Let me begin by saying this is speculation. Educated speculation, but speculation nonetheless.

If there's one thing I've learned in my 18 years covering Indiana basketball it's that nothing is as simple as you would think it is. 

Players come and players go. Players that you think aren't transferring end up doing just that. Players that you're sure are definitely gone end up returning for another season.

And so until we have heard a final decision I won't go to the bank with any of this. But it's late March and once you're eliminated from the NCAA Tournament this is the kind of topic that begins weighing on the minds of Hoosier Nation.

Should I stay or should I go?

Let's throw out some names and get some opinions. Please feel free to weigh in on any of these guys. If you think I'm wrong, say so. If you think I'm right, you can agree, too. But I'm hoping we get some good discussion going on this one.

1. TROY WILLIAMS

Options: He could go to the NBA, go overseas, graduate from IU at the end of this semester and transfer to another school and play right away or return to Indiana for his final season of eligibility.

What I think he'll do: My guess is that Troy will be looking to collect a paycheck. Whether that's in the NBA or overseas, I'm not sure. But I'm guessing he's gone. I think the least possible option would be to transfer to another school. I think if he decides to play his final year of eligibility he would do so at Indiana. That's just my feeling. Is he ready for the NBA? I don't think so but no one is asking me either. Something just tells me though that if he hears any positive feedback at all from NBA folks that he'll probably make himself eligible for the NBA Draft. Again, it's just an opinion.

2. THOMAS BRYANT

Options: He go make himself eligible for the NBA Draft or he could return for his sophomore season at IU.

What I think he'll do: I think Bryant comes back. I think he likes school and he sees that he can improve if he sticks around and puts in the effort that he would need to put in. If he has a big year as a sophomore I think he's probably gone, just like Cody Zeller did. I know that Bryant has gotten some love from some of the draft boards but I just think if he had one more solid season that he could do a lot for his draft stock. Will he listen to what all of the NBA people have to say? Absolutely. But I think he's a pretty smart young man and he'll look at next year and realize how much of a dominant force he could be on that team.

3. JAMES BLACKMON JR.

Options: He could make himself eligible for the NBA Draft, transfer to another school and sit out a year, or return to Indiana.

What I think he'll do: I've heard the transfer rumors and they just don't make sense to me. I think Blackmon Jr. really has two options: He either goes to the NBA or he returns for one more season at Indiana. And again, I think the highest percentage here has him returning to IU. I can't imagine a lot of NBA people telling him that he should come out after what transpired from an injury standpoint this season. But the transfer rumors just make no sense to me at all. The only way he would transfer would be if he opted to go the Division II route but why would you do that? I can't imagine him transferring to a D1 school and sitting out another year. It just makes absolutely no sense to me. I think he's back in an IU uniform next season.

4. OG ANUNOBY

Options: Declare for the NBA Draft or return to IU for his sophomore season.

What I think he'll do: I know people cringe just seeing his name here but OG has been getting some love. I think he'll be at Indiana next season though. He may even be there a few more years. I think with a few more years of seasoning, OG could be a dynamic player both at this level and the next one. Again, I'm sure he'll listen to whatever people are saying but my guess is that he'll be back and will be part of the starting rotation.

5. TIM PRILLER

Options: Stay or go.

What I think he'll do: The only reason I put him on here is because I was on a radio show in Indy on Monday and was asked about him by Jake Query on 1260 WNDE. My answer there was depending on who is returning and what the scholarship numbers situation is, I guess he could be a casualty. But I really don't know. I think a lot will depend on what players leave and what players decide to stay. Unless you see him contributing at some point to this IU basketball team other than being the Victory Cigar, though, I just question how you can continue to allow him to occupy a roster spot.

So those are five players to think about. What do you think? 

Do you they stay or do they go?

There’s a simple reason why Indiana was eliminated from the 2016 NCAA Tournament by top-seeded North Carolina Friday night in Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Hoosiers lost to the better team.

You can flip this one any way you choose, but in the end that should be your conclusion. In 18 years covering IU basketball, I've seen a lot of seasons end where you were convinced that wasn't the case. Friday night, that's exactly what happened though: IU lost to a better team.

This wasn’t 2013 when Indiana was a No. 1 seed and lost to a No. 4 in Syracuse because it couldn’t solve the zone defense.

This wasn't a team that lost to Cleveland State or Richmond or Kent State or a host of other opponents where IU was heavily favored.

This was a No. 5 seeded Indiana team that beat a good Kentucky team to make it to the Sweet Sixteen and then simply went up against a red hot North Carolina team. A North Carolina team that when it reached the Sweet Sixteen was considered a co-favorite with Kansas to take home the national title. 

Indiana didn’t play poorly Friday night. North Carolina just played better.

Sure, we all would have liked to have seen a contribution from Nick Zeisloft.

We all would have liked to have seen Troy Williams play in the first half like he did in the second.

We all would have liked to have seen what Indiana could have done had Robert Johnson been cleared to play.

We would have liked to have seen what would have happened if North Carolina wasn't in the bonus in the second half before the first media timeout.

We all would have liked to have seen Indiana come charging out of the second half locker room and quickly get the deficit into single digits and get back into the game.

But none of that was to be because North Carolina is a really good basketball team. If the Tar Heels play the way they did Friday night against IU, I think they win the national championship.

They were that good Friday night.

What I don’t get is the people I’ve encountered in message board threads and Twitter today who are taking Tom Crean to task for the way the season ended. They somehow want to place all the blame there for the fact that North Carolina couldn’t miss from the field and was too much for IU inside.

A buddy of mine sent me a text after Indiana beat Kentucky and asked me if I thought that victory would silence the Crean haters at least for this season?

I gave him my standard, canned answer on that topic: I told him it would silence the critics until Indiana’s next loss. That’s simply the nature of the beast with IU basketball fans.

But here’s my take there: I think this was Tom Crean’s best coaching job at Indiana. Hands down. If we go back to the way this team looked through the first eight games, how it played in Maui and how it looked against Duke in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, and then fast forward to IU winning the outright Big Ten title by two full games, I don’t know how you could reach any other conclusion.

This wasn't a GREAT Indiana basketball team. It was a good Indiana team that played its roles really well. And Crean and his staff are responsible for getting players to accept those roles.

Crean got people to buy in. Players did a great job in embracing their roles. And they days of IU playing a turnstile type of defense came to an end. And because of that, this was a fun team to watch. A team that never gave up and had three wins in games where it trailed by 10 points or more.

It was a team that got IU fans excited about Indiana basketball again. A few hours before the game, I was across the street from the Wells Fargo Center and saw a crowd of more than 1,000 IU fans packed to a sports bar called McFadden's for the Big Red Warmup. It was a madhouse. People were excited. People believed that IU could do the improbable and knock off the No. 1 seed in the East. They believed in Indiana basketball and that was fun to see.

