Tournament hopes brighten with road wins

For the past several weeks, IU coach Mike Davis has been quick to respond to questions about the NCAA Tournament. No sooner than the question is asked, Davis usually insists that the team is simply focusing on the next game.\nBut after Saturday's road win over Michigan, the question came up again. This time, Davis stood silent -- a little longer than normal -- fighting back a gentle smirk.\n"Well, I am developed as a coach now and I understand you can't say anything about the NCAA Tournament," he said. "They've got a lot of people on the committee that understand that right now we are playing good basketball. So I feel really good about our chances right now, being 9-7 in the league."\nBut then Davis fell back on the company line.\n"I'm not going to say we're in, I'm not going to say we're out," he said. "We've just got to keep playing good basketball."\nGood basketball is precisely what has IU back in the NCAA Tournament, according to many experts. ESPN analysts Jay Bilas and Fran Fraschilla told the Indiana Daily Student Sunday they felt IU had secured itself a bid in the Big Dance, and ESPN "Bracketologist" Joe Lunardi has IU seeded eighth in the Minneapolis region in his most recent bracket.\n"Every win this time of year helps your cause," Bilas said. "I thought Indiana had a really good résumé before the win at Michigan, but that just made it stronger."\nFraschilla likened this year's Hoosier squad to last year's West Virginia team. The Mountaineers entered last February as a mere blip on the tournament radar. But in its final games, the team got hot, made a nice run in the Big East Tournament and came within a couple baskets of a Final Four appearance.\n"They are both teams that play in a competitive league, that have been scratching and clawing for the last month," Fraschilla said. "Those sort of teams are dangerous because of their level of intensity."\nBilas agreed that although the Hoosiers might only secure a middle seed, they should be considered just as dangerous as the higher-seeded teams. \n"They are a major threat," he said. "At times they are very good, but at times they have been very beatable. When they are playing well, there's not a team out there that they can't compete with."\nConsensus among most analysts seems to have IU seeded between seven and 10. As an eight or nine seed, a first-round win would mean a second-round matchup against a top seed. The Hoosiers have already played two of the projected No. 1 seeds, Duke and Connecticut.\nBut Bilas stressed that there is still a lot of basketball to be played. IU will try and help its seeding at 2:30 p.m. Friday when it plays Wisconsin at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. IU lost to Wisconsin earlier this season in the depths of team turmoil surrounding Davis' job security.\nWith a win against Wisconsin, IU could find itself in a second-round rematch against No. 1 seeded Ohio State -- who IU beat earlier this season at home.\nRegardless of how the tournament shakes out, people are starting to take notice of IU's recent resurgence. \n"Some teams are backing their way into an at large, Indiana is playing into one," Fraschilla said. "Indiana seems to be peaking while others are going in the other direction"