Indiana basketball looks to bounce back after a tough three-game losing skid when they take on the Boilermakers in Bloomington this Saturday.
Archie Miller’s third season as Head Basketball Coach at Indiana has started much like his second. The Hoosiers have entered conference play with strong non-conference records in consecutive seasons, but have sputtered in Big Ten play, but Indiana basketball has a great chance to get back on track this weekend.
The month of January, specifically, has been extremely unkind to Indiana in Archie Miller’s tenure. The Hoosiers have won a putrid 36 percent of their games in January under Miller. Granted, a lot of this is due to Indiana’s incredible losing streak last year. Even if you take out last year, the Hoosiers are still below .500 in the month since Miller’s arrival.
Luckily for Indiana, the calendar has turned over and they have arguably their easiest game remaining this season this weekend when Purdue comes to Bloomington. Every team left on Indiana’s schedule currently ranks ahead of the Hoosiers on the NCAA’s Net Rankings. If they want to really legitimize their tournament hopes come March, they desperately need to win at home.
Though Indiana is just under .500 in conference play, they’ve demonstrated no ability to win on the road thus far. The Hoosiers are just 1-5 away from Assembly Hall this season. With four remaining games on the road, Indiana will either have to find a way to scrape out a couple of road wins or sweep their remaining home games to effectively guarantee an NCAA Tournament bid. It is imperative that IU wins this weekend against their rival, Purdue.
After being a force in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournament in recent years Purdue is a shell of the team from a season ago. Without Carsen Edwards, they’ve sorely lacked offensive playmaking and shot creation. Last season the Boilermakers scored 74 points per game, which ranked above the 75th percentile nationally. This season they rank just 288th in the nation in scoring at a meager 67 points a game. To compensate, Matt Painter has transformed his team to be a force defensively, as they allow just 60 points a game (11th in the nation).
Here, we break down three key matchups to watch on Saturday that may decide whether or not the Hoosiers get back in the win column.