Indiana State was the mid-major darling that college basketball fans fell in love with during the regular season.

But the Sycamores failed to reach the NCAA tournament because they lost to the Drake Bulldogs in the Missouri Valley tournament final.

That result combined with the emergence of bid stealers during Championship Week pushed Indiana State to the wrong side of the bubble.

Indiana State faced some difficulty in its NIT opener against the SMU Mustangs, but rallied to score 101 points and win by nine.

The Sycamores handled the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Cincinnati Bearcats to set up their third straight game versus a power-conference foe in Utah.

The Utes won all three of their NIT games by at least nine points in Salt Lake City. The run to Indianapolis finished with a 20-point win over the VCU Rams.

Utah could pose a matchup problem down low for Indiana State with Branden Carlson, who is one of the better shot blockers in the country. Carlson could neutralize the threat of Robbie Avila in Indiana State's frontcourt.

Indiana State should still be in good shape if Carlson takes Avila out of the game because it has four other players who average over 10 points per game. Three of those guards joined Avila in double figures in the win over Cincinnati.

Indiana State has enough scoring depth to absorb the potential loss caused by Utah's at-the-rim strength and that should power it into the championship game.

Prediction: Indiana State over Utah