The Indiana basketball team hasn't had a great season this year and they have never really been in consideration for the NCAA Tournament. However, the Hoosiers have now found themselves three wins away from winning the Big Ten Tournament and getting an automatic qualifier. Indiana is playing their best basketball of the season right now as they have won five games in a row, and they just took down Penn State basketball on Thursday in their first Big Ten tourney game.
Indiana and Penn State went right down to the wire as the game was tied at 59 late. The Hoosiers had a chance to win it at the end, and while their play didn't go as planned, it still ended with a bucket and a 61-59 win thanks to a put back from Anthony Leal.
“We had one play for man and one play for zone and they went with man, so we ran that play,” Anthony Leal said to Andy Katz after the game. “It was for X [Xavier Johnson] to come off a screen and make a play, Malik [Reneau] ended up shooting it and I knew that with the shot clock winding down there was a chance that it might come and there might be a rebound. I'm just glad I was there to make a play. … I kinda watched my defender watch the shot so I knew right away that I would be able to get position. I just got lucky enough that the ball bounced where it was supposed to.”
Indiana basketball was without Trey Galloway in this game, and they knew that someone was going to need to step up in his absence. Leal certainly picked up the slack.
“I knew it might not show up on the stat sheet but with him being out there are minutes that are gonna have to played,” Leal said. “I'm just glad that I was able to come in and make a difference that way and ultimately we got the win.”
Indiana's last loss came against Penn State. Their previous loss before that came against Nebraska basketball, and that is who the Hoosiers will play on Thursday. They have revenge on their mind.
“We've got the mindset of revenge these next few games and hopefully we can get things done and play in March Madness, so, we're not done yet,” Leal continued.
It won't be easy, but Indiana has to beat Nebraska to keep their March Madness tourney hopes alive for one more day. Leal knows what they have to do to be able to get it done.
“Stop [Keisei] Tominaga and limit their supporting cast, but ultimately, they've gotta guard us too and we've got two bigs that are playing at an all-conference level so we're just gonna continue to play through them and compete for 40 minutes,” Leal concluded.
The Big Ten Tournament is getting interesting as we are now into the final three rounds and closer to crowning a champion. Indiana and Nebraska will tip at around 9:00 ET on Big Ten Network on Friday night.