Indiana athletic director Fred Glass is pleased with the buzz around his department as the IU Tailgate Tour begins. And that energy was palpable at the tour's first stop in Fort Wayne on Tuesday.CHICAGO – Indiana will have another chance to avenge a regular-season loss in the Big Ten tournament.
Indiana made up for one regular-season loss by knocking off No. 8 seed Illinois (22-12) 80-64 in the quarterfinals Friday. The Illini defeated the Hoosiers 74-72 on Feb. 7.
The No. 1 seed Hoosiers (27-5) will face No. 4 seed Wisconsin (21-11) in the semifinals at 1:40 p.m. today. The Badgers defeated IU 64-59 on Jan. 15.
If revenge is on the Hoosiers’ minds, they were not letting it be public knowledge before the Badgers’ 68-59 win over No. 5 Michigan (26-7) on Friday. Wisconsin is the only Big Ten team Indiana hasn’t defeated this season.
“We are just trying to win,” Indiana guard Jordan Hulls said. “They are both really good teams. We’ve played them before, obviously; we are just going to go from there.”
Indiana has lost its last 11 games against Wisconsin, and the Hoosiers are 0-9 against the Badgers under coach Tom Crean.
Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan dismissed any notion of his program dominating the series recently.
“I never, I don’t know about anything that you’re talking about,” Ryan said.
“What would I know about that? I don’t listen to anything, I don’t go to anything, on my cellphone, you know, you’re looking at a guy that just is looking at film with the sound down, I never listen. And I’m not saying that the announcers should be cut in pay because I don’t listen, I just don’t listen. When they do tapes for me, DVD’s, there’s no sound.
“So when you say anything about records or anything like that, (assistant director of athletic communications) Patrick’s (Herb) the guy that has numbers. I don’t. I don’t even think about those kind of things. Never have.”
The semifinal showdown between the Hoosiers and Badgers pits opposite styles against each other.
Indiana leads the Big Ten in scoring with 80.8 points per game, and the Hoosiers like games with a fast-paced tempo. IU’s offense is led by Cody Zeller, who averages 17 points, and Victor Oladipo (13.7 points per game). Christian Watford (12.4) and Jordan Hulls (10.3) also average double figures in scoring.
Wisconsin is the top defensive team in the Big Ten, giving up 56 points per game.
They score an average of 68.4 points.
Wisconsin’s offense is led by Jared Berggren’s 11.5 points per game, and only Ben Brust (11.3) and Ryan Evans (10.1) also average double figures in scoring.
“I think we just try to get back as fast as possible (on defense),” Brust said. “If we limit them in transition, we think we have a better chance in the half court. We just do our best to get good shots because some bad shots we take lead to long rebounds and run outs for them.”
