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There will be plenty of teams that feel the way the Hoosiers do today, and in the spectrum of "screwed over," the Hoosiers are not exactly the victims of a tragedy. Three losses in your last six games will do that to you, especially when those losses are to bad teams.

But IU as a No. 8 seed? That's just hateful.

Before their last six games, IU had one of the more complete non-conference-champ resumes in the country. During those last six games, the Hoosiers have played ugly, bad basketball, and deserved to have their seed -- which most projected to be a No. 3 or a No. 4 until last week -- lowered. A No. 5? A No. 6? Both would have been fair. They did not, however, deserve to have it lowered to a punishing No. 8 in the same region as the No. 1 overall seed, North Carolina. Even if the Hoosiers somehow survive their tough first-round game against Arkansas, that puts them up against North Carolina in Raleigh, NC. Ouch.

It's entirely possible that the tournament committee sees the Hoosiers as a lame duck team. Under interim coach Dan Dakich, IU has looked about as bad as a tournament team can look, star Eric Gordon has been shedding draft status like DeAndre Thomas sheds preseason waterweight, and discipline problems (most notably with forward Jamarcus Ellis) have undermined what little chance the Hoosiers had of rallying under a new coach. All of that aside, does IU's pre-Sampsonopoclypse record count for nothing? The players are the same, the schemes are generally the same ... it's the same team that went 14-4 in the Big Ten. A loss on a fluky shot by Blake Hoffarbar does not a season negate.

And yet, a No. 8 seed. Apparently, the committee started watching IU two weeks ago.

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