But I think that's because Crean and his staff got this team to a place that few would have expected them to be, especially after that 5-3 start to the season. It was a team filled with the kinds of kids you wanted wearing the IU basketball uniform. It was the kind of team that you truly felt had a chance to win every game they played.

That’s also why Friday night was disappointing. Because you got the feeling that Indiana was playing its best basketball at the absolute best possible time. You didn’t feel like the team had run out of gas like you did in the last few years with Bob Knight at the helm, or more recently, perhaps how you felt in 2013.

This team had confidence, energy, focus and a cast of characters that you wanted to root for. Players like O.G. Anunoby, Thomas Bryant, Juwan Morgan, Collin Hartman, Yogi Ferrell, Max Bielfeldt, Nick Zeisloft, Robert Johnson and Troy Williams were players who endeared themselves to IU fans everywhere.

In the end, however, the Hoosiers went up against a better team.

And that’s the reality, plain and simple, coming out of Friday night’s 101-86 loss to North Carolina.

Indiana lost to the better team.

Indiana’s luck in tight games against inferior opponents finally ran out Saturday night at Penn State.

And the game I was most worried about heading into the big matchup against Iowa next week materialized.

Penn State 68, Indiana 63.

This is a bad loss. It won’t get better as time goes on. When seeding is done for Selection Sunday this one will come up.

But it’s still just one loss. I saw that one of my colleagues on Twitter wrote that Indiana had lost its chance at winning the Big Ten title.

That’s a little premature isn’t it. Beat Iowa on Thursday and you’re at the very least back into a tie for first place. When you consider you have two games left with Iowa and one with Maryland, it’s difficult to say your shot at winning a Big Ten title is over. You have all of your goals and dreams ahead of you. You just have to win big games.

And mark it down right here: Indiana will beat Iowa on Thursday.

I don’t care about Penn State. Indiana plays better against better opponents and the Hoosiers are unbeaten at Assembly Hall. It will be a bright lights game and my guess is that Indiana will come out and take it to the Hawkeyes.

I’m not nearly as confident with Sunday’s game at Michigan State. But if Indiana can come out of next week with a split I think you have to be happy with that considering the opponents.

Saturday night was a bad game for the Hoosiers. And as bad as the Hoosiers played Penn State was letting IU hang around in much the same fashion as the Hoosiers were treating their hosts. Eventually you let Penn State hang around too long and the Nittany Lions were able to score the upset.

I’m not ready to write off the Big Ten title based on one dismal performance but the reality is that Indiana needs to bounce back in a big way against Iowa.

Do that, knock off a top 10 ranked team, and you’ll at the very least be back into a share of first place in the Big Ten.

On the other hand if this turns out to be the beginning of a three-game skid, then there will be a lot of interesting discussion on this board a week from Sunday night.

We’ll see.

I’ve seen a few references in the last couple of days about Indiana’s big week coming up that includes Iowa on Thursday at Assembly Hall and Michigan State Sunday in the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

And yes, it does have the potential to be a big week. But anyone that is just automatically chalking up this Saturday night’s game at Penn State as a ‘W’ in the win column just doesn’t know Big Ten basketball.

Should Indiana beat Penn State? Absolutely. Will Indiana beat Penn State? Most likely. But I think many of us have witnessed a disturbing trend at times with this Indiana basketball team in playing to its level of competition. And the Hoosiers simply cannot afford to do that Saturday night in Happy Valley.

One of the things I’ve liked about this particular Indiana basketball team of late is that it doesn’t seem to be looking ahead. The loss to Wisconsin looks better all the time when you see that the Badgers are currently on a five-game winning streak. You can’t be ashamed of losing in the Kohl Center. It’s just a difficult place for a lot of teams to play – and especially IU for some reason.

Still, the 9-1 start and a tie atop the Big Ten standings is a great beginning to the conference season. But there are still eight games to go and in order for those last few games of the regular season against Iowa and Maryland to have the significance that Hoosier fans are hoping they will, Indiana needs to take care of business against teams like Penn State on the road.

This needs to be a business trip for the Hoosiers. IU needs to pack its lunch pail, go out and take care of business against the Nittany Lions, head back to Bloomington and then have a few days to prepare for the Hawkeyes.

The problem for me is that I’ve covered Indiana basketball so long that I just know of the dangers of looking ahead. The good news is that I’m 100 percent confident that Tom Crean and his staff view this the same way. There’s no way they’ll allow this IU team to look past Penn State.

Now the Hoosiers just have to execute and knock down a few more shots than they have in the recent past.

One thing working in IU’s favor, too, is the fact that Indiana has had a pretty impressive track record against the Nittany Lions in history. Indiana is 35-10 all-time against Penn State and IU has won in its last four trips to State College.

But I can’t help but remember as recently as the 2012-13 season when the Hoosiers would eventually win the Big Ten title outright on the last day of the regular season with a win at Michigan. That year, the Hoosiers started Big Ten play 8-1. The eighth win was an 81-73 victory over No. 1 Michigan on a day when IU was on College Game Day. IU was No. 3 in the nation before winning that game and moved up to No. 1 the following week.

The next game up was a road game at Illinois, a game that IU was expected to win. And that was the game with the debacle on the inbounds play in the closing seconds that led to an Illini uncontested layup at the buzzer and a 74-72 Illinois win.

I’m not saying that Indiana was looking past the Illini to a date on Sunday against No. 10 Ohio State, but the point is you can’t look past any team in the Big Ten. So IU needs to buckle down and take care of business on Saturday.

If the Hoosiers can get past Penn State and improve to 10-1 in conference play, we’ll have plenty of time next week to talk about that Thursday night matchup with the Hawkeyes in Assembly Hall when you can bet the Hall will be rocking.

Picture this scenario for a moment.

It will be a little difficult but imagine if you were a Big Ten basketball fan tonight but not rooting for the Indiana Hoosiers.

Imagine what that faction of the conference basketball population was thinking when it tuned in to the opening tip between Indiana and Michigan at right around 9:10 p.m. ET.

They were all thinking the same thing: That Indiana was about to be delivered a slice of humble pie.

Once and for all, they all believed, Indiana’s early Big Ten schedule was going to be shown for what it was and Michigan was going to bring Indiana back down to reality.

Now, imagine what those same people were thinking when the Wolverines jumped out to a 15-4 lead. Everything was clicking for the home team and the Hoosiers looked a little out of sorts.

Non-IU Big Ten fans were fist-pumping each other and patting themselves on the back. This one was about to get ugly and they were going to enjoy every minute of it. If they were following many IU fans on Twitter, they had to be enjoying those comments, too. People weren’t happy in IU Nation early.

