Survival in NCAA Tournament Won't Be Easy For Indiana Hoosiers

Of all the No. 1 seeds, the Indiana Hoosiers are probably standing on the thinnest sheet of ice.

Indiana suffered a couple of tough losses down the stretch and struggled mightily on offense in its Big Ten tournament semifinal loss to Wisconsin on Saturday.

I understand the Hoosiers were a preseason No. 1 and that perhaps the committee almost feels obligated to give Indiana a top seed. Plus, I guess you can’t go through a whole season hearing how great the Big Ten is and then not have a  No. 1 seed come out of that conference.

Still, I wonder about Indiana. I wonder if it has what it takes from a mental standpoint to survive the next three weeks of the tournament and win the national championship that it seemed destined for when this year began.

Indiana is going to have to get its act together in a hurry if its going to live up to the hype.

The Hoosiers are going to need Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo to play up to their potential. Anything less than great efforts from those two will leave Indiana on the short end of the stick at some point before the Final Four.

You figure at least two of the No. 1 seeds are going down before Atlanta. My money is on the Hoosiers being one of those teams. I just think that once you lose a bit of momentum near the end of the year, it’s difficult to get it back.

Only time will tell if the Hoosiers can recover and salvage their season of high expectations.

Brian Lester is a college basketball writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @BLester1993.