Indiana Hoosiers
Record: 25-7 (15-3 Big Ten)
Head Coach: Tom Crean (8th season)
Season Recap: After struggling in nonconference play to open the season and losing games to UNLV, Wake Forest and Duke—by 20 points at Cameron Indoor Stadium—dynamic guard Yogi Ferrell and company caught fire from the perimeter to put together a 12-game winning streak. Big Ten Coach of the Year Tom Crean created a small-ball lineup with four shooters surrounding freshman center Thomas Bryant to produce wins against Maryland, Purdue, Iowa (twice) and Wisconsin en route to the Big Ten regular season title.
Six Hoosiers shoot better than 40 percent from 3-point range—Indiana is No. 7 in basketball statistician Ken Pomeroy's offensive efficiency metric—with Ferrell's 17.0 points and 5.5 assists per game leading the way, but the Hoosiers were bounced in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament on a buzzer-beating triple by Michigan's Kameron Chatman.
How they make a run: Ferrell becomes the next senior point guard to go out on top, knocking down clutch perimeter shots and spreading the ball around to the Hoosier shooters to spark a deep tournament run.
How they falter: With no players averaging more than 5.9 rebounds per contest, Indiana is overwhelmed on the boards and unable to shoot its way out of an early-round loss.
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