Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball and recruiting coverage. Sign up with TheHoosier.com here.

Indiana faces Rutgers on Wednesday which is essentially going to be a play-in game for the NCAA Tournament. Both teams currently sit on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament and have had inconsistent play over the last month causing concern around both programs making it in the tournament.

Indiana is 18-10 (9-9) on the season while Rutgers is 16-12 (10-8). Both programs have multiple ranked wins on the season, but some poor losses earlier in the season.

For this Indiana group, not one single player has reached an NCAA Tournament during their tenure, that includes the entire group that transferred to Indiana before this season. Wednesday's matchup could be a turning point in determining if this group will end that six-year streak and get back into the field of 68.

“I know I’ve never been in the NCAA Tournament, and no one on the team has been there," Rob Phinisee said on Tuesday. "So, we’ve just been locked in and I’m just trying to carry this two game winning streak and keep winning."

The Hoosiers are currently riding a two-game winning streak after suffering five straight losses in February. Their resume has wins such as then-No. 13 Ohio State, No. 4 Purdue and what has now turned out to be a tournament team in Notre Dame in the non-conference. But, it's the blown leads that have cost Indiana a chance at a much more comfortable feeling heading down the stretch.

Indiana blew big leads in games against Wisconsin, both at home and on the road, Ohio State on the road and Iowa on the road. There were also some bad losses to Syracuse, Penn State and Northwestern. Despite all of that, IU has a shot to put the discussion to rest on Wednesday.

“We definitely see it," Phinisee said of bracketology talk. "We send things in a group message just like a motivation type of thing, that we have to lock in if we really make the tournaments for everything."

For head coach Mike Woodson, he knows what it takes from his team to get to the NCAA Tournament, but he also knows that he has to play an even bigger part in helping this roster get there -- especially in games like Wednesday night.

"These guys, they do not know what it feels like to make the NCAA Tournament and really compete for a Big Ten title," Woodson previously said. "They do not understand that yet.

"The only thing that is going to help is winning... When you have a bunch of guys that have never won, the mental thing starts to play a role. It is my job to ease that."

For Rutgers, a team that has been up-and-down as much as anyone this season, it comes in on a three-game skid after winning four straight games against top-25 teams. It was the first time in NCAA history that an unranked team accomplished that.

"At the end of the day, we know what's staring us in the face," Woodson said. "Rutgers is next and we have to win another game. It's that simple... we have to come and commit for 40 minutes."

“We just have to take it game-by-game at this point. So, every game really matters," Phinisee added. "We just have to focus in on the scout and just make sure we’re locked in on what the coaches tell us to do.”

That one game mentality will be put to the test on Wednesday as Indiana looks to cement its spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016.

----

• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals

• Like us on Facebook.