Men's golf looks to secure spot in NCAA Tourney

Following what was deemed a disappointing fall, the IU men's golf team has been on a tear this spring. With five top-three finishes in six events -- including two victories -- IU has put itself in tournament contention. This weekend's Big Ten Championship will be more than a final conference showdown; the winner takes a guaranteed spot in the NCAA tournament. \nIU's victory this past weekend at the Fossum/Spartan Invitational marked only the third win for the program in the tournament's 39-year history. Neither of these two previous winning teams, however, finished its Big Ten schedule with a win at the conference championship. \nFreshman Drew Allenspach led the Hoosiers in the Fossum as he finished in a tie for fourth. He said he thinks that history won't prevent the team from playing well.\n"Last time has nothing to do with this tournament," he said. "I think we have as good of a chance as any to take the Big Ten."\nThis week's Golfweek rankings list four of the conference's 11 teams in the national top 50 with IU rounding out the list at No. 47. Despite only one combined spring win between them, Northwestern, Minnesota and Purdue all rank higher than the Hoosiers. But assistant coach Josh Brewer said IU may actually be the favorite for this weekend, if there is one.\n"Schools are a little bit scared of Indiana right now," he said.\nNorthwestern coach Pat Goss didn't address whether or not his team was "scared" of the Hoosiers, but he did acknowledge their talent and depth.\n"Obviously they have a lot of good players," he said. "All five guys are legitimate players who can contend for the top five."\nGoss also said he felt there was no one team to beat, but he expected the conference's "four best teams" -- who he said were Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue and Northwestern -- to all be competing for the title.\nAll but one of these four teams competed at last weekend's Fossum and each of the three finished in the top five. IU was able to leave East Lansing, Mich., as champion for the second time in three years through what IU coach Mike Mayer referred to as "a great team effort." Freshmen Jorge Campillo and Seth Brandon each held at least a share of medalist honors in the two events prior to last weekend, but the Forest Akers West course proved difficult for them as they tied for 26th and 28th respectively. Such a favorable outcome a second time around seems unlikely, but Brewer believes the Hoosiers can still win even if these two again aren't near the top of the leaderboard.\n"I expect (sophomore) Santiago (Quirarte), I expect Drew, I expect (senior) Brad (Marek) to go play well," he said. "We're the deepest team there."\nFreshmen account for three of the team's five-man lineup and their prominence on the team aided the Hoosiers in their previous No. 1 spot in Golfstat's freshman impact rankings -- only Mississippi State, which plays four freshmen, ranks higher than IU. The young Hoosiers have been able to overcome their lack of experience so far. Now that they're closer to securing an at-large bid after the recent success, one thing the team isn't lacking is determination.\n"Motivation's no problem," Allenspach said.\nThough the automatic NCAA bid would relieve the Hoosiers of any worries on selection day, Brewer said winning the Big Ten Championship should be the Hoosiers' main focus.\n"I was on the last (IU) team that did it," he said. "That will mean more to them 20 years from now (than earning a \nregional bid)"