With a win on Friday, Indiana basketball should move into the top 10

If Indiana basketball pulls out a tough road win against unranked Xavier in the Gavitt Tipoff Games on Friday, the Hoosiers should move into the top 10.

And here’s why:

After the first week of college basketball games, the only team ahead of Indiana basketball in the AP Top 25 that lost was No. 11 Tennessee, who fell to unranked Colorado 78-66. Which in turn, allowed the Hoosiers to move up to the No. 12 spot ahead of week 2.

Through Wednesday, three teams in the top 10 have fallen, including No. 2 Gonzaga (lost to No. 11 Texas), No. 4 Kentucky (lost to unranked Michigan State), and No. 7 Duke (lost to No. 6 Kansas).

While it’s doubtful that those losses alone will push all three of those teams outside of the top 10, a road victory in a tough environment against a power six conference team that is pushing to be ranked in the top 25 could push the Hoosiers over the edge to get ahead of those teams that lost tough neutral site and road games.

Still upcoming this week, we have to keep an eye out for No. 2 Gonzaga and No. 4 Kentucky facing off on Sunday, along with No. 5 Baylor taking on No. 16 Virginia and No. 8 UCLA facing off against No. 19 Illinois on Friday. If Illinois takes down UCLA, UCLA easily moves outside of the top 10, while the Illini likely moves into at least the top 15. A win by Virginia over Baylor would be the only threat to overtake a win by No. 12 Indiana over Xavier.

All of this speculation doesn’t matter if the Hoosiers don’t take care of business on Friday night in Cincinnati against a very talented Xavier team led by a former Indiana head coach’s brother, Sean Miller.