And then it all changed very quickly. Indiana finished the first half on a 25-0 run. From the time it was 15-4, IU finished on a 41-9 run. And just like that, non-IU Big Ten fans sunk down in their sofas. Opposing teams in the title hunt couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

But to all of the doubters, Indiana served notice Tuesday night.

It was just one game, but it was an IU basketball statement game. And that statement, loudly trumpeted for most of the night, is that Indiana is a legitimate Big Ten title contender.

In Tuesday’s 80-67 victory (that was much more lopsided than the final score indicated) the Hoosiers came in to the Crisler Center and pushed the Wolverines around like they had never experienced before this season. At one point IU led by 27 in the second half, the largest deficit the Wolverines had faced this season.

This was a Michigan team that was 11-1 at home and 4-0 at home in conference play. The conference wins had come against Maryland, Rutgers, Penn State and Minnesota. Michigan’s only home loss on the season had been to Xavier – until the Hoosiers took it to them Tuesday night.

This was a Michigan team that had won four in a row and five of the last six. It was a Michigan program that went into Tuesday night’s game completely expecting to finish the night in a tie with Indiana with 8-2 conference records. Instead, the Wolverines fell to two games behind the conference leading Hoosiers.

Seth Greenberg said at halftime on the ESPN Halftime Show that one thing was clear with this Indiana group: They’re fun to watch.

And he’s right. Indiana is playing defense like we certainly didn’t see early in the year. The Hoosiers are playing really well in transition and when they look like they did tonight, you have to think they can play with anyone in the Big Ten.

But most of all, Indiana fans will agree on one thing: This team is fun to watch.

It’s fun to watch OG Anunoby grow up before our eyes. The same is true with Thomas Bryant. How much do you think Michigan fans wish that Max Bielfeldt was playing for the Wolverines? Yogi Ferrell is clearly playing his best basketball of his Indiana career. And you have to love the contributions you’re getting from a player like Collin Hartman. He just does it all.

It’s a win that Indiana needs to build on. The Hoosiers are now 9-1 in the Big Ten and will be at Penn State on Saturday. That’s a potential trap game especially with Iowa coming to Assembly Hall for a potential battle of the top teams in the Big Ten next Thursday.

Indiana has a chance to go into that game with a 20-4 overall record and a 10-1 mark in conference play. If IU can beat Penn State on the road, the Hoosiers would improve to 5-1 away from Assembly Hall in Big Ten play this season. That’s only going to help them on Selection Sunday.

Now, forget about imagining what it feels like to be a non-IU Big Ten basketball fan tonight and head back to reality which is you’re proud to be a Hoosier.

And proud about something else, too – This is a fun team to watch.

I think if most people had told you that Indiana basketball would be 8-1 at the halfway point of the 2016 Big Ten season that most people would have been okay with that.

Actually, everyone would have been okay with that. It would especially be true if you also knew that eight games into the season Indiana was 5-3 and had just really struggled on the road in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Duke in a blowout loss.

If you also added the facts that the Hoosiers had won 13 of their last 14 games to reach that 8-1 lofty perch, everyone would have agreed they would have taken that any time.

Not to mention that at 8-1, Indiana would be in first place in the Big Ten (by a half game over Iowa) and ranked in the Associated Press top 20 by the end of January.

Oh and don’t forget the Hoosiers have won 18 of their first 22 games. And with 18 wins, there are only a couple of teams in the nation that have more wins than IU and those teams have 19.

Make no mistake about it, Indiana basketball is in a great place at 18-4 overall and 8-1 in the Big Ten.

So why do Indiana basketball fans have an uneasy feeling in their stomachs entering the month of February?

The reality is that many IU basketball fans are waiting for that other shoe to drop. And it’s completely understandable following IU’s narrow 74-68 victory over Minnesota Saturday at Assembly Hall. This was a Minnesota team that was 0-9 in the Big Ten heading into Saturday’s matchup and was ripe for the upset.

And that game came on the heels of Tuesday’s night tough overtime loss at Wisconsin when the Hoosiers were handed their first conference loss.

The reality is that fans have short memories. They forget that a week ago, Indiana was sitting there at 7-0 in the Big Ten having just defeated back-to-back Big Ten opponents by more than 30 points. In those two games, Indiana made 32 of 64 3-point field goals and looked like world beaters.

No, with college basketball, and rightfully so, it is what have you done for me lately? And lately (the last two games) was not nearly as much fun.

All of a sudden here came last week where the shots stopped falling. In two games last week against Wisconsin and Minnesota, the Hoosiers were 9 of 34 from beyond the 3-point arc. They were 2 of 18 Sunday against Minnesota in a building where they usually shoot really well. And face it, when you make 23 less 3-pointers in a two-game stretch than you did in the previous two, you’re not going to look nearly as unbeatable as you once did.

The elephant in the room for Indiana is its Big Ten schedule to date. Indiana has played Minnesota twice, Wisconsin twice, Rutgers, Nebraska, Ohio State, Illinois and Northwestern. Those teams have a combined Big Ten record of 19-42.

Or another way of looking at it: Indiana has yet to play five teams that are a combined 33-12 in Big Ten play, a group that includes Iowa, Purdue, Maryland, Michigan State and Michigan. The Hoosiers will play those five teams a total of six times over the next nine games.

Indiana had no control over its schedule to this point. The Hoosiers played the games that were on the schedule, and frankly they did really well. IU could just as easily be sitting here at 6-3 or 5-4 thinking about the next nine games and wondering what the realistic shot at an NCAA Tournament berth would be.

Instead, IU fans are looking down from their current position hoping the Hoosiers can get it all together beginning Tuesday night at Michigan.

Let me tell you why I’m still reasonably confident here. Here are three reasons why I think Indiana will win more than half of its remaining nine Big Ten games and be in the top four heading into the Big Ten Tournament and beyond.

1. THOMAS BRYANT: When Indiana needed him the most Saturday against Minnesota, the IU big man responded in a big way. When the outside shots weren’t falling, Indiana did a better job of playing through the big man and he took charge in the middle. He did a particularly nice job of getting his defender on his hip and then taking the ball strong to the basket. He was also big on the offensive glass and had a couple of plays in particular down the stretch that were big in IU finding a way to edge a Minnesota team that should never have been that close to the Hoosiers. But in recent years, if Indiana had a 2 for 18 performance from 3-point range the Hoosiers would have been dead in the water. Because they have Bryant roaming the middle that’s not necessarily the case right now.

