Analysis: Setting the table for IU in the B1G Tournament

Iowa looked flat and disinterested Thursday afternoon in a 68-66 loss to Illinois.

Wisconsin couldn’t shoot straight against Nebraska, hitting just 30.2 percent of its shots in a 70-58 loss to the Cornhuskers.

Ohio State was lucky to get away with a victory over Penn State, and Michigan needed overtime to beat Northwestern.

Bottom line: It wasn’t a great day for the favorites Thursday in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

Now, with that as a backdrop, No. 1 seed Indiana will open quarterfinal action on Friday against Michigan. The Wolverines could be playing like a desperate team as Michigan likely needs a victory to have a shot at qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.

Indiana fans are hoping for a rare semifinal appearance in the conference tournament with a victory on Friday against Michigan.

The bigger question for Hoosier fans, though, is whether Indiana can continue to play the way it has in the final five games of the season when it beat Nebraska, Purdue, Illinois, Iowa and Maryland to close out the season?

And IU will need to play well in a conference tournament that has not been a friend over the years.

Indiana will be looking to advance beyond the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament for the first time since 2006. That year, IU beat Wisconsin in the quarterfinals only to lose 52-51 to in the tournament semifinals in Indianapolis.

The last time Indiana advanced to the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament was 2001 when the Hoosiers dropped a 63-61 decision to Iowa.

IU’s all-time record as the No. 1 seed in the tournament is 1-1. The Hoosiers’ all-time record in the Big Ten Tournament is 11-18. Tom Crean is 3-7 in B1G Tournament play.

Here’s something to chew on: Two of the teams that defeated Indiana in Big Ten play lost on Thursday in the second round: Penn State and Wisconsin.

In fact, the Hoosiers are 8-1 this season against the teams still remaining in the conference tournament field. The one loss was to Michigan State, a team that IU couldn’t play until the Sunday tournament championship game.

But first things first. First up is Michigan, a team that Indiana beat 80-67 back on Feb. 2 at the Crisler Center. That was the game where the Hoosiers had that crazy 27-0 run and blew the game open.

Yogi Ferrell had 17 in that game and Robert Johnson had 16. It’s not certain if Johnson will play this time around and the Hoosiers may be holding him out until the NCAA Tournament. OG Anunoby had 11 the first time the teams played, Troy Williams had nine and Nick Zeisloft had eight.

Zak Irvin led Michigan with 16 and Duncan Robinson had 14.

One number that jumped off the statistics page was IU’s ability to control the boards. The Hoosiers outrebounded Michigan 44-30 and had 14 offensive rebounds. IU scored 44 points in the paint and had a 13-6 edge in second chance points.

Thomas Bryant was limited to seven points in 21 minutes the first time the teams played.

This will be a big game for Indiana in that if the Hoosiers can win one would think that they could likely hang on to a No. 3 seed when Selection Sunday comes around this weekend. A quarterfinal loss to Michigan, however, could see IU slip to a No. 4 seed.

What do you think will happen? My guess is that Indiana will prevail by 10-12 points. We’ll see soon enough.