Hoosiers look for turning point

Pardon the Hoosiers for being a little short on commentary after Tuesday's practice. They've got bigger things to worry about than interviews.\nIU begins a conference shake-up week at Wisconsin before welcoming first-place Iowa to Assembly Hall on Saturday. All together, six of the top seven seeds in the Big Ten play each other this week.\n"This game is very important," IU coach Mike Davis said. "(Wisconsin) has four losses and they don't want to go to five. We have three losses and don't want to go to four. I think 11-5 or 12-4 will win the conference, so you can't get to five right now with seven more games to go."\nNobody on IU's current roster can remember a win in Madison, Wis. The Hoosiers have lost their last five games in America's dairyland, including a 62-60 loss last year on a final second tip by the Badgers.\nSenior guard Marshall Strickland said the memory of last year's heartbreaker only provides more team confidence this time around.\n"It gets you all ready to play and I think that that's going to carry over," he said. "We feel that we can go in there and win."\nThe Big Ten's sixth-ranked Hoosiers have lost three of their last four games, but the seventh-ranked Badgers would probably trade positions with IU. Wisconsin has dropped five of its last six contests, including a home loss to North Dakota State on Jan. 21. The Bison -- despite being in only its third year as a Division I school -- handed Wisconsin only its second home loss under coach Bo Ryan.\n"Records don't count right now," junior guard Earl Calloway said. "You go out and play at someone's home -- they're riled up. They've got the crowd behind them. We've just got to go in and play hard."\nTonight's matchup will feature two of the Big Ten's top-five scorers in IU forward Marco Killingsworth and Wisconsin's Alando Tucker. Killingsworth is in fourth, averaging 18.4 points per game, just half a point behind Tucker.\n"(Tucker) is athletic. He can get to the basket and he can make you foul him," Davis said. "That's tough on us."\nThe inside presence for both teams shouldn't be a surprise, but after Calloway's performance Saturday against No. 1 Connecticut, the IU backcourt might be subject to more change. Last week, Davis moved Strickland to point guard to provide another scoring threat, but a Calloway-led comeback charge in the second half against the Huskies should earn the junior college transfer more court time tonight.\n"It will probably be Earl and I trading off a lot (tonight)," Strickland said. "It doesn't really make a difference (who plays point guard), especially in college ... In the college game, a guard is a guard."\nDespite the Hoosiers' 3-4 record on the road this season (0-3 in conference), sophomore forward Robert Vaden has flourished away from Assembly Hall. The Indianapolis native averages 11.3 points per game at home, while shooting .404 from the floor and .265 from three. But those numbers skyrocket away from home as Vaden leads the team in scoring on the road with 18.1 points per game -- shooting .556 overall and .620 from three.\n"We haven't won on the road yet this year in conference," Vaden said. "Hopefully once we get this one, we can get a couple others"