IU, Minnesota hold on to tourney hopes with today's bubble-busting game

While the IU men's basketball team currently sits atop the NCAA Tournament's bubble, many Hoosier fans and some college basketball analysts predict that a win against Minnesota would get the Hoosiers into the Tournament.\nIU isn't looking at it that way. The Hoosiers just want to get a few wins in the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago and hope everything takes care of itself.\n"It's not really up to us," said freshman Robert Vaden. "It's up to the selection committee. We're just going to try to go into the tournament and get as many wins as possible and see what happens."\nJunior Bracey Wright said he can't really say if beating Minnesota gets the Hoosiers in.\n"I would hope so," Wright said.\nThe Hoosiers currently stand at 15-12. A win against the Gophers Friday would push IU to 16-12 -- with 11 of its 16 wins coming against conference foes. \nESPN's Andy Katz, a college basketball analyst, said on the air Thursday that IU is trying to highlight its conference record.\n"With 10 wins in the Big Ten, (IU) thinks that's a strong case," Katz said on ESPN's "Sportscenter."\nThe ratings percentage index is a statistic the NCAA Selection Committee uses to measure a team's tournament worth. According to www.collegerpi.com, the Hoosiers' RPI currently stands at No. 69. But cbs.sportsline.com has the Hoosiers at No. 42.\nThe selection committee also considers several other factors, but there is one in particular Davis and IU are counting on.\nThat factor is strength of schedule. Davis has pointed out many times that his Hoosiers played four conference season champions in their non-conference slate. Those teams are North Carolina, UConn, Kentucky and Oral Roberts. Of those teams, though, IU went just 1-3 by beating Oral Roberts Dec. 31.\nAccording to cbs.sportsline.com, IU is No. 10 in strength of schedule.\nThe committee also reviews how well a team has performed recently. IU is 6-4 in its past 10 games, but one of those victories came against Michigan State, a team that currently has an RPI of 20 on www.collegerpi.com.\nThe committee also looks at how a team had done on the road and in neutral sites. The Hoosiers are just 3-9 in that distinction. \nMany Hoosiers said they don't pay attention to all of the college basketball prognosticators. \n"If we would've been listening to what everybody was saying, our season could've gone down the drain because everybody would've been talking about coach Davis," Vaden said. "We just try to go play."\nIf the Hoosiers play well and win some games in the Big Ten Tournament, Davis feels they should secure themselves a spot the Big Dance. \n"If things go as planned," he said, "I think we should be ok."\n-- Contact Staff Writer John Rodgers at jprodger@indiana.edu.