On Sunday IU basketball learned it was not in the NCAA Tournament for the 12th time in the last 21 years the event was held.
Yes, nearly 60% of the time over now more than two decades, the Hoosiers have been on the outside looking in during March Madness, an event that is a favorite for many IU sports fans. More recently, they’ve missed out on six of the last eight NCAA Tournaments.
Now former coach Mike Woodson liked to say his goals were to win Big Ten titles and NCAA Championships.
And the fan base has a reputation for having those high standards. After all, the program made the NCAA Tournament 22 of 23 years from 1980 to 2003. They won two national titles in that span and five overall, but none in nearly 40 years. They’ve won 22 Big Ten titles but none in a decade.
After years upon years of disappointment, most IU fans would be happy with mere relevance, with just a place in the national conversation the vast majority of seasons.
So while the expectations will always be high in Bloomington, the next coach will be greeted by fans who barely know a time when Indiana was a consistent national powerhouse. And they’d be thrilled to just feel like every season presented a chance to do something special. The NCAA Tournament presents that chance.
In some years that might mean Indiana is a legitimate Final Four caliber team, and in others perhaps they might just sneak into the field.
But consistently being among the top 68 teams out of 364 in Division I doesn’t seem like some outlandish standard. The bar isn’t set very high for the next coach.
NCAA COMMITTEE SAYS METRICS SUNK THE HOOSIERS
Indiana was the team everyone was talking about after the 2025 bracket was revealed.
How were the Hoosiers left out? How did North Carolina get in?
WISH News 8 spoke with NCAA Tournament Committee members to get their take.
“They didn’t take advantage of those (Quad 1) opportunities.”
I asked the NCAA Tournament committee what the determining factor was that kept Indiana off the bracket.
Here’s chairman Bubba Cunningham and vice chair Keith Gill’s response.@WISHNews8 | #iubb | #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/vJyBWOLzzb
— Angela Moryan (@AngelaMoryanTV) March 17, 2025
Blowout losses and wins that were closer than expected played a role in Indiana being lower in the metrics than some of the teams they were compared to by the Committee.
Indiana was ranked No. 54 in the final NCAA NET rankings, while North Carolina was No. 36, Texas No. 39, and Xavier No. 45.
For complete coverage of IU basketball, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
