Indiana Basketball: No Gavitt Games for Hoosiers and what it all means

The Indiana basketball program was not one of the Big Ten schools selected to participate in the 2019 Gavitt Games.

Shockingly enough, the Gavitt Game matchups were released on Tuesday and Indiana basketball was not one of the Big Ten programs slated to participate.

After playing in two of the first three Gavitt Game’s, the Hoosiers will sit this year’s matchup out, leaving a non-conference game open to schedule.

The Gavitt Games, which were established in 2015, are an eight game matchup between the Big Ten conference and Big East conference. The series was named to honor Dave Gavitt, the first commissioner of the Big East.

Indiana (2-1) is one of just four Big Ten schools to have a winning record in the series, including last year’s beatdown of Marquette.

Having non-conference matchups in the Jimmy V Classic against UConn, the Crossroads Classic against a presumed Notre Dame squad, and the home-and-home matchup finale with Arkansas, losing out on another possible big time matchup could prove costly.

While Indiana did damage in the non-conference last season, it was their wins against Louisville, Marquette and Butler that kept them in the at-large discussion for the NCAA Tournament despite their losing strength during Big Ten play.

Though the Big Ten received eight bids to the tournament a season ago, most of those teams finished with a .500 record in the conference but took advantage of their non-conference matchups as well to strengthen their resume.

Now, with another notable game off of their schedule, it could put more pressure on the team to perform in their notable non-conference matchups in order to put themselves in position for postseason play in the NCAA Tournament.