2. THOSE 3-POINT SHOTS ARE GOING TO FALL AGAIN: This team has too good of shooters for a slump like that to linger. You have several guys who can legitimately knock down the ball from distance. And when that’s the case you always have a chance. Can I explain what happened Saturday against Minnesota from distance? There’s no explanation. How can Robert Johnson look so good and so confident for the last few weeks and struggle so mightily against the Golden Gophers. Johnson was 1 for 6 against Minnesota but what was worse is that the shots he missed were all good looks. Nick Zeisloft, who has had a few big games of late, missed all four of his 3-point attempts against Minnesota, too. Remember, this is the Minnesota team that Zeisloft was lights out against just a few weeks ago in Minneapolis when he made 5 of 8 from distance including four in a row in a stretch late in the first half. But those shots will all fall again. That’s the thing with shooters. They’re going to keep shooting them and the shots will fall again.

3. INDIANA ALWAYS PLAYS TO THE LEVEL OF ITS COMPETITION: This has been true for a while and it has been true of late for Indiana. I told people Saturday before the Minnesota game that it didn’t matter that this was a matchup of 7-1 versus 0-9. Indiana doesn’t handle those situations well. I would have felt more comfortable Saturday playing Iowa than Minnesota. And I’m sure Indiana would have played a lot better against Iowa than it did against the Gophers. Especially at Assembly Hall where IU rides that wave of momentum it gets from playing before its raucous home fans. But think about it. When Indiana played Ohio State (currently 6-3 in conference) at home, the Hoosiers were fired up and ready to play and led by 30 at halftime. When IU played Northwestern, a team that was playing better and had just taken Maryland to overtime on the road a few days before, the Hoosiers looked really impressive. But in two games against Minnesota and one against Rutgers in particular, IU looked lucky to escape in any of those games. And those two teams are a combined 0-18 in Big Ten play at this point. Go figure.

There’s no question we’re going to learn a great deal about Indiana basketball over the next nine games. But the schedule withstanding to date, I think this is a pretty good IU basketball team and I think the Hoosiers will come out of this stretch at 5-4 or better. And myself, I’d take 13-5 in the Big Ten any day of the week.

I was on an in-state radio show on Tuesday morning and the host had this to say about Indiana’s month of January in the Big Ten.

He said, including Tuesday night’s home game against Wisconsin, that Indiana would likely be favored in its next seven games through the Jan. 30 home game with Minnesota.

He said Indiana has a great chance to make a big early splash in Big Ten play. He even said the Hoosiers could start off 9-0 in conference. Now this was prior to us learning later in the day that James Blackmon Jr. is out indefinitely after knee surgery on Tuesday afternoon. And yet it was also with the belief that Blackmon was going to still be out for an extended period of time even if he didn’t have the surgery.

But my point to the radio guy was this: This is Indiana. And things rarely go the way you expect them to go. The most dangerous thing an Indiana basketball fan can do is to start looking ahead at the schedule and saying, ‘They’ll win that game easily and I think they’ll win this one but it will be a little tougher’ and on and on.

The reality is that they’re all tough and unless everything is clicking you’re going to be lucky to get out of some games with a victory.

Tuesday’s night 59-58 victory over Wisconsin is the perfect example. This one was supposed to be easy, right? This was a Wisconsin team that lost at home to Western Illinois. It also lost by a point to Milwaukee and by two points to Marquette. Last week it lost by six points at home to Purdue.

Now, somehow people seem to have forgotten that this team beat Syracuse by seven on the road when the Orange were ranked No. 14 and Temple by 16 at home. Temple knocked off a pretty good Georgetown team Tuesday night.

But this isn’t even so much about the opponent as it is about the things that Indiana needs to do to be successful.

For Indiana to be able to put away any opponents, big or small, it has to do some fundamental things. It has to take care of the basketball and not make so many careless mistakes. IU turned it over 19 times against Wisconsin and those miscues led to 24 Badger points. Yogi Ferrell and Robert Johnson each turned it over five times. That’s just not acceptable but it continues to happen over and over again.

Indiana also needs to do a good job on the offensive glass. For the season, the Hoosiers had averaged 12.5 offensive rebounds per game. In the first two Big Ten games that average had been 11.5.

Tuesday night against Wisconsin, Indiana had four offensive rebounds and one was a team rebound. Troy Williams had two and O.G. Anunoby had one. Because of that Indiana had zero second chance points. The previous season low had been six points and IU had been in double figures in second chance points in 11 of 15 games. That’s a long way from zero.

And Indiana needs to shoot well from beyond the 3-point line, especially when IU gets wide open looks like Nick Zeisloft got time after time against the Badgers. And you especially expect the Hoosiers to be good from distance at home. But that wasn’t the case Tuesday night either. IU was 7-of-17 from 3-point range. That sounds okay but let’s take a closer look. If you take away Anunoby and Max Bielfeldt, who were a combined 4 for 4, the Hoosiers were 3 of 13 from beyond the arc. Those shots all came from Johnson, Ferrell and Zeisloft, guys that you expect to be able to knock down open shots especially at home.

Now, once again, the only thing that really matters about Tuesday’s game with Wisconsin is that the Hoosiers found a way to win. IU has won eight in a row overall and is 13-3 on the season. Indiana is a perfect 9-0 at Assembly Hall heading into Sunday’s game with Ohio State.

But I will definitely caution against people who want to start looking down the schedule and crossing off games that Indiana will surely win. Yes, four of the next six are at home but the two road games – Minnesota and Wisconsin – have been places that have been very difficult for Indiana to win.

For example, the last time Indiana won in Madison was 18 years ago in the 1998 campaign. Since then the Hoosiers have lost 13 in a row in the Kohl Center. Minnesota has been a little friendlier but not much. Since 1997, IU is 3-12 in The Barn. In the last six trips to Minneapolis, the Hoosiers are 1-5.

Will Indiana be favored in those games? Maybe. But the point is with this Indiana basketball team in particular it is better to take games one at a time and hope the Hoosiers can find a way to continue to separate themselves from the pack in the Big Ten.

Otherwise those dreams of 9-0 could quickly turn to 6-3 … or worse.

Well, that was interesting.

Despite not having James Blackmon Jr., who didn’t suit up after injuring his knee Monday in practice. …

And basically not having Thomas Bryant, who played a total of 6 minutes because of foul trouble and eventually fouled out. …

And basically not having Robert Johnson, a normally reliable player, who was anything but on this day …

And committing 23 turnovers, most of them of the lazy, unforced variety …

Indiana found a way to go on the road Wednesday and beat a bad Rutgers team, 79-72 in the Big Ten opener.

It was the sixth win in a row for the Hoosiers and seventh out of the last eight games. IU is 11-3 overall and 1-0 in conference before heading to Lincoln, Neb. Saturday to take on Nebraska in a 4 p.m. tip.

IU did get some key performances from a couple of players off the bench (which we’ll talk about in a minute) but a big key for Indiana Wednesday was that it was playing Rutgers.

