Indiana will not be playing any more games this season after being left out of the NCAA Tournament, ending their hopes of making a postseason appearance under retiring coach Mike Woodson.
The Hoosiers (19-13) were among the first four teams to miss the 68-team NCAA field announced on Sunday, alongside Boise State (24-10), West Virginia, and fellow Big Ten team Ohio State. Despite a late-season surge where Indiana won five of its final seven regular-season games, they were eliminated after losing to Oregon in their only Big Ten Tournament game, dashing their hopes of making the tournament.
Woodson, who announced in February that he would step down at the end of the season, has faced criticism over the past two years. Under his leadership, Indiana missed the NCAA Tournament last year after making it in his first two seasons, ending a stretch of four consecutive missed tournaments that dated back to 1968-72.
Boise State, after reaching the Mountain West Conference Tournament championship, failed to earn an NCAA bid. They were defeated 69-56 by Colorado State, who claimed the league’s automatic berth with the victory.
The Broncos had made it to the NCAA Tournament in each of the past three seasons. After the Mountain West Conference title game, 15th-year coach Leon Rice discussed his team’s strong schedule and notable victories this season over Clemson and Saint Mary’s. However, he also expressed disappointment over how the selection committee might view a single loss in November from an early-season tournament, which could have impacted their chances.
Coach Leon Rice expressed frustration over how a single loss in November could impact his team’s NCAA Tournament chances. He pointed out that a last-minute step-back three by Boston College on the third day of a tournament shouldn’t define their season. “When you break it down and say, ‘Well, they’ve got this one bad loss,’ it happened in November with a different team than what we are now,” Rice said. “Being on the bubble is tough—it’s a fine line, and sometimes one shot can decide whether you’re in or out.”
West Virginia (19-13) had six Quad I wins this season but fell short of making the NCAA field after losing to last-place Colorado in their first game of the Big 12 Tournament. This loss kept the Mountaineers from becoming the eighth team from the Big 12 to earn an NCAA bid.
First-year Mountaineers coach Darian DeVries expressed shock, sadness, and disappointment after his team was not selected for the NCAA Tournament. “We strongly believe that our resume deserves a spot in the tournament,” he said.
For much of the season, the Mountaineers were without Tucker DeVries, the coach’s son, who averaged 14.9 points and 4.9 rebounds in his eight starts before suffering an upper-body injury that required surgery. The father-son duo had come from Drake, where Tucker was a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year.
Bubba Cunningham, the athletic director at North Carolina and chairman of the NCAA Tournament selection committee, referenced Tucker DeVries’ injury when discussing the teams that were just left out of the tournament. “The last four teams that were out was a tough call. West Virginia had an outstanding year, and knowing that Tucker DeVries was hurt, player availability is something we talk about quite a bit,” Cunningham said during the Selection Show. “Indiana was close, Ohio State was close, Boise was close.”
Ohio State, like West Virginia, had six Quad I wins but struggled down the stretch, losing five of their last seven games. As a result, the Buckeyes missed the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row, a streak they haven’t had since 2003-05.
Wake Forest (21-11) declined an invitation to play in the 32-team National Invitation Tournament after recently celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 2000 NIT championship. The Demon Deacons haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2017, but athletic director John Currie highlighted their strong 13-7 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference, which earned them a fourth-place finish, their best since 2009. He also pointed out their 86 wins over the last four seasons, a significant improvement from the 12-win average of the previous 11 years.
“I deeply respect how difficult it is for the NCAA Tournament selection committee to choose from 332 teams for just 37 at-large spots,” Currie said. “However, the rationale behind selecting six teams with losing conference records to fill 16% of those at-large spots doesn’t make sense to me.”
