After nearly three months and 22 games of college basketball, it’s still hard to have any real idea what this IU men’s basketball team is capable of.
It’s winning. It’s won big. It’s won ugly. The only loss in the past two months came on the road and by the hand of an incredible performance by Wisconsin’s Nigel Hayes. There hasn’t been all that much negative.
Tuesday, though, it’s about to become clearer. That’s because it’s about to become harder.
Brace yourselves, IU fans. When IU travels to Michigan on Tuesday, it marks the beginning of the brutal stretch that we’ve all known was coming.
Six of IU’s next nine games are against genuinely difficult opponents.
At Michigan, home against Iowa, at Michigan State, home against Purdue, at Iowa, and it ends with a home game against Maryland.
It’s not unrealistic to say IU will come out of this stretch with a winning record, and it’s not unrealistic to say it will lose all six of these games.
The Hoosiers are 18-4 and have seemed to improve since the Big Ten season began. They are oddly the No. 1 Big Ten team in defensive efficiency, according to kenpom.com, and winning games even when they can’t hit a shot.
Something certainly seems different from recent years. The team has finished many close games and even launched an impressive comeback against Notre Dame in December.
Then one remembers IU has defeated only one team in the AP Top 25. It has losses to non-tournament teams like UNLV and Wake Forest. It can be easy to look much better against the bottom of the Big Ten.
With facts put in front of them, one can argue with narratives either way.
That’s why this final month is so exciting. The questions will begin to go away. We will know just how good IU really is.
Michigan brings one of the better offenses in the country. Senior guard Yogi Ferrell spoke about the up-tempo offense Michigan Coach John Beilein utilizes. It’s probably the best offense IU will be facing since Notre Dame.
It provides a look into whether IU’s impressive defensive performances are a result of competition or actual growth. The answer is usually a little bit of both.
The Hoosier defense has undoubtedly become better along the perimeter, and freshman center Thomas Bryant is much better at help defense than at season’s start. If the game turns into a tempo battle, IU won’t be unprepared, as that is its calling card as well.
Predictions are worthless with this game because of the reason mentioned earlier. It’s impossible to put a finger on what IU is yet. This next month will give us a definitive answer. So let’s just watch and enjoy Tuesday.
brodmill@indiana.edu