Here’s a question: How many other Big Ten teams could Indiana have beaten playing the way it did on Wednesday? I can’t think of one that I would be confident in picking.

This is a really bad Rutgers team. The Scarlet Knights are ranked No. 245 in the KenPom rankings. That’s the worst in the Big Ten by almost 100 spots. Minnesota is ranked No. 150.

This is a Rutgers team that has now lost 16 consecutive conference games over the past two seasons. This is a Rutgers team that is not going to win a lot of games.

Now, the only thing that really matters for Indiana is that IU came away with a Big Ten road victory. Because if the Hoosiers had somehow lost this one, I’m not sure they could have regrouped. This one would have been a mega loss.

But let’s talk about the good things that came out of Wednesday’s victory.

Max Bielfeldt was a beast. He scored 18 points, pulled down 14 rebounds and took a charge late in the game that proved to be a big play. About the only thing that spoiled a great day was his two missed free throws late but that wasn’t big because of the next guy I want to mention.

O.G. Anunoby had his best game at Indiana. The true freshman had eight points and seven rebounds. Four of those rebounds were on the offensive end, including two late in the game off of missed free throw opportunities. He also made two 3’s. He had one coming made for his career coming into the game. He also made both of his free throws and he was shooting 33 percent coming in.

And what can you say about Ryan Burton? Burton had scored a total of three points in eight games this season coming in. He scored six points, made both of his shots and both were from 3 and had a key offensive rebound.4

That’s 32 points off of the bench from three Indiana players today. And two of them had contributed very little to this point which made their contributions that much bigger.

A fourth performance worth mentioning was that of Collin Hartman. He had nine points on three 3-pointers. Now, all of them were in the first 12 minutes of the game but it definitely got IU off to the right start. And Hartman was starting in place of Blackmon so the Hoosiers needed a spark from that spot.

So what did Wednesday’s performance say about Indiana basketball moving forward?

I think it’s hard to tell. This has been an Indiana team that has played down to the level of its competition all season. And 23 turnovers, for a team that averages 14, is still uncharacteristic. Yogi had six turnovers and Johnson had five. You have to hope that was an anomaly of sorts.

I think the bigger question is how much will the loss of Blackmon Jr. hurt moving forward if it turns out he’s for a few games? There was no news on that front Wednesday other than that he would be further evaluated. It’s his right knee, not the one he had operated on in the offseason. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

I think IU can be OK without Blackmon in the short term but if he’s out for a longer period of time a player like Johnson in particular is definitely going to have to pick up some of the slack.

So Indiana is 1-0 in conference and plays Nebraska Saturday. IU fans can only hope that the Hoosiers play a lot better in Lincoln than they did Wednesday at Rutgers.

The first point that has to be made about Saturday’s 80-73 victory by Indiana over Notre Dame is that in the grand scheme of things it was a huge victory for this IU basketball program.

As I wrote on the morning of the game, this was a perception game. And the difference in that perception based on a win or a loss in the Crossroads Classic would have been major. The difference between being 9-3 and 8-4 on paper may not seem like a lot but in this particular case it would have been. Indiana needed to beat a quality opponent and that’s what it did on Saturday afternoon.

It wasn’t pretty for major stretches of the game, there’s no question about that. Robert Johnson said after the game that he was pretty sure that there were times in the second half when the Hoosiers got down by 16 points that a lot of people at home very likely turned off their televisions out of frustration. I’m guessing that’s probably pretty accurate. If people didn’t, they may have been thinking about it. Heck, as I was sitting there in Bankers Life Fieldhouse I was wondering the same thing myself.

But after rallying from that 16-point deficit, the largest come from behind victory for IU in the Tom Crean era, to beat the Irish 80-73, I’d like to turn to a thought of just what did we learn about Indiana basketball Saturday afternoon in the Crossroads Classic.

Here are some thoughts:

1. THERE IS STILL A GREAT DEAL OF FIGHT IN THIS TEAM: If ever a team had a chance to mail it in, I would think the 56-40 deficit with just over 15 minutes to play in the game would have been the time. Fans in the building were getting restless (as they should have been) and things were not going well. It was Duke all over again in terms of a lopsided result. Notre Dame was having its way with Indiana especially inside and it just didn’t seem like IU had any answers. But the Hoosiers kept chipping away. They stayed the course. (Sorry, I’ve it’s turned into Cliché Central here but the ideas seem to be the right ones). And it probably didn’t hurt that there was a large number of IU fans inside the building waiting for a reason to erupt and IU finally gave it that reason down the stretch.
2. IU WAS REALLY GOOD ON THE OFFENSIVE GLASS: Indiana had 20 offensive rebounds in the game. Notre Dame had 19 defensive rebounds. That means Indiana got to more of its missed shots than the Irish did. That’s pretty impressive. And it was eight different players that were getting to those rebounds. Troy Williams had five of them but three other players had three each. Two of them, Thomas Bryant and James Blackmon Jr., you would expect. The one that didn’t I thought was impactful in the game and that was O.G. Anunoby. He had two points and four rebounds in the 7 minutes he played. There was a sequence with IU trailing 71-64 that really stood out for me. Williams missed a free throw and Max Bielfeldt got an offensive rebound. Nick Zeisloft then missed a 3-pointer and Anunoby got the offensive board. Williams got open for a long 3 and missed it, too, but Anunoby was there to clean it up and slam it home. That cut the lead to 71-66 with 5:37 to play.
3. THE ZONE WAS EFFECTIVE: I never would have thought that Notre Dame with a good inside/outside combination would have been a team that you would have wanted to zone a lot. Apparently Tom Crean thought the same thing because he mentioned that point in his postgame remarks. But when other things aren’t working well you need to have a Plan B and I’ll credit Crean and his staff for going that direction Saturday. It was 2-3 zone. It looked like a 1-3-1 at time but it was more of a 2-3, almost a matchup 2-3 zone as people were still getting out on a specific man. But the important thing is that it worked. In the final 6:32, Notre Dame was 1 of 11 from the field. Notre Dame also missed two free throws in that stretch. It also didn’t hurt that Zach Auguste picked up his fourth with 2:44 to play and then fouled out a few minutes later. But what that zone did for Indiana was it showed this group that there are other ways it can win and the players seemed to buy into it and that’s a huge point with just 10 days to go before the start of the Big Ten season.

It’s just one victory, but again it’s a big victory. This game has the feel of one that you can look back on later and think that it was a turning point. Indiana should now go into Big Ten play on a five-game winning streak after dispatching Kennesaw State this Tuesday.

Then there are plenty of games early in IU’s schedule that should give the Hoosiers a chance to be successful. (That Jan. 10 home game with Ohio State game may look a little more difficult now after what the Buckeyes did to Kentucky on Saturday). But the point remains: IU should have a chance to now build a little momentum and maybe even get back in the top 25 before too long.

