Hoosiers must avenge their worst loss of the season on Wednesday in Big Ten Tournament

Indiana's opponent for its first game of the Big Ten Tournament is now known. The 10th-seeded Hoosiers will face the 15th-seeded Northwestern Wildcats on Wednesday, March 11 at the United Center in Chicago.

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Northwestern defeated 18th-seeded Penn State on Tuesday night by a score of 76-66 to earn the right to advance and face the Hoosiers. Wednesday's matchup against Northwestern presents a great opportunity for Indiana to not only boost its NCAA Tournament resume, but to avenge its worst loss of the season.

Indiana enters must-win contest against Northwestern in Big Ten Tournament

A few weeks ago on February 24, the Hoosiers welcomed the Wildcats to Assembly Hall for a crucial contest. Indiana was in the midst of facing three top-15 opponents in four games, and needed a win on their home court in the worst possible way. For a while, it looked like they were going to get it.

The Hoosiers controlled the game from the start, and took a 42-33 lead into the locker room at halftime. They led for the majority of the game and even had a win probability as high as 93.7% with 12 minutes to go in the 2nd half according to ESPN.

However, Indiana was caught playing with fire once again, and watched a double-digit lead crumble down the stretch. The Hoosiers ultimately fell by a score of 72-68, giving them their worst loss of the season and a crushing blow to their NCAA Tournament hopes.

To make matter worse, a controversial no call on a Tucker DeVries three-point attempt in the closing seconds only put salt in the wound for IU fans.

As bad as that no call was, the fact of the matter is that Indiana never should have been in that situation. When trying to prove that you are an NCAA Tournament team, squandering a 2nd half double-digit lead on your home floor against a team that is 3-13 in the Big Ten simply can't happen. Indiana's March Madness hopes crumbled following that loss, and they ended up closing out the regular season with losses in five of their last six games.

The Hoosiers now have a chance to get revenge on the Wildcats in Wednesday's Big Ten Tournament showdown. It's essentially a must-win game for Darian DeVries' team if they want to have any shot at sneaking in to the NCAA Tournament, as another loss to Northwestern would plummet IU's March Madness hopes.

The winner of Wednesday's matchup between IU and Northwestern will advance to play 7th-seeded Purdue on Thursday. It's quite possible that Indiana would need to defeat both Northwestern and Purdue in order impress the committee enough to earn a bid in the 68-team field.

Tip-off between the Hoosiers and Wildcats is set for 6:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday night. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.