Coach Tom Crean and his eager Indiana players now are at the mercy of the NCAA tournament selection committee after Friday night’s 75-69 loss to Maryland in a Big Ten tournament quarterfinal.
“The bottom line is we hope to be playing in that tournament next week,” said Crean, whose team is 20-13 after the spirited, high-speed contest at the United Center.
“We just went toe-to-toe with the eighth-ranked team in the country. It came down to the very end. I am walking out of here knowing our defense is getting better and our energy is high.”
Indiana played with the requisite sense of urgency, yet Maryland’s backcourt tandem of Dez Wells and Melo Trimble was too much for the Hoosiers.
Wells, a powerfully-built 6-foot-5 senior, collected 22 points and six rebounds as the second-seeded Terps (27-5) advanced to Saturday’s semifinal against Michigan State.
“Dez Wells is not only one of the elite players in our league, he is one of the elite players in the country,” Crean said. “He can score, he can pass, he can drive it. He can defend, he can get out in transition. He makes every one of his teammates better.”
Trimble, a dynamic freshman who was named to the media’s All-Big Ten first team, had 17 points and two steals.
Junior guard Yogi Ferrell led Indiana with 18 points.
“If we are fortunate to make the NCAA tournament, we are going to try to ride with it, these two games (second-round victory over Northwestern) we played here,” Ferrell said. “I like the way we played. I like the way we fought both games, moving the ball, playing great defense, rebounding.”
After shooting 50 percent from the field in the first half, Indiana turned cold in the second, shooting just 22.6 percent (7 of 31), including 3 of 16 from 3-point range after the intermission.
“We do what we do. We played with good poise down the stretch,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said of the Terps’ defense.
Trimble added two steals to his stat line.
“In the second half we were really dialed in on defense,” Trimble said.
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