The perception coming out of Saturday’s win over Notre Dame is that Indiana has a chance to do some things if it can play at a high level and play together.

It’s just one game, but it was really a big one in the grand scheme of things.

It has been 17 days since Indiana’s disappointing showing against Duke in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Seventeen days to think about how Indiana looked inept on the defensive end in particular. Seventeen days to replay in your mind one player after another driving the ball to the basket for an easy layup against an IU defender. Seventeen days to question whether there’s truly any reason to be excited about this Indiana basketball team as it prepares to open Big Ten play Dec. 30 at Rutgers.

Seventeen days of misery for many die hard IU basketball fans.

Since then, IU has beaten up on a trio of cupcake-like opponents in Morehead State, IPFW and McNeese State. Basically, in those three games Indiana did what it was supposed to do. It took advantage of three lesser opponents and improved its record to 8-3.

But what do we really know about Indiana today that we didn’t know following the Duke game?

The reality is that we know very little. It’s difficult against those opponents to get a real feel for whether Indiana learned anything about itself in that loss to Duke.

You need a marquee opponent to truly measure your skills against. That’s why today’s game with Notre Dame in the Crossroads Classic is such a significant test for this Indiana basketball team.

This is a big game for Indiana in terms of perception.

Myself, I still think Indiana will be fine when it comes to Big Ten play. Some of that is because I question just how good the Big Ten is this season. Right now I don’t think Indiana is one of the top three teams in the conference. I think that pre-conference honor any way goes to Purdue, Michigan and Maryland.

But is this Indiana team good enough to be at the top of the other 11 conference teams? That’s the question that needs to be answered.

And again, this is just my opinion but I don’t think there’s any reason to think that IU couldn’t be among the top of the rest of the conference and then try to find a way to sneak into the upper three. Ohio State has struggled. Wisconsin has struggled. So have most of the others. Iowa could be the exception and a team that will battle Indiana for that ‘best of the rest’ moniker. But there are a lot of winnable games on that Big Ten slate. And the fact that Indiana only plays those top three teams one time each is a significant note going into this Big Ten season. And two of those games (Maryland and Purdue) will be played in Assembly Hall.

All of which is why today’s game with Notre Dame is so important. Indiana needs to prove to itself and to its nervous fan base that it has a team that is going to compete at least near the top of the conference standings. Go out and beat a decent Notre Dame team today in Indianapolis and Hoosier fans will at least feel better going into conference with likely a 10-3 record (the Hoosiers play Kennesaw State on Tuesday to wrap up non-conference play).

But come out today and look like you did against Duke where Indiana couldn’t get out of its own way especially on the defensive end and that rocky perception moving forward will loom large again. The company line coming out of Bloomington is that the last three games have proven that Indiana can be a competitive Big Ten caliber team.

And yet again, the reality is that it’s all just talk until you are able to perform at a high level against a high level program. That’s where Indiana finds itself today.

Notre Dame hasn’t played a great schedule itself by any means. It does own two victories over Big Ten opponents having beaten Iowa by six and Illinois by five. The losses for the Irish though came to Monmouth and Alabama.

That kind of feels like Wake Forest and UNLV to me.

So It really does come down to this one game because11 days from now Indiana will open Big Ten play on the road at Rutgers.

Will Indiana fans head to Rutgers thinking the Hoosiers are in a better place buoyed by a strong performance against Notre Dame today?

Or will they go there more disappointed following a poor performance against the Irish?

That’s what we’ll find out today.

That’s why today is such a big game in terms of perception.

The problem with evaluating an effort like Indiana put forth Saturday night against Morehead State was … well … it was Morehead State.

And no matter how much some will try to get to believe that Morehead State is a decent non-conference opponent, the Eagles just really didn’t look that part Saturday night in a 92-59 loss to the Hoosiers.

So you sit back, evaluate the effort and then try to decide just what it all really means.

This is what I took away from Indiana’s win Saturday night over Morehead State.

It seemed like Indiana was trying to do something different on defense. And you know what, no matter the opponent, that is a start. The only way IU is ever going to get better on the defensive side of the ball is to string a few good defensive efforts together and try to do something very different than what we saw displayed in Maui and what we say displayed in Durham, N.C. on Wednesday.

And I felt like this was a start.

I liked the 30-second shot clock violations that IU was able to force.

I liked the way the Hoosiers had a couple of other defensive possessions that were pushed almost to the shot clock buzzer.

I liked the fact that I could actually see some help side defense and an awareness by a couple of players in particular.

I liked some of the energy I saw and the seven blocked shots.

What I liked the most is that it just felt like there was a team defensive concept going on. It seemed like Indiana was really trying to do something as a group and not just as individuals.

I just thought it was better. Yes, it was Morehead State but that was the next team on the schedule. IU could have come out and played awful again and really left Hoosier fans wondering what was going to happen next. Instead, it played solid ball on both ends of the floor.

The reality is that outside of Notre Dame in the Crossroads Classic that it’s probably going to be hard for us to really get a gauge for what to expect from this team moving into Big Ten play.

But again, the only thing you can really hope for right now is to take baby steps in that direction and then by the time you play the Irish perhaps give a performance that gives you hope again when IU plays against a good foe.

So yes, it was just Morehead State. But the good news is that it wasn’t the defense played in Maui and it wasn’t the defense played at Duke.

That’s a step in the right direction.

I can’t really say I expected Indiana to beat Duke Wednesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

The writing was on the wall. Defending national champs. A winning streak of 120 games against non-conference foes. A 6-0 record at home in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. A No. 7 national ranking against a team that had fallen out of the rankings last week.

No, this one never felt right going in.

At the same time, I didn’t expect this either.

I didn’t expect Indiana to lay down. I didn’t expect the Hoosiers to roll over. I didn’t expect this Measuring Stick game to turn into an outcome that made you feel like the two programs were light years apart.

The big question today is where does Indiana basketball go from here? With the exception of the Notre Dame game, the other four remaining non-conference opponents hardly will be foes to lose sleep over. And so very likely Indiana will head into Big Ten play with a record of 9-4 or maybe 10-3.

But what does it all mean? Maybe, what does it all matter?

The bottom line here is if Indiana doesn’t defend better than it has in the first eight games, this will be a team that will be firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble at best come mid-March. And that’s if the all the stars were to align just right. The reality is, take away the first 10 minutes Wednesday night, and Indiana was a work in progress at best.

That one was hard to watch. I’ve read all the postings on Social Media in the last few hours after Indiana lost to Duke Wednesday night 94-74 and while people are absolutely losing their minds, it’s hard not to argue with a lot of the sentiment.

