Column: Is IU ready for the Tournament?

The NCAA tournament is here.

The question is: Are the Hoosiers ready to play their best basketball for it?

“That’s an awful tough question when you get beat today like this, but if you asked me the question yesterday, I probably would have had a different answer,” said IU Coach Tom Crean after losing to Wisconsin 68-56 Saturday.

“But we didn’t play as well today, so it’s just a matter of going and looking at the film, making the corrections that we need to make and moving forward.”

After throttling Illinois with an all-out offense Friday, the Hoosiers could not generate enough offense to answer the runs of the pace-draining Badgers.

As a result, IU has now fallen to 3-3 in its final six games and will be playing in the East region, first in Dayton, Ohio, and then possibly Washington, D.C.

Throughout the season, the Hoosiers have looked as close to untouchable as a team playing in the Big Ten could look.

They had their big, primetime moments against North Carolina, Georgetown, Michigan and Michigan State.

But during the last three weeks, opponents look as if they have figured out how to stop the Big Red machine.

So how much stock should be put into IU’s struggles over the last three weeks?

“Not too much because we’ve played some really good games in there,” sophomore forward Cody Zeller said. “We just have to learn from our mistakes that we made in those losses. You know, make those corrections and start the new season next week.”

The new season that Zeller is talking about — the NCAA Tournament — is always the season that great teams are judged by.

Last year, Kentucky was upset in the SEC tournament by Vanderbilt before going on to win it all.

Not many people are going to remember that 25-11 Commodores team.

In 2009, the North Carolina Tar Heels lost to Florida State in the semifinals of the ACC Championships, but after the passage of time, they are remembered for their 89-72 beat-down of Michigan State in the national championship game.

These recent examples prove that IU’s loss in the Big Ten Tournament isn’t the end of the world towards the overall goal of winning the NCAA Tournament, but you have to believe the team’s confidence won’t be as high entering the big dance as it would have been had they won the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.

“I think our confidence will be better in my opinion,” freshman guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell said. “I felt like we’ve bounced back after losses very well, but that comes with the preparation and the practice that we do before our next game.”

Out of all of the No. 1 and 2 seeds in the field, only the Hoosiers, Duke Blue Devils and Gonzaga Bulldogs have gone the entire season without back-to-back losses.

The next week, it will be back to the drawing boards for the first game back after a loss.

A No. 1 seed has never lost to a No. 16 seed, so odds are IU will finish the season without ever losing back-to-back games.

But maybe that loss over the weekend in Chicago will prove to be the best thing that could have happened to IU before preparing to make a potential run into the history books.

It is the last wake-up call before a loss means your season is over.

In a season where “elite” teams have lost left and right, overconfidence could be a hazard in the win-or-go-home scenario that is March Madness.

More than any other in recent memory, this season is about staying humble as a team.

Instead of playing in the Midwest Region as the No. 1 overall seed, the Hoosiers will have to pack up their suitcases early to become road warriors if their road will lead to the Final Four in Atlanta.

Nothing has come easy for Crean’s crew on their road back to national relevance and to the top of the Big Ten, so why should things start becoming easy now?

“That’s okay, we’re better on the road,” said senior forward Christian Watford. “Look at our record. We wouldn’t want anything to be easy.”

Ready or not, now is the time for the Hoosiers to show the blips on the schedule were nothing more than stepping-stones along the path to NCAA Tournament success.

That journey begins Friday in Dayton.

— mdnorman@indiana.edu