A rematch that matters
Indiana men’s basketball hosts Penn State tonight in a rematch of a Big Ten game that feels like it happened seasons ago.
When the Hoosiers beat the Nittany Lions at the Palestra, Penn State had the better season outlook and was favored to win the semi-home to move to 3-1 in Big Ten play.
Instead, the loss kicked off a slump that derailed Penn State’s season, when they lost 11 of their next 12 Big Ten games. The Nittany Lions enter Assembly Hall having won their last two, but they’re a Quad 2 opponent now with little hope for an NCAA Tournament bid.
Here are three things to know about the game:
Margin of Victory
Remember this talking point from the beginning of the season? Now that Indiana is once again trying to convince the world that it’s deserving of a postseason berth, it’s important not just to win, but win convincingly.
Before the Purdue game, just three of Indiana’s Big Ten wins came by double digits. All of them were at home against teams with sub .500 conference records.
If Indiana wants to play meaningful basketball in March, it will have to not only avoid losing this Quad 2 game, but win by enough to move up a few spots in the NET.
Consistency
The last time Indiana won two Big Ten games in a row was in early January, when the Hoosiers won three straight against Rutgers, Penn State, and USC. They followed up a ranked win in East Lansing with a home loss to UCLA.
There are a number of things you could point to as the cause for the team’s inconsistency, but the fact that they haven’t been able to string together wins is what makes them only a bubble team despite their talent and elite wins.
Indiana had the benefit of nine days off before the Purdue game, so it’s possible the break gave them time to reset and turn a page. At the same time, it took them 20 minutes to figure something out against Purdue.
Which Indiana team will show up tonight? Who knows!
The Lineup
Mike Woodson has gotten (deservedly) a ton of credit for sticking with just six players in the second half against Purdue, which helped the team lock in and earn one of the most surprising wins of his tenure.
In the excitement surrounding the win, Woodson was mostly able to sidestep the question as to why Mackenzie Mgbako was so limited in the game when he led all scorers the first time the teams met.
Mgbako was also an important part to Indiana’s win at Penn State earlier this year, but with no insight as to whether it was a disciplinary or strategic decision to bench him, it’s impossible to know how much he’ll play tonight.
If it was a strategic thing, then we have to trust that Woodson found something with those guys he played in the second half against Purdue. On the other hand, it may have been a lineup he went with specific to the Boilermakers, so things could be back to usual tonight.
Either way, it’ll be interesting to see who starts and who plays the most important minutes now that Indiana has found itself playing games that matter again.