Indiana Hoosiers: Isn't This Season Too Special to End?

No matter what happens in Atlanta this Friday, the 2011-2012 season will long live in the memories of the Indiana Hoosiers and their fans. If you ask anyone else in the country, the outcome of their re-match against the Kentucky Wildcats has already been determined.

However, with the amount of times Tom Crean and his team have been written off this year, shouldn't they have the final say on when their season comes to an end? Not some so-called "experts" that can't come to grips with the fact that they've been wrong about this team all along.

Though it doesn't seem plausible that Indiana can go onto a neutral floor and knock off the heavily favored Wildcats, the Hoosiers have made a habit of defying logic this year.

From the moment Indiana set foot on the floor in November, you had a feeling that the troubled years were officially behind them.

When all seven feet of prized-freshman Cody Zeller stole the ball and beat everyone down the floor for a coast-to-coast dunk in the season opener against Stony Brook, it seemed his hype was well-deserved. But that was Stony Brook. It certainly wasn't a program-turning win by any stretch.

A few games later, Indiana ran in-state rival Butler off the floor by forcing stop, after stop, after stop in the second half. Doesn't matter, it didn't mean anything, Brad Stevens's team had a quarter of the talent they had last season. Next.

The Hoosiers couldn't even convince their own fan base, let alone anyone else, that they had turned a corner without a legitimate win away from Assembly Hall.

When NC State threw its best punch at IU in Raleigh, putting them down eight with less than eight minutes to play, the Hoosiers were expected to put their tails between their legs and run.

That didn't happen.

What did happen was a 20-7 run that was capped off by an emphatic Victor Oladipo dunk to seal the game, a dunk that I believe is the single moment that announced Indiana's return to basketball relevance.

That announcement was confirmed just a few days later, when the Hoosiers knocked off the aforementioned No. 1-ranked Kentucky Wildcats with a moment that will forever live in the history of Indiana basketball.

And the rest of the season wasn't short on special moments.

Whether it was Verdell Jones' game-winning assist to Victor Oladipo to take down Ohio State, Will Sheehey's gigantic game-changing block of Lewis Jackson and freshman Remy Abell's clutch three in West Lafeyette or Cody Zeller's thunderous steal and dunk in Bloomington against the Spartans—the Hoosiers' did more than enough to silence even their most vocal critics.

Except it still wasn't enough.

Everyone outside of Bloomington believed Indiana had more than earned their selection into the NCAA Tournament, they just shouldn't get too comfortable in their hotel rooms.

If they didn't go down in their first round game to New Mexico State, there was no way they were making it back to the Sweet 16. From the way the Hoosiers were being bashed, it was tough to tell who was the No. 4 seed and who were the No. 12 and No. 13 seeds.

When things started to look bleakest against VCU this past Saturday, the Doug Gotleibs and Seth Davis's of the world sat back and smirked; finally, the doom they predicted for IU was coming to fruition.

However, Will Sheehey was smiling for a different reason.

As he stood in complete seclusion 12 feet away from the basket with time running down, somehow the basketball was making its way into his hands. He knew it, and Indiana fans knew it—there was no way in hell that ball wasn't going in the hoop.

So now, here we are again, another week, and another game where nobody on the planet thinks Indiana can win.

Yes, Kentucky is a near double-digit favorite and they have the Hoosiers severely out-matched at just about every position. Not to mention, every single one of their players remembers exactly what happened in Bloomington just three months ago.

If Indiana follows the script on Friday night, the curtains will draw to a close on their storybook season.

But why start now?

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