Hoosiers need Big Ten wins for postseason

The IU women’s basketball team’s NCAA Tournament hopes have become simple — win the Big Ten Tournament and the Hoosiers are in.

The Hoosiers (18-11, 5-11) will need to win the Big Ten Tournament, which starts today against Michigan, in order to claim an automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament.

Entering the conference tournament as a No. 10 seed, IU is a longshot to win the Big Ten title and clinch the automatic berth. But IU Coach Curt Miller said his team is preparing to compete for the championship until the end.

“We’re not packing for one day,” Miller said Monday on his weekly radio show. “We’re packing for a long stay up there, and that’s what we’re going up there to do.”

IU is 14-18 all-time in the Big Ten Tournament and last won the tournament in 2002 as a No. 5 seed. The Hoosiers knocked off No. 4 Iowa, No. 1 Purdue and No. 2 Penn State en route to winning the conference crown.

IU’s immediate path to the tournament finals this season is not much easier. IU plays No. 7 Michigan at 6:30 tonight for a chance to play No. 2 Michigan State tomorrow.

The Hoosiers have not made it past the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament since 2009. Graduate student Sasha Chaplin is the only current Hoosier who was on that team, so experience will be at a premium.

Winning will require the Hoosiers to claim four wins in four days. Because of the grind of compact tournament format, senior center Simone Deloach said mental clarity will be the key for stringing together wins.

“(We) just gotta stay focused,” Deloach said. “Of course, we’ve got to take it one game at a time, but definitely the focus has to be there.”

IU starts three freshmen guards — Larryn Brooks, Alexis Gassion and Taylor Agler — who will all be making their first appearances in the Big Ten Tournament. The trio headline a freshman class that accounts for 60 percent of IU’s scoring this season.

Because of the level of inexperience, Deloach said the upperclassmen are trying to use their past experiences to prepare the younger kids for postseason play.

Brooks, named Second-Team All-Big Ten on Monday, expects some of the toughest games IU has played yet. The Hoosiers’ leading scorer with 5.9 points per game, Brooks said IU will need to prepare to face adversity.

“Everybody wants to be playing their best basketball,” she said. “We just gotta keep our heads when we get down.”

The Hoosiers look to quickly rebound after suffering a 20-point blowout loss to Michigan State last Sunday.

Although the No. 10 seeded Hoosiers will be underdogs, Brooks said she and her teammates are ready to make a run.

“I feel like this whole season, we’ve just kind of been up and down,” Brooks said. “We just want to be playing our best basketball in March. We know what we have to do to get to the tournament. We just want to make a big run.”