IU to travel out of state for first time

When the IU men’s basketball team took on Evansville in its first and only road game this season, red shirts filled the Ford Center.

When the Hoosiers (6-0) travel to Raleigh, N.C., to take on North Carolina State (5-1) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge at 7:15 p.m. tonight, they’ll see even more red shirts, but they won’t be the same ones they saw in Evansville.

“I don’t think we’re going to have 2,000 people from Washington, Ind., at this,” IU Coach Tom Crean said. “It will be different.”

Tonight will mark not only the first time IU faces a team from a BCS conference but also the first time it will play a game outside of Indiana.

“We’re looking forward to being able to go on the road (tonight) and play a real road game and see what it’s like and see how we match up,” senior guard Matt Roth said.

IU will match up against an NC State team that boasts six players averaging double-digit points. One of them is junior forward Scott Wood, who comes into Wednesday averaging 11.4 points per game for the Wolfpack.

Crean said Wood has a knack for hurting teams with the deep ball.

“They have Scott Wood who is shooting as well, maybe, as anyone in the country right now at 58 percent from three-point range,” Crean said. “He is certainly one of, if not the best shooters that we will see all year.”

In addition to having a guy that can stretch the floor, NC State also has guys that can score in the post. Sophomore forward C.J. Leslie is leading the Wolfpack in scoring at 16.7 points per game while junior forward Richard Howell is averaging 13.7 points and 8.8 rebounds per game.

Despite early season injuries to both Leslie and Wood, the Wolfpack suffered only a seven-point loss to No. 20 Vanderbilt and beat Texas at a neutral site.

“The fact that C.J. Leslie was out for some time and that Scott Wood was out a little bit with an ankle injury, they really look like they’re hitting their stride right now,” Crean said.

The Hoosiers were the ones hitting their stride coming into the Big Ten/ACC Challenge last year, having gotten off to a 6-0 start. But an 88-76 loss at Boston College curtailed into a 3-8 stretch that washed away IU’s undefeated start.

Senior forward Tom Pritchard said they’re determined not to let this game be a turning point as it has been in years past.

“Us five seniors have never won any of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge games, so we’re going to lay it in there when we’re in the game,” Pritchard said.

In the Crean era, the Hoosiers have won true road games at Penn State on Jan. 21, 2010, and at Evansville on Nov. 16, 2011.

It’s a hurdle that Crean said will not be an easy one to get past.

“When you go on the road to begin with, your margin for error is slim to begin with,” Crean said. “But when you’re going against athletes and very talented individuals like this from top to bottom with a lot of length, they can really, really cause problems.

“It will be a major challenge for us tomorrow night, no doubt about it.”