Indiana men’s basketball: Previewing Northwestern

Northwestern v Purdue — Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

The Hoosiers are set to take on the Wildcats.

Indiana men’s basketball is set to take on Northwestern at home in Assembly Hall on Sunday.

The Hoosiers are coming off of a disappointing 20-point loss to Purdue on the road, but got an eight day break for their troubles. Xavier Johnson is likely still out with an arm injury sustained against Nebraska.

Indiana is currently not favored to win a single game for the rest of the season, per KenPom. The silver lining there is they haven’t been favored in most of their recent wins and the margins are overall pretty managable.

On top of all that, Indiana will be debuting adidas Fear of God alternate jerseys. They’ve gotten a considerable amount of… let’s call it “attention” from the fanbase, but it’s really not worth caring too much about.

Northwestern has had a bumpy road as of late with injuries and unfortunate losses but can still absolutely win this one.

Here’s three things to watch:

Boo Buie

Boo Buie is one of the best guards in the country.

He uses a good 28.4% of Northwestern’s possessions, plays the second most minutes in the conference and does just about everything a guard needs to do at an elite level. On his best night he can go out and get 30+.

It was he who powered the Wildcats to a sweep over the Hoosiers last year with a clutch bucket late in the second half all but sealing the loss up in Evanston. He’s a nightmare matchup for anyone and will be a tall order for Indiana’s backcourt to contain.

He’s excellent at drawing contact and knocks down 84.9% of his attempts at the charity stripe.

No Ty Berry

Ty Berry, Northwestern’s second option in the backcourt, is out for the remainder of the year with an injury.

It’s awful, he was just hitting his stride as a player with multiple games putting up double-digit scoring lines including 25 against Purdue in Mackey. Without him, the Wildcats have been asking more from Princeton transfer Ryan Langborg.

He was excellent in wins over Nebraska and Penn State but managed just two points in ten minutes against Rutgers after an ejection. He’ll probably get back to that double-digit threshold and Indiana has to be ready for it.

The Circumstances

Indiana will have a list of visitors including former Hoosiers such as:

Trayce Jackson-Davis
Jalen Hood-Schifino
Miller Kopp
Race Thompson
D.J. White

Jackson-Davis, Hood-Schifino and Kopp are all in town for the NBA All-Star break. The game will mean a bit more for Kopp, who transferred from Northwestern before spending his final two years with Indiana.

Indiana also has a few high school prospects in town for the game and the aforementioned new alternate jerseys will be on display.

Given all the attention on Indianapolis for the All-Star game and the above circumstances, it would very much be in the Hoosiers’ best interest to put together a good 40 minute performance.