No. 9 Arkansas (22-11) vs. No. 8 Indiana (25-7)

The Hoosiers settled for a No. 8 seed and will face No. 9 Arkansas on Friday in an East Region first-round contest.

Indiana is a 1 1/2-point favorite and the 'total' is hovering around 140 1/2.

Dan Dakich, who played and coached under Bob Knight at Indiana, was named the Hoosiers' interim coach after Kelvin Sampson was fired with five games left in the regular season for recruiting violations. Indiana also endured three player suspensions during the year.

Led by the talented inside-outside combination of senior forward D.J. White and freshman guard Eric Gordon, the Hoosiers (25-7) are capable of making a deep run. But they did not play well at the end of the season as the off-the-court distractions may have caught up to them.

The Hoosiers have dropped three of their last four games, including a crushing 59-58 loss to Minnesota in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament when Blake Hoffarber caught an 80-foot pass and hit a 15-foot jumper at the buzzer.

After the game, Dakich, who will be making his NCAA Tournament coaching debut, needed a pep talk from his brother.

"My brother called me up and said, 'Listen, man, you're the coach at Indiana University taking them to the NCAA tournament.'" Dakich said. "You know what, that is pretty doggone good. I'm fired up. I'm really fired up about it. Like I said, if we're a great team we'll have a chance to prove it."

Arkansas (22-11) also is coming off a disappointing loss, falling to Georgia, 66-57, in the Southeastern Conference championship game.

The Razorbacks finished second in the SEC West in their first season under John Pelphrey. They play solid defense, holding opponents to 41.2 percent shooting.

However, Arkansas has not won won a tournament game since 1999, losing its last four first-round games.

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