Bubble busted?

CHICAGO - IU coach Mike Davis and the Hoosiers came into the Big Ten Tournament with its NCAA hopes likely hanging in the balance Friday against Minnesota. \nA little more than two hours later, the Hoosiers left disappointed with their NCAA Tournament hopes looking bleak after a 71-55 loss in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tourney\nIU came into the game having split the previous two match-ups with the Gophers. \nAfter the Minnesota victory, the Gophers had beaten IU two of three times. Davis still said, however, that the Hoosiers should be considered for the NCAA Tournament in part because they were seeded fourth in the Big Ten while Minnesota was seeded fifth. \nThe loss wasn't as detrimental to IU's tournament hopes as most people thought, Davis said. \n"If you evaluate it, was it really on the line?" Davis said. "We're too intelligent of a people not to realize that we finished fourth. We won 10, (Minnesota) won 10. Our strength of schedule is pretty good. Let's not let people talk the NCAA up to only taking three or four teams (from the Big Ten). I think we well deserve to go."\nIU and Minnesota both finished 10-6 in the Big Ten -- which was good to tie the teams for fourth place. Coming into the Big Ten Tournament, the Hoosiers were seeded fourth and the Gophers fifth on the strength of owning a 1-0 record against Michigan State. Minnesota lost twice to the Spartans. \nThe Hoosiers record stands, however, at just 15-13 overall while the Gophers improved to 21-9 with the win.\nDavis still lobbied for his Hoosiers -- remaining adamant that IU deserved an NCAA shot after the loss.\nWith Minnesota's second leading scorer, Jeff Hagen, heading to the bench early in the second half and the Hoosiers only trailing by five, IU hoped to capitalize. The Hoosiers responded with a 7-4 run and cut the Gopher lead to 42-40. \nIU had the Gophers on their heels and Hagen on the bench. The Hoosiers couldn't keep the momentum going though. After Minnesota coach Dan Monson called a timeout to regroup, the Gophers went on an 18-5 run.\nFollowing the run, the lead was 60-45 as the Hoosiers' NCAA façade crumbled. \n"We had the lead down to two and then we just let it slip right back to whatever it was," freshman Robert Vaden said. "We've just got to learn that once we get a team down to try and have that killer instinct. I don't think we had that today."\nThe Hoosiers not having it today transformed Davis from coach to lobbyist.\nFour of Minnesota's starters finished in double figures led by junior Vincent Grier's 16 points. The Gophers benefited more from their senior role players chipping in on the scoring. Brent Lawson, who normally averages 6.8 points per game, scored 15 and Aaron Robinson, who normally averages eight ppg, scored 14.\nOn the contrary, the Hoosiers only had two players in double-figures. White finished with 21 and junior Bracey Wright had 14. No one else scored more than eight points. The Hoosiers only had two points from its bench.\nIU had beaten Minnesota by 15 in Bloomington Feb. 12. Almost a month later, the Gophers were the victors by 16.\n"It's real frustrating. The way we played against them in our place -- it was like we were playing a different team," junior Marshall Strickland said. "I guess that's the fun part about college basketball -- on any given day anyone can beat anyone." \nThe Hoosiers will have to wait until Sunday to see who, when, where, and in what postseason tournament IU will hope to be that team that can beat anyone on any given day.\nIf it was up to Davis, the decision would be an easy one. His team would be playing in the NCAA Tournament.\n"We're in fourth place. We are the fourth seed. We won 10 games, you do the math"