5. Indiana Basketball has to be road warriors.
Indiana has to play better away from Assembly Hall. There is no other way to put it. Last season, the Hoosiers were 8-9 away from Bloomington. They were 5-7 in actual road games and 3-2 in neutral site games. That could be a big ask for a team expected to play a lot of younger players — more on the youth movement later.
The Big Ten is one of the few conferences where every team has a legit home-court advantage. It is not a stretch to say that the Big Ten is arguably the toughest conference in the country to win on the road.
That said, road wins in the conference look good when building a resume for March. Winning on the road is also excellent preparation for the tournament. Not only do the Hoosiers need to compete with teams projected to be at the top of the conference, but they also have to avoid road losses to teams at the bottom of the league.