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Details on Indiana University’s NCAA Tournament draw

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — For the first time since 2016, the Indiana Hoosiers are going dancing.

But, it wasn’t all good news for Indiana Head Coach Mike Woodson on Selection Sunday.

Indiana (20-13, 9-11) earns a 12 seed and will travel to Dayton to meet fellow 12 seed Wyoming (25-8, 13-5) in a NCAA Tournament First Four game on Tuesday night. 

The winner of the game will then travel to Portland to meet the five seed St. Mary’s on Thursday night.

“At the end of the day we’re in, ” Woodson said on Sunday evening. “Got to play the play-in game. That’s my only concern right now. We’ve got to go and start studying, getting ready for Wyoming, and get our guys ready to go tomorrow in practice and get on a plane and head to Dayton to play Wyoming.”

For the Hoosiers, this a daunting draw which includes a 4.5-hour flight from Ohio to Portland for practice on Wednesday if they can knock off Wyoming on Tuesday night. 

“Hey, listen, it’s what it is… we’ve got an opportunity to win a game and advance on,” Woodson said. “This is what you play for. This is what you come to school to be a part of if you’re playing basketball. It’s not going to be hard for me to get these guys to understand what’s at stake here. We’re in the tournament. We want to try to stay in the tournament. That’s what it’s all about.”

On Friday night, the Cowboys fell in the Mountain West Semifinal to eventual conference champion Boise State.

The team is by a pair of impressive scorers, 6-foot-9 forward Graham Ike (19.6 PPG, 9.6 REB) and 6-foot-7 senior guard Hunter Maldonado (18.4 PPG). 

Indiana senior guard Rob Phinisee shared the anxious energy among the Hoosiers as they waited for their bid during the final bracket of the selection show. 

“Yeah, we were super nervous, just super anxious just because we were the last region,” Phinisse said. “Every time a region came up we thought we were going to get chose, so we were the last region, everyone just super anxious about it. But yeah, everyone is just super excited, and now we just have to get right to work and get ready because quick turnaround against Wyoming in Dayton, and guys are just super excited and ready to go.”

Tip-off will be at 9:10 p.m. Tuesday. The game will air on truTV.