Having cut something of a swath through the first Big Ten Universities tournament, scoring less than 50 points only once, a 43-0 shutout of Ohio State’s 2nd team.

IU was unstoppable, slamming Illinois 54-10 in the final, and overall scoring 253 points in five games and allowing 34.

The reasons are easy to figure out: a) Indiana had the best record in the Big Ten Universities 15s season because their backs are big, fast, and work well together, and b) banned from the 15s post-season due to eligibility issues in 2013, the IU players are enormously motivated to get to a 7s post-season.

“We were all ready to go into the playoffs last year when the coaches came and told us we couldn’t go for something we as players hadn’t done,” said IU’s Bryce Campbell, who was one of three IU players on the all-tournament team this past weekend. The coaches had made the mistake of fielding an ineligible player - the punishment by any objective measurement was fair, but that didn’t mean the players were happy about it.

“We knew we would be able to play for a 7s championship, so we’ve targeted that,” added Campbell. “We’re really excited about it.”

Campbell was joined by scoring machine Jake Hidalgo and Teddy Terezis on the all-tournament team, but IU’s talent runs deeper than that.

“We’ve got a good group of guys, and guys who have been playing rugby for a long time,” said Campbell. “Guys like Jonathan Enari started young and that helps us. We don’t really change much from playing 15s to playing 7s. Our philosophy is to win rucks quickly, get the ball our, and move the ball to where we can exploit the outer 15 meters on the field. It’s the same concepts - using our pace and our teamwork - in 7s and 15s.”

There are some unsung heroes on the IU team, notable Campbell’s brother, Jacob, who came back from injury and is one of those players who just loves to make tackles and win rucks and poach ball. He’ll leave the try-scoring to others.”

With such a dominant performance, you wonder if Indiana thinks they have it all figured out. They don’t.

“We do need to clean things up defensively,” said Campbell. “We feel that when we have the ball in our hands, we can score. But we do need to be better on defense.”

And if they do that, their goal of a major championship tournament will be fulfilled - an opportunity the players are supremely eager to embrace.

The BTU winners get an automatic place at the CRC, and also a qualification to the USA Rugby championships. Campbell said the team wants to do both, but isn’t sure they can afford it. Right now, there’s the BTU championships on April 18 to deal with first, but it’s beginning to look like the team budget may be the only thing that can stop them.