Just three days after IU men’s basketball finished its sweep of No. 8 Iowa, the team will hit the road to continue Big Ten rematches.
IU will travel to Evanston, Illinois, for its second game against Northwestern at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Hoosiers have an opportunity to get to .500 in conference play since they currently sit at 5-6 in the Big Ten.
The last time the two teams met Dec. 23, 2020, IU couldn’t finish its Big Ten opener against Northwestern despite coming back from a 15-point first half deficit. The Hoosiers were plagued by some of their usual problems — turnovers, poor free throw shooting and offensive inefficiency.
“We have to continue to try to push the way we've been pushing and get ready for Northwestern, who caused us a lot of problems in our first game,” IU head coach Archie Miller said. “Seems like a long time ago, but we're gonna have to be much better against those guys this time when we were the first time.”
But since Northwestern defeated IU on Dec. 23 and then-No. 23 Ohio State three days later, the Wildcats have been on a nine-game losing streak. Among those losses is one to No. 5 Iowa — a top 10 team IU has beaten twice now.
Miller said he wants his team to get better every day because they have a lot of room to grow, including becoming more disciplined. One area IU saw improvement on, however, from its game against Illinois to Iowa was closing out games.
“But I thought our guys did a much better job of grasping what we're looking for in those tough situations at the end of games,” Miller said. “And we were able to really, really step up and make, you know, some winning plays on both ends of the floor against Iowa.”
Much has changed for the Hoosiers since they last played the Wildcats, including their ability to rely on their bench to come in and play quality minutes.
The freshmen have made the team better, Miller said. Against Illinois and Iowa, Miller deployed lineups with all four freshmen and either sophomore forward Trayce Jackson-Davis or junior forward Race Thompson.
After watching that work in those games, he said he’s confident about the freshmen playing together and in different combinations. But Miller said he is hopeful that they will continue to build, which will be a big factor moving forward to develop the team’s depth.
“We're all putting in crazy amounts of work. We're always in the gym,” freshman guard Khristian Lander said. “I'm getting extra lifts, extra shots up, skill workouts, everything. So I feel like we're putting the work in and once we get in the game, we got to show all the work that we've been putting in.”
In addition to the freshmen stepping up, the Hoosiers will have to shut down the Wildcats’ shooters in order to avoid getting swept on the season. They have three players shooting above 39% from the field, highlighted by junior forward Pete Nance who is 52.3% from the field and 35.4% from 3-point range.
“You're constantly looking for that opportunity to break through,” Miller said. “And, you know, as you have a big win, you can take your foot off the pedal, so to speak, and take a deep breath, but that's really not what we can afford to do.”
