Rematch a chance for redemption

IU basketball fans are most likely looking forward to the upcoming spring break -- some time to relax and rest their weak hearts after a season so up and down it could be a new ride at Six Flags.\nA couple of weeks ago, the Hoosiers' tournament hopes were on life support. \nThey limped back into Assembly Hall after losing two of three games on the road (including a 26-point rout at the hand of Illinois) with a 6-7 conference record.\nBut a two-game home-stand quickly mended their losing ways as they beat Iowa and Minnesota to go one game above .500 in the conference. \nThey were finally off the dreaded bubble -- their tickets to the NCAA tournament all but punched. The players, the coaching staff and the fans could all take a collective sigh of relief. \nOr so they thought.\nThe final game of the season sent them to State College, Penn., to take on the lowly Penn State Nittany Lions (7-20, 2-14 Big Ten), and things did not go quite as planned.\n"We definitely underestimated them," senior guard Tom Coverdale said. "For one reason or another, we weren't ready to play as a team and it showed. We thought we were just going to show up and win the game."\nIU (18-11, 8-8) was shocked by Penn State in its season finale last Saturday, losing 74-66 and landing directly back on that bubble. \nThe sigh of relief had been stifled, leaving the Hoosier nation struggling for air heading into the Big Ten conference tournament, which begins today.\nThe Hoosiers earned the sixth-seed for the tourney and will get a rematch with No.11 Penn State today at 5:10 p.m. on ESPN2. Should they win that game, they will face No. 3 Michigan tomorrow night.\nFreshman guard Bracey Wright, who was named third team All-Big Ten and placed on the All-Freshman team earlier this week, said tonight's game is a must-win.\n"Our mind-set is we have to win and that's the bottom line," he said. "If we beat Penn State, that will put us in the tournament. With a win over Michigan, that will definitely shed some light on our season. If we win like we're supposed to and do the things like we're supposed to, we'll be in the tournament. If we don't, we'll be in the NIT."\nOne of the biggest problems the Hoosiers had with the Nittany Lions last weekend was the upstart performance by sophomore forward Jan Jagla, who ended up with 25 points and eight rebounds. Prior to that game, Jagla's career high had been 16 points. \nAnother problem, which head coach Mike Davis cited earlier this week, was the lack of leadership from the team's seniors.\n"When we win, we have guys that are playing with a lot of intensity and when we lose we have guys going through the motions, and there's no life," Davis said. "That's got to come from your seniors. We have freshmen but they can't do it. They haven't seen this level of play and they don't know what to do in certain situations. (The seniors) have got to take responsibility."\nWright emerged as the team's most vocal player at Penn State, scoring 21 points on an Iverson-like 6-20 from the field, dishing seven assists and pulling down 4 rebounds. Afterward, he told reporters there was "no way in hell" the team deserved a tournament berth if it continued to play as flat as it just had. \nIU point guard Marshall Strickland, also a freshman, was the only other player to score in double figures with 12. \nIt has been a recurring theme for the Hoosiers all season -- Davis has pleaded with his seniors to show leadership, to initiate communication on the court, and inspire aggressive play on defense. \nCoverdale said he, along with fellow seniors Jeff Newton and Kyle Hornsby, recognize their roles on the team.\n"We know we're the guys that have to get things going," he said. "That's your job when you're a senior, you have to take the blame for the losses because you've been there and you know what to do."\nHe added that the entire team is ready to prove its critics wrong.\n"Everybody on this team is fed up with people talking about how disappointing we are and how bad we've been," he said. "This is our shot to win the Big Ten tournament and that starts on Thursday"