By Terry Hutchens
The Indianapolis Star

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - As the Indiana-Alabama first round NCAA basketball tournament pairing was announced Sunday night, the first scream from the back of the room belonged to Tamilya Davis.

Standing in her kitchen among friends and family, the wife of Indiana University basketball coach Mike Davis could be heard above the roar from the IU players when they learned they had earned a No. 7 seed and would be playing the Crimson Tide Friday in Boston.

Tamilya Davis said she couldn't believe IU would be paired against her husband's alma mater.

"I was in shock for a second," Tamilya said.

IU's selection as an at-large team means that the Hoosiers have qualified for the NCAA tournament for the 18th consecutive season. In that span, IU has never received worse than a No. 9 seed.

The only other time IU was seeded seventh was 1998, when the Hoosiers defeated Oklahoma in the first round before losing to Connecticut.

Last year, IU rode a fifth seed to the NCAA championship game before losing to Maryland.

IU coach Mike Davis said he was surprised that Alabama was a No. 10 seed.

"Out of all the No. 10 seeds and all the No. 7s, who would have thought you'd end up with Indiana and Alabama?" he said.

The matchup makes for an intriguing first round game. Alabama (17-11) was ranked No. 1 in the nation early. The Tide opened the year 9-0. They struggled, however, in conference play with a 7-9 record in the Southeastern Conference and were eliminated by Vanderbilt in the first round of the conference tournament, 82-69.

Indiana beat Vanderbilt 73-56 on Dec. 9.

IU (20-12) won four of its final six games before losing Saturday to Illinois in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament. Alabama lost nine of its final 14 games.

Indiana senior guard Tom Coverdale said he liked the matchup.

"I think it's a good draw for us," Coverdale said. "Obviously that's a team that hasn't been playing well for a while, and we feel like we're playing better than we have all year."