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Indiana is about to play its fifth game in seven days when it takes the floor on Thursday night against St. Mary's in the NCAA Tournament. It has had stops in Bloomington, Indianapolis, back to Bloomington, to Dayton and finally Portland.

That in itself is hard enough. Add in a delayed flight following its win in the First Four on Tuesday and not getting into Portland until 6 am PT/local time on Wednesday morning, the Hoosiers will have had less than 36 hours to prepare for the Gaels.

But, at this time of year, Indiana isn't putting much thought into being the 'tired team'. It's ready to compete and keep its season going.

"We think of it as you're going in, maybe you don't get as much sleep as you want, but you're playing one game," IU forward Trayce Jackson-Davis said. "And this one game could be the last game of your season."

As part of the First Four, teams are expected to leave immediately from Dayton and head to the next location. Sometimes it works in your favor, and other times it doesn't.

"I feel like the flight, that still would have been there and carried over. I did think about that. That's tough," UCLA forward Johnny Juzang said about UCLA's travel last year after its win in the First Four. "I thought about some of the First Four teams, they're playing on Tuesday and have to travel across the country to play on Thursday. That does seem tough."

Indiana has essentially been playing 'do-or-die' games for much of the last month. Thursday is just another game with that mindset and both the players and staff understand nothing else matters come game time.

"You don't have time to hone in on how tired your legs are because all you want to do is win that game," Jackson-Davis said. "So it's basically whatever it takes. And maybe our legs are tired, but we're going to play through it and play as hard as we can."

"I mean, you know, yeah, we had a long flight. I get it. Took us a while to get here. But we got here safely," IU head coach Mike Woodson said. "And, you know, this is what we signed up for. We're here to try to win a game, see if we can advance. I don't want to go home, and I hope these guys feel the same way."

With Woodson putting a lot of emphasis on guys stepping up when their names are called, he knows he may need to utilize his bench a little earlier than usual come Thursday.

His starters play heavy minutes and with so many games and travel over the last two weeks, finding the right times to get them rest is key.

"As the game goes on, I coach pretty much by feel. We only had three guys that played over 30 minutes last night. So a lot of guys should be fresh and eager and ready to play is how I look at it," Woodson added. "But I will gauge it as we go along and see how guys are playing on the floor. And if they're not giving me anything, then I've got to go elsewhere to try to find it.

"I think the teams -- when you look at all the good teams in March Madness, everybody wants to win a title. So, really, there is no room to be tired."

Indiana has won three of its last four games, the one loss coming with just over one second left on a near half court heave from Iowa guard Jordan Bohannon in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals.

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