Dan Dakich is offering up some free advice to any player in this weekend's Sweet 16 looking for tips on how to prepare for the big games ... saying simply, "Don't start thinking you're a star!"

The former Indiana Hoosiers guard said in a talk with TMZ Sports this week it's easy for players who've made it this far in the NCAA tournament to start losing focus.

He said as teams return to campus and feel all the love -- it's common for players to get a big head ... and then falter when the lights come back on for the tourney's next round.

"Now all the sudden, man, campus is different," he told us. "Campus is alive -- and they're alive because of you! And, you've got to be able to handle that bad boy, and it ain't easy."

Dakich suggested coaches implement multiple meetings per day -- he actually jokingly referred to it as "three-a-days" -- in order to hammer home the point to players that they have to remember what it took to get them to where they're currently at.

"I'm telling you," he said, "it's a big deal."

As for who Dakich, the host of Outkick's Don't @ Me, likes going into the next round -- he said it's obvious Purdue and UConn are the favorites.

But, he told us don't sleep on Creighton, San Diego State or NC State either.