Headband Hilarity: Upside-Down Headbands Coming to an NIL Store Near You

Oh, he is. When Kopp got back to Indiana's locker room — which is open to the media for the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four years — he talked more about the headband.

And yes, he said, he's keeping the headband. He wore a white Adidas headband, but wore it with the logo upside down.

Always making a statement. 

''You don't see many guys wearing upside-down headbands. If I'm wearing a headband, I might as well rock it it upside down,'' Kopp said. "Decided to rock it, and I wore it during the shoot-around, guys were clowning me a little bit but then a couple guys complimented and said yeah, you look good. That was all I needed to hear.''

Thompson was the original headband wearer this year, but he had a good reason. He had his head busted open with an errant elbow in a Nov. 23 game against Little Rock, and he slipped on a headband over his bandages while he scored 20 points. He showed up at the postgame press conference with the blood-stained headband still on, and he's been wearing it ever since.

Kopp said Thompson ''was a little bit jealous'' with his look on Friday night.

"When he saw me with it upside down, he said 'I wish I had thought about that,' '' Kopp said. "The headband is staying.''

Kopp has a lot of fun with all of his social media accounts and loves interacting with the Indiana fan base. He even has a line of clothing on the ''Primal'' website that he promotes, where they sells shirts and sweats, and more. 

Headbands will probably be next.

"I was thinking about getting a little Sharpie and putting 'primal' on it,'' he said. "I don't think I will, but maybe I'll come out with some stuff later. But definitely be on the lookout for some headband stuff. It feels pretty good. There wasn't any sweat in my eyes, and I sweat a lot. I'm a big fan of the headband.''

Thompson liked the Kopp look, and said it kept everyone loose during the shoot-around. 

"We go out there and try to have fun all the time,'' Thompson said. 

The Hoosiers (23-11) avoided all the mayhem of March with a big win. Since they were playing the last first-round game, they had seen all the carnage that had taken down No. 1-seed Purdue, No. 2 Arizona and No. 4 Virginia. They stayed locked in to their own job at hand.

"Our preparation stays the same. In every game,'' Kopp said. "Like I said before, we've learned from our losses in the season and conference play. So those are enough to wake us up and keep us locked in.

"Of course we watch all the games. We're hoop junkies. So we see all the games and upsets and stuff. But really it's just about our preparation and doing the same stuff.''