The NCAA Tournament is right around the corner and the Indiana Hoosiers did themselves a big favor as they prepare for the postseason, as they earned a tough victory over Michigan on Sunday to win the Big Ten regular-season title outright for the first time in 20 years.
According to ESPN.com, the Hoosiers held on for a close 72-71 victory after Trey Burke's shot and the rebound put-back fell short. No. 7 Michigan lost to Indiana despite being up by five with a minute left and the Hoosiers were able to take the lead off of a shot by Cody Zeller, who is a candidate for player of the year.
Zeller had a double-double of 25 points and 10 rebounds and helped Indiana improve to 26-5, including 14-4 in the Big Ten, while the Wolverines fell to 25-6 and 12-6 in the conference. The Wolverines had a chance at a tip-in for the win at the end, but the ball rolled off the rim and missed after Burke's desperation attempt.
"We've been working on that all year -- closing out games," said Zeller to the Associated Press.
Indiana dominated Michigan on the boards and clinched the outright title, leaving Ohio State and Michigan State disappointed, as they could have earned a share with a Hoosiers loss. Indiana hasn't won the conference alone since the 1993 season and Michigan was left wondering how they missed out winning the Big Ten for the second straight year.
Following the game, head coach Tom Crean had an explosive exchange with Michigan assistant Jeff Meyer, who used to work for the Hoosiers.
"I'm not talking about any of that," Crean said. "Ask him."
Meyer was with the team during the Kelvin Sampson says and the report says that Crean was restrained by a staff member as the argument went down. Not much could be heard in the video, although Crean said: "you know what you did...you held up the program."
Crean was named the coach following the Sampson years that saw the school accused of four major NCAA violations, including making phone calls to recruits.
Indiana is in a good position to win the Big Ten and there are a number of teams already in the NCAA tournament, including Creighton from the Missouri Valley conference, Liberty from the Big South, Florida Gulf Coast from the Atlantic Sun, Harvard from the Ivy League and Belmont from the Ohio Valley conference