This team has talent. A lot of talent. And yet, they simply don’t defend at the rate they need to defend. They don’t even defend at an average rate. You have to be passionate to play defense and it’s just not there. Every opponent Indiana plays, whether it’s Duke or Alcorn State, simply drives the ball to the basket one time after another against Indiana and no one gets in the way.

SOMEBODY GET IN THE WAY. SOMEBODY MAKE A PLAY. SOMEBODY GET OUT ON A 3-POINT SHOOTER. SOMEBODY SHOW SOME PASSION.

You can single out one or two players if you want but this is a team thing. These guys simply do not defend. And the reality is that simple fact makes it in turn very difficult to defend what is Indiana basketball right now.

There is simply no defense for what we are witnessing first hand right now.

But I still come back to where does IU basketball go from here? What is it going to take for this group of individuals to realize that they have to play defense differently than how they are playing it right now?

Maui certainly didn’t serve as the wakeup call that many thought it would.

Will Duke do it? I really don’t know. I can’t understand why it takes anything to motivate you to play better on the defensive end. This should be a pride thing. This should be an IU basketball thing.

But right now there’s a major disconnect. And the reality is, with the schedule that IU has left to play before the Big Ten opener at Rutgers on Dec. 30, there is going to be no way to know if Indiana is indeed able to improve heading into conference play.

And that single point is a very frustrating one.

So what do we know about Indiana Basketball following last week’s disappointing 1-2 effort in Maui heading into tonight’s non-conference game at Assembly Hall against winless Alcorn State?

We know that IU has a long way to go before the Hoosiers deserve to be mentioned among the top teams in the Big Ten, much less among the best in the nation.

We know that if Indiana continues to play the way it has played on the defensive end in terms of allowing that much penetration that it’s going to be a difficult season to watch.

We know that Indiana clearly has to do a better job of taking care of the basketball and committing so many unforced errors.

We know that free throw shooting could potentially be an adventure this season. Even the guys you expect to hit them at a high rate don’t seem to have a great deal of confidence in the early going.

We know that unfortunately we’re probably not going to know that much more about this IU team after it plays an 0-5 Alcorn State team tonight at home. There’s only one game of the three this week that will provide any kind of a true measuring stick game for this team and that will come up Wednesday night at Duke.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing of all is that I expect Indiana to represent itself pretty well Wednesday night because this has been a team that plays better when the bright lights go on. The reality, however, is that Indiana needs to get to be a team that gives you a consistent effort every night. It cannot play to the level of its competition. When it does so, teams like Wake Forest and UNLV have a shot to beat you and that shouldn’t be the case.

The good news is that there is still a month to go before IU opens Big Ten play. A lot can happen in a month especially if the Hoosiers have a short memory regarding the trip to Hawaii.

Sure, Indiana lost to Wake Forest on Monday, but Hoosier fans should not fret.

I was as shocked as anyone that the Hoosiers fell to the Demon Deacons 82-78 in Maui, Hawaii, but I am here to say that it’s not as big of a deal as everyone thinks.

My Twitter feed was full of derogatory tweets directed at the program and at coach Tom Crean, but I had to do everything I could to not yell at everyone to cool their jets.

It’s November.

IU lost to unranked Butler in December of 2012 and that year the Hoosiers were much more talented in my opinion. They later traveled to the NCAA Tournament, reaching the Sweet 16 and a 15-5 Big Ten record.

I’m thinking this is the same kind of situation. Wake Forest did not look terrible on Monday and I would not be surprised if they are close to the Top 25, if not breaking into the polls, come next week.

Just to give some perspective, Miami (FL) jumped all the way from unranked to No. 15 in the polls, just from knocking off Utah and Butler, both of which dropped out of the rankings entirely.

So let’s look at some positives from Monday night, because I do think that the positive speak about what we can expect heading forward.

Max Bielfeldt commanded more in the post than Thomas Bryant did. The transfer from Michigan put up 11 points in 23 minutes down low. I’m jumping on the Bielfeldt bandwagon, because he is going to be a good backup if Bryant is having problems.

Troy Williams put up 16 points, which is always fun to see, but I was more impressed with Robert Johnson coming off the bench to record 14. Johnson got 25 minutes of playing time, two more than James Blackmon Jr., who played horrendously throughout. Based on tonight alone, I would like to see Johnson rotate into the lineup a little more often moving forward.

The turnover conundrum did not look quite as terrible on Monday, as the Hoosiers only committed 14, which is down from the average of 18 per game. It’s not great yet, but it’s progress. I would however like to see it below the average from last season: 12. If the turnover average were below 12 per game, it would be the best of this millennium and that would be a fun milestone to watch IU make.

I would go into depth about the improvements that need to happen, but everyone has read the issues of Monday night at length in Terry Hutchens’ article.

So, don’t worry Hoosier Nation, IU will be back to its winning ways soon enough.

Let me know what you think this loss means for IU. Leave some comments and we’ll have a discussion!

The final five minutes of Indiana’s 82-78 loss to Wake Forest Monday night in the first game of the Maui Invitational was filled with less than stellar defense, poor shot selection, a key missed one-and-one free throw opportunity and a head-scratching final play coming out of a timeout.

Basically, this one turned out to be a debacle.

And with under 8 minutes to play, it looked as if Indiana had figured things out enough to advance to play Vanderbilt on Tuesday in the championship semifinals. A 9-0 run, capped by a Robert Johnson layup had given Indiana a 72-63 lead.

IU still led 75-67 after Thomas Bryant hit the second of two free throws with 4:50 remaining.

But that’s when Indiana’s defense went back into a slumber. Wake Forest scored on back-to-back drives to the basket then got a pair of rebound follow shots to fall. Two more drives by Bryant Crawford had Wake Forest on top with 3.2 seconds to play.

In between, Indiana looked bad on the offensive end. The Hoosiers settled time after time for shots.

It started with Yogi Ferrell, a normally adept free throw shooter, missing the front end of a one-and-one with 4:08 to play.

The next time down on offense James Blackmon Jr. missed a 3-pointer with 3:29 to play. After Yogi scored on a left-handed bank shot inside, the Hoosiers were back up by five.

After that it was back to questionable shooting. First, Ferrell misfired on a 3 from the right wing with 2:18 to play. I was just thinking to myself that Ferrell’s streak of consecutive games with a 3-point field goal was in jeopardy and then the senior guard put up that shot. It wasn’t close. It also wasn’t a good look.

Then Max Bielfeldt, with IU clinging to a one-point lead, launched a 3-pointer from the right corner that was an air ball.

IU’s next missed shot was a jumper by Yogi. It was a good enough shot, but it didn’t go down.

Troy Williams had a two shot free throw opportunity with 13.1 seconds to play and IU trailing by one. He missed the first and made the second.

