fact that we could come into the tournament a little bit more fresh," senior Jarrad Odle said. "Every loss we've had this year, we've learned from. \n"On the bus ride (after the Iowa loss), we always discuss games whether we win or lose. We were very upset, but we knew five days later we'd be playing in the NCAA Tournament. We had to take care of things from there. We knew what our goal was."\nMore than anything, the Hoosiers have taken the lessons learned from painful losses and have parlayed those experiences into a trip to the national title game. \nAfter the loss to the Hawkeyes, sophomore Jared Jeffries said the Hoosiers are a different team from last year and a first round loss should not be expected.\n"Hopefully we're strong enough mentally to put this game behind us and don't worry about it. It's by no means the end of our season," Jeffries said after the Iowa loss. "I know the coaches aren't going to let this ruin the rest of our season. \n"You have to look within this team and find strength in each other. We're going to be able to bounce back from this and keep playing."\nObviously, the Hoosiers have some strength.\n"We're just more experienced than we were last year. We've learned from our mistakes," junior Tom Coverdale said. "When we started out 7-5 at the beginning of the year we learned from a lot of our mistakes. We've been through so many tough games that after we lost, we knew how to bounce back and stay on track"