As the calendar flips to 2025, Indiana men’s basketball is diving headfirst into its Big Ten schedule.
The Hoosiers (10-3, 1-1 Big Ten) resume conference play at 8:30 p.m. Thursday against Rutgers (8-5, 1-1 Big Ten) inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington. The game will be broadcast on streaming service Peacock, with Noah Eagle handling play-by-play, Robbie Hummel as the analyst and Caroline Pineda on the sideline.
Indiana, which won its Big Ten opener against Minnesota on Dec. 9 but lost on the road to Nebraska on Dec. 13 before finishing its nonconference slate, will close the regular season with 18 consecutive conference games.
Despite riding a two-game win streak after a pair of closer-than-expected wins over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Winthrop University to close out nonconference play, the Hoosiers enter Thursday night looking to quell several concerns.
During its 77-68 victory over Winthrop on Dec. 29, Indiana went only 1-for-20 shooting from 3-point range. Redshirt sophomore guard Myles Rice said afterwards the Hoosiers have as much offensive firepower as any team in the country, but their defense — from the perimeter to the interior — needs to grow.
Rice said he thinks Indiana is getting better each week. Head coach Mike Woodson’s squad will try to continue that trend Thursday night.
Meet the Scarlet Knights
Rutgers, which is led by ninth-year head coach Steve Pikiell, boasts two of the best freshmen in college basketball.
Dylan Harper, a 6-foot-6, 215-pound guard, averages 22.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game. He’s shooting 52.5% from the field and 37.3% from distance. He’s coming off a 16-point, 12-assist, 11-rebound performance against Columbia University on Dec. 30, which marked Rutgers’ first triple-double in over 40 years.
Joining Harper is 6-foot-10, 200-pound guard/forward Ace Bailey, who’s averaging 18.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per contest while shooting 47.4% on field goals and 32.6% on 3-pointers. Both Harper and Bailey were five-star recruits and top three players in the 2024 recruiting class, and they’re the only Scarlet Knights averaging double figures.
Rutgers’ complementary pieces include 6-foot-10 freshman center Lathan Sommerville, senior guard Jeremiah Williams and junior guard Jordan Derkack. Sommerville and Williams each average 7.8 points per game, while Derkack is averaging 7.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists per contest.
As a team, the Scarlet Knights are shooting 46.3% from the field, 33.6% from distance and 71.4% at the free throw line while averaging 79.7 points per game. Defensively, they’re allowing opponents to score 74.3 points per contest.
Rutgers has experienced its share of early season ups and downs. The Scarlet Knights have beaten the University of Notre Dame, Penn State and Seton Hall University, a trio of Power 5 opponents. But they’ve also lost to non-power schools in Kennesaw State University and Princeton University, along with a 14-point road loss to Big Ten foe Ohio State.
Prior to the Ohio State game Dec. 7, Rutgers lost to a pair of ranked Southeastern Conference schools, falling 95-90 to the No. 5 University of Alabama on Nov. 27 and 81-77 to No. 13 Texas A&M University on Nov. 30.
The Scarlet Knights are 0-2 in true road games this season, while the Hoosiers are 9-0 at home. However, Rutgers has given Indiana trouble over the past five years, as the Scarlet Knights have won seven of eight meetings since the start of the 2019-2020 season. Rutgers won the lone matchup last season, a 66-57 triumph on Jan. 9 in Piscataway, New Jersey.
Indiana is hoping to reverse course on recent history and start 2025 victorious — but it will have to beat Harper and Bailey to do so.
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa) and columnist Mateo Fuentes-Rohwer (@mateo_frohwer) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball season.
