Indiana Basketball: Fact or Fiction for the 2019-20 season
1. Indiana will make the NCAA Tournament this season
This is obviously tricky in the Big Ten, where there is almost no such thing as an easy in-conference game.
Many preseason rankings have the Hoosiers finishing somewhere between eight and 10 in the Big Ten. I’d say that 10 is a little too low, but eight sounds about right, and finishing there would give Indiana a very good shot at getting into the tournament.
Trayce Jackson-Davis and Armaan Franklin are both talented freshmen and are capable of contributing right away, which is good because they will be required to contribute in high volumes. But they’re still freshmen, and they need time to adjust to these expectations and to the speed of the college game.
Archie Miller has gone somewhat unnoticed for scheduling what I believe to be an excellent non-conference slate. Indiana starts the first seven games of the season playing easy matchups, which tanks the RPI a bit, but gives the team time to gel and gives the freshmen time to get acclimated before the gauntlet that is Big Ten conference play.
Acclimation is the keyword for this whole team. Players like Devonte Green, Al Durham, and Rob Phinisee may have very different roles than they did last year. Jackson-Davis, Franklin, and Jerome Hunter will need to be brought up to speed, having never played a college game before. This team may require a great deal of patience from the fans but could have a great payoff.
I think it is extremely likely this team will experience some bumps and bruises early on. There may be some close finishes with teams that are far inferior, but I think by the end of Big Ten play that this team will have hit its stride. They have the talent to do it, it will just take some time.