Northwestern University Athletics

Wildcats Face Hoosiers in Big Ten Tournament Opener
3/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
| Big Ten Tournament - Northwestern (15-16) vs. Indiana (19-12) |
|
| Date | Thursday, March 12 | 5:30 p.m. |
| Location | United Center | Chicago, Ill. |
| Watch | ESPN2 (Mike Tirico, Dan Dakich, Quint Kessenich) |
| Listen | ESPN 1000 and wgnradio.com (Dave Eanet and Joey Meyer) |
| Live Stats | |
| Tournament Website | BigTen.org |
| Social Media | @NUMensBball |
| Game Notes | Northwestern | Indiana |
| |
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Tenth-seeded Northwestern opens up Big Ten tournament play at 5:30 p.m. Thursday when it takes on seventh-seeded Indiana at United Center in Chicago.
The contest is being televised by ESPN2 and can be heard on ESPN 1000.
The winner of Thursday's contest between the Wildcats and the Hoosiers will face second-seeded Maryland in the quarterfinal round at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The semifinal round is scheduled for Saturday while the championship game is being played Sunday.
NU finished tied with Minnesota for 10th place in the Big Ten during the regular season but earned the 10 seed thanks to a head-to-head victory over the Golden Gophers during the only matchup between the teams this season.
Redshirt junior guard Tre Demps (consensus) and junior center Alex Olah (media) were named honorable mention All-Big Ten selections, while guard Bryant McIntosh was selected to the five-member Big Ten All-Freshman Team when the squads were announced Monday.
The Wildcats dropped their regular-season finale 69-52 at Iowa on Saturday. Demps led NU with 15 points, including becoming the 32nd player in school history to surpass 1,00 career points. Olah grabbed 10 rebounds for his 10th double-digit rebounding game of the season.
Northwestern defeated Indiana 72-65 Feb. 25 in Evanston in the lone meeting between the teams this season. The Wildcats have won eight of their last 12 meetings with Indiana over the last seven seasons. The teams have met once before in the Big Ten tournament with the 'Cats earning a 73-58 win March 11, 2010 in Indianapolis.
Northwestern was seeded 11th in last year's Big Ten tournament and upset sixth-seeded Iowa in the first round before falling to third-seeded Michigan State in the quarterfinals.
Scouting Indiana
The Hoosiers dropped four of their last five games to wrap up the regular season, including a 74-72 home decision to Michigan State on Saturday. Yogi Ferrell led Indiana with 21 points while Nick Zeisloft and James Blackmon Jr. added 17 apiece.
Ferrell, a first-team All-Big Ten selection, leads IU with averages of 16.0 points and 5.0 assists per game. Indiana ranks first in the Big Ten in scoring average (78.0 ppg), 3-point field goal percentage (.410) and 3-point field goals per contest (9.4).
Tom Crean has a 120-109 record in seven seasons as the head coach at Indiana and a 310-205 career record as a head coach.
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