The team played its home games in Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana, and was a member of the Big Ten Conference.
As Big Ten Conference co-champions with Purdue, IU was named a one-seed in the 1987 NCAA Tournament.
[2] They won solidly over Fairfield, Auburn, and Duke in NCAA play, but they needed Ricky Calloway's rebound lay-in to beat LSU, 77–76, to get to the Final Four.
In the championship game versus Syracuse, which featured three future long-time professional players, Indiana trailed 73–70 in the last minute.
However, two late shots by Keith Smart, including the last at 0:05, won the game for Indiana.