The Indiana Hoosiers are getting into the thick of their Big Ten schedule, and with 15 games left in the season, the Hoosiers, as of right now, are set to take on seven ranked opponents in that span. Indiana has 11 games on their upcoming schedule against Quad 1 team, which means those are teams ranking in the top 30 of the NCAA's NET rankings.
Quad 1 wins are considered to be quality wins and are taken into account for teams that are trying to make it into the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season. The more Quad 1 wins a team can rack up, even if they aren't ranked at the end fo the season, the better the chances of making the tournament are.
The first Quad 1 team on the Hoosier's upcoming schedule is their next game against Iowa. Indiana is set to take on the Hawkeyes in Carver-Hawkeyes Arena on Saturday, January 11th at 8:00 p.m. EST.
When asked about the tough schedule ahead of them, including 11 games against Quad 1 teams, Indiana head coach Mike Woodson was clear where his mind is.
"Iowa is the next team up," Woodson said in his postgame press conference last night. "I'm not looking at the 11 games; I'm looking at Iowa. They're next on our list, you know, in terms of who we got to play."
Woodson makes a good point, Iowa is next on the schedule and the moment a team starts to overlook opponents and worry about teams in the future is when they start losing to what should be an easy team to beat.
The Iowa Hawkeyes are in a similar area to Indiana right now as they are 11-4 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten coming off of a big comeback win over Nebraska in overtime, the only team to beat Indiana in conference play.
The Hawkeyes right now lead the Big Ten in points per game, averaging 89.9, and are second in shooting percentage behind Michigan, shooting 50.7% from the floor. The good news for Indiana is that they are a lot better than Iowa on the board, averaging 39.1 rebounds per game versus Iowa, which averages 33.7 per game.
The Hoosiers have some size on the Hawkeyes, with senior center Oumar Ballo dominating in the paint with three straight games of scoring 20 or more points.
Woodson has his guys in the right mindset right now, focusing on the game in front of them, and I think that is a big reason the Hoosiers are on a five-game win streak with their best start in the Big Ten since 2015-2016, especially after losing their best player, Malik Reneau, to injury for an unknown amount of time.