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Miller Hoosiers determined to make most of NIT after NCAA disappointment
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Mar
Mar
Miller Hoosiers determined to make most of NIT after NCAA disappointment
Last weekend, during his wait to see where in the postseason his IU career would end, Juwan Morgan found himself watching the Hoosiers’ 2017 NIT loss at Georgia Tech.
He wasn’t sure quite why. He’d been discussing a no-look pass he threw in that game with former teammate OG Anunoby, so he flipped it on, and once he started, he didn’t stop.
“It sucked,” Morgan said, recalling that loss. “It was terrible to go out that way, especially how we started out that season. It just hurt.”
Morgan could be forgiven for seeing this season, his last in college, in much the same light — a 12-2 start giving way to a dismal January, and a late-season surge not proving enough to squeeze the Hoosiers into the NCAA tournament for the first time in three years.
Instead, IU’s senior captain was the one issuing rallying cries Monday, little more than 24 hours before his team opens NIT play against No. 8 seed Saint Francis (Pa.) at home. This isn’t where he wanted to be in March 2019, but Morgan is determined to make the best of it.
“I can use it as a lot of motivation, just echoing to all the guys, making sure they don’t feel what I felt then,” Morgan said, referring to his previous NIT experience. “Even though it’s not where we wanted to be, we can still make something special out of this.”
Will No. 1-seeded Indiana follow Morgan’s lead one more time?
The Red Flash, regular-season Northeast Conference champions, come to Bloomington for Tuesday’s 7 p.m. tipoff the third-lowest ranked team on IU’s schedule this season, according to Ken Pomeroy. At No. 261 nationally, they sit ahead of only Chicago State and Central Arkansas in that metric.
The Hoosiers are a 20-point favorite in Pomeroy’s projections, and opened as a 19-point betting favorite, according to VegasInsider.com.
Despite Saint Francis’ prolific backcourt and penchant for offensive rebounding, an IU win Tuesday isn’t just expected, but overwhelmingly so.
The primary question revolving around Indiana, therefore, isn’t one of capability, but of motivation. After the emotional toll of a season of wild mood swings and the disappointment of selection Sunday, how much will the NIT mean to this team?
“Our message is at the end of the day, if you have an opportunity to put an Indiana jersey on, you better be ready to play,” IU coach Archie Miller said Monday. “For us, obviously there’s disappointment, but at the same time there’s also opportunity. We need to focus in on the opportunity, then we need to be ready to go.”
Miller hit the right notes Monday, when asked about the NCAA tournament selection committee’s decision to exclude IU.
He didn’t blame scheduling concerns, or the Big Ten’s move to a 20-game league slate. All responsibility was directed inward.
“Our nonconference schedule and our schedule in general was clearly not our problem. Winning the games that we needed to win was the problem,” he said. “If you win a couple more games here or there, maybe just one more, we’re not talking about nonconference scheduling.”
The Hoosiers still weren’t far from the field of 68. The committee slotted them in among its first four teams out of the NCAA tournament, automatically handing IU a No. 1 seed in the NIT.
That means Miller’s team will play at home as far as the quarterfinal, should the Hoosiers keep winning. The NIT semifinals and final are staged annually at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Which in turn means Romeo Langford might yet see the Assembly Hall floor again, even if this proves to be his only season of college basketball.
Langford was firm Thursday, after his team’s Big Ten tournament loss to Ohio State, that he wouldn’t dodge the NIT to prepare for the NBA draft.
Asked specifically if he would play in the NIT, Langord said: “Yeah, I will.”
“I’m not too worried about my future,” he said. “I’m worried about this team and what’s gonna happen next for us.”
Miller reiterated Monday that Langford will play if available, though the freshman guard remains day-to-day with a back problem suffered against Ohio State that at one point forced Langford to return to Indiana’s locker room.
“He tweaked his back in the first eight minutes of the Ohio State game. Has struggled with some soreness, really uncomfortable. … It’s something that he’s had a lot of treatment on in the last three days,” Miller said. “But Romeo isn’t shutting anything down. Romeo has been basically practicing every single day all season long to this point. I think he’s hopeful he can get back, and back onto the floor.”
If Langford is healthy enough to play, then Indiana will be as full strength as possible heading into Tuesday’s opener.
Win one or two games, and the prospect of a trip to New York — and the possibility of salvaging something meaningful from a disappointing season — begins to grow.
Everyone occupying the north side of Cook Hall sent a unified message Monday: They’re disappointed not to be playing in the NCAA tournament, but they’re ready to make the most of their opportunity in the NIT.
Now, the Hoosiers just need to walk that walk.
“We play,” Miller said, “to win on Tuesday.”
