Trayce Jackson-Davis

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WDRB) -- The Big Ten men’s basketball tournament is where Indiana comes to disappear.

It’s where the Hoosiers confirm they are not going to the NCAA Tournament. It’s where they walk off the court to a thunderous chorus of boos and fans demand a coaching change.

With less than 13 minutes to play Thursday afternoon against Michigan, Mike Woodson’s first Indiana team was living up to every bit of the Hoosiers’ dismal pedigree in this tournament. They looked like the teams that Archie Miller and Tom Crean brought here, not a team with the grit to win a game that requires toughness and poise.

They trailed Michigan by 17 points. They were racing toward the NIT and their 10th-consecutive loss to the Wolverines. My sense from the scene inside Gainebridge Fieldhouse was that boos were seconds away.

Then Indiana did what Indiana has never done in this tournament, an event this program has never won. Then Indiana did what Indiana has rarely done this season.

The Hoosiers rallied like crazy and beat Michigan, 74-69.

“We’ve been here and struck out so many times but we were not going to let that happen tonight,” Woodson said.

“You watch a team start coming back, and the one team starts to believe and the other gets defeated,” IU center Trayce Jackson-Davis said. “We believed we were going to win and saw them deflating and deflating and then we finally got back.”

Beat them to loose balls. Beat them into the passing lanes. Beat them at the rim. Beat them at winning time by making free throws and getting defensive stops. Beat them with energy as well as resolve.

Beat them in a way that has a chance to be a culture changer for Indiana. Remember this team was booed off the court in Miller’s final game last season. Remember that Crean’s best team surrendered meekly against Wisconsin in 2013.

“This game was huge for this program,” Woodson said.

Jackson-Davis played like a first-team all-American, outscoring mammoth Michigan center Hunter Dickinson, 19-2, in the second half. He finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and four blocks.

“They were more physical and aggressive than we were,” Dickinson said.

IU point guard Xavier Johnson played with poise and determination, filling the second half box score with nine points, six rebounds and seven assists while directing a defensive effort that squeezed 10 second-half turnovers from the Wolverines. Johnson left little doubt that he was Indiana’s most essential player.

Indiana Athletic Director Scott Dolson is a former IU basketball student manager. I asked Dolson where this victory ranked among IU’s performances in the Big Ten Tournament.

Biggest win since ...

“Maybe ever,” Dolson said.

That makes two of us who believe that.

It put the Hoosiers directly back into the conversation about making the NCAA Tournament. They’re 19-12 with victories over Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame. Not in the field but in the conversation.

It gave the Hoosiers’ spirited national exposure for the manner they rallied against Juwan Howard’s team. Sports highlights’ shows love to show improbable rallies. Indiana outscoring Michigan 9-0, 20-2, 28-4 as well as 31-9 certainly qualifies.

It flushed away some of the residue of the way Indiana stumbled down the stretch against Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin and too many other teams this season.

And it put Indiana in the quarterfinals. They will play Big Ten co-champion Illinois at 11:30 a.m. Friday. Win that one, and Indiana will make the NCAA party. Lose it, and they still might.

“They earned the victory for themselves,” Howard said. “They brought more energy and effort.”

Sources indicate that Woodson might have channeled his inner Bob Knight. Jackson-Davis was outworked and then outscored by Dickinson, 13-5, in the first half. Woodson had a message for him in the locker room.

Not good enough.

“It wasn’t pretty, I’ll tell you that,” Woodson said. “I think Trayce is one of the best players in the Big Ten. He didn’t play that way in the first half.”

“Coach Woodson said that I wasn’t playing up to my capabilities,” Jackson-Davis said. “He also said basketball is a game of two halves.”

Several things changed in the second half. Jackson-Davis played with an edge. Johnson always plays with an edge, but he also played under control.

Woodson shuffled the lineup. He gave more playing time to Jordan Geronimo and Trey Galloway while sitting Race Thompson and Parker Stewart.

Galloway and Geronimo are energy guys. They can extend the defense. Galloway can attack with the basketball. Geronimo plays without fear at either rim.

One team was outscored, 31-9, over the final 13 minutes. The other team will play Indiana in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

“I feel like we’ve learned from our mistakes in the past,” Johnson said. “We want to win this thing and that’s what we plan on doing.”

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