Indiana Basketball: Big Ten Tournament preview

The Championship:

If the Hoosiers are able to make a run to the championship game, they will likely play Purdue or Michigan, if seeds hold.

Keys against Purdue:

Being a much smaller team, Indiana will need to crash the boards hard on both ends of the court and limit the second chance opportunities allowed for the Boilermakers.

The Hoosiers will also need to close out on shooters at the three point line, in particular Purdue senior Ryan Cline, who is second on the team in scoring and is shooting 42 percent from deep.

The Boilermakers came out with a low scoring 48-46 victory in Bloomington three weeks ago.

The Hoosiers would have to push the pace yet keep the defensive pressure on. They did a great job guarding Carsen Edwards all night, holding him to nine points on 4-for-24 shooting and missing all 10 shots from deep in the previous meeting. They have to repeat the performance as well as stop Cline, Eastern and Haarms from getting hot. I would recommend a man-to-man defense for this contest.

Keys against Michigan:

The last two contests against the Wolverines were blowouts. In Ann Arbor, Michigan took control in the first half and kept the lead in double digits all game finishing the game with an 11 point win.

In Indiana, the Wolverines stomped on the Hoosiers from the tip off. They started on a 17-0 run and never looked back eventually winning by 23 points.

The Hoosiers match up poorly against the Wolverines but this isn’t the same team that Indiana played in January. The Wolverines have lost two against the Spartans recently as well as getting upset against Penn State while the Hoosiers trajectory since then has only gone upwards.

Indiana would have to play their best game of the season to come away with this victory and the Big Ten Championship, while Romeo may have a chip on his shoulder after losing out on the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award to Michigan’s Ignas Brazdeikis.