Then after IU engaged in matador defense on the other end once again, IU called not one but two time outs back-to-back (its final two) with 3.2 seconds remaining. That’s when Collin Hartman launched a long pass into the middle of the court that was intercepted and the game basically ended there.

But how can that be your play after two timeouts and a slew of good 3-point shooters on your team? Why not a halfcourt pass to Yogi, Blackmon Jr. or Nick Zeisloft and let them take a few steps and get up a shot?

Why throw a Hail Mary right into the middle of the court?

That one mystified me.

Most Indiana basketball fans believed the Maui Invitational would at the very least give them a better idea of exactly what kind of team the Hoosiers will be in the 2015-16 season.

It was difficult to get a good read having facing Eastern Illinois, Austin Peay and Creighton.

It will still be difficult four days from now when the Hoosiers return to the Mainland.

That’s because the significance of that loss is that IU will now not have a chance to play in a measuring stick game against Vanderbilt, and likely won’t get to face UCLA or Kansas either. Instead, the Hoosiers will be in the loser’s bracket with a likely field of St. John’s. UNLV and Chaminade. IU will play St. John’s Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET.

The only thing Indiana fans can hope for now is that somehow UNLV is able to beat UCLA later tonight. At least then, Indiana would get to go up against a better foe. But that will be a long shot at best.

All in all, this was exactly the worst possible of scenarios for Indiana basketball when the Hoosiers went to Maui.

How much fun it is to watch Thomas Bryant develop before our eyes?

I think it’s a blast.

With every game I see the big man play, I think he gets a little bit more confident.
Thursday night he had 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting from the field in Indiana's convincing 86-65 victory over Creighton. He made a 3-pointer from the right corner. He had a play in the second half where he exhibited great body control when he went up for a shot inside, hung in the air for just a second, and then banked it in softly off the glass.

He had four blocked shots and was active on the boards. He had a pair of assists. He made all six of his shots inside the 3-point arc.

But you know what I liked the most from him on Thursday night – his emotion.

He had a sequence in the second half where he had a block and then there was a scramble for the ball after he tried to block a second shot. The officials called a jump ball and Bryant was clearly happy to have gotten a piece of it.

And as his team went to a time out he was clearly engaged in the moment and was really fired up and the fans showed their appreciation with a loud ovation.

He had a couple of those ovations Thursday night. He had another time when he came back on the court following a timeout after he had scored a couple of buckets where the fans did the two-syllable “Thom-as Bry-ant” chant. I’ve talked to players over the years who have said there is no bigger rush than to hear your name chanted like that.

Bryant seemed completely focused on the defensive end as the fans chanted his name but somewhere in the recesses of his mind you have to figure he heard it.

And you know what, he deserved it, too.

Bryant is quickly becoming a fan favorite at Assembly Hall and it’s easy to see why.

He works hard. He plays with great intensity. He seems to take constructive criticism well and he just has a presence in the middle.

And when you think about that’s the biggest improvement here: a presence.

Indiana hasn’t had a presence in the middle since Cody Zeller.

Hanner Mosquera-Perea wasn’t a presence. Luke Fischer had the chance to be but didn’t stick around long enough for us to find out.

But Bryant has that presence and the great thing for Indiana fans is that you just feel like he is just scratching the surface of how he could potentially play as the season progresses.

Bryant played 19 minutes in the opener against Eastern Illinois and 21 minutes against Austin Peay. Thursday night, he played 27 minutes.

And here’s another great statistic from Thursday night. In 27 minutes, Bryant had one foul and one turnover.

If Bryant can continue to improve, play with energy, stay out of foul trouble and be that commanding presence inside for the Hoosiers, it’s simply going to make Indiana’s outside shooters even deadlier than they already are.

And this season is going to become very much like Bryant.

A lot of fun to watch.

So what do we know about Indiana Basketball following victories over Eastern Illinois on Friday, and most recently Monday’s 102-76 win over Austin Peay?

1. THIS TEAM CAN SHOOT
We know that Indiana still has the potential to be deadly from distance and for that matter from just about anywhere on the court. Monday night, the Hoosiers made 16 of 27 3-pointers and three players knocked down four or more. In the second half, Indiana hit nearly 81 percent of its shots total, making 21 of 26. And these weren’t just all layups or post moves to the basket. Indiana hit eight 3-pointers in the second half. Indiana had a stretch where it made 15 shots in a row from 15:31 to play in the game when Max Bielfeldt stole a pass at midcourt and went for a layup the other way until James Blackmon Jr. missed a driving shot to the basket with 3:17 to play. In that 12 minute and 14 second stretch, Indiana hit seven 3-pointers.

2. THE FRESHMEN HAVE POTENTIAL BUT …
Thomas Bryant has already done enough things around the basket to make you feel like he’s going to be a contributor if he doesn’t let his emotions get the best of him. We saw that Friday night when got the technical for hanging on the rim and we saw it again on Monday when his teammates had to calm him down one time. But in between, he just has the look of a big man on both ends of the floor. The bigger question marks, however, are just how much can you expect to get out of O.G. Anunoby and Juwan Morgan. Both players seem to be kind of feeling their way in the early going and I’m sure most of that is trying to learn the adjustment from playing high school to college basketball. Anunoby has done more good things at this point than Morgan but the sample size with both of them is still too small to really get a good read. For example, against Austin Peay, Anunoby only played 9 minutes and Morgan was in for 7. Those will be two players to keep an eye on over the next month or so heading into Big Ten play.

3. I BELIEVE THE DEFENSE IS IMPROVED BUT …
They still give up way too many easy drives and don’t seem to get out quickly enough on shooters. This is probably over simplifying it but at times these guys almost seem to be willing to concede something on the defensive end so that they can get back on the offensive end to score. They need to find ways to get more offensive off of their defense. Monday, IU scored 33 points off of 23 turnovers. At first that sounds OK but there were times when IU really failed to capitalize on some of those miscues. Another problem Monday was that Austin Peay managed 40 points in the paint. That’s a lot of points inside against a team that wasn’t particularly big. I think the next few games against Creighton, Maui opponents and then Duke will give us a much better idea of how much this defense has improved.

4. HOW ABOUT TROY WILLIAMS THE PASSER?
There is always going to be the acrobatic Troy Williams and adding clips to his highlight reel. He had another one on a flush where he went coast-to-coast with 13:25 to play in the game on Monday. There is also always going to be the Troy Williams who tries to do too much and plays out of control. But the surprising Troy Williams for me to this point has been TW the Passer. He made a couple of really nice passes Monday on his way to a career-high five assists. He had one pass in particular where Collin Hartman cut backdoor from the left corner down the baseline and Williams hit him with a bounce pass in stride for a jam. It may have been one of my favorite Troy Williams plays in his time at Indiana.

5. A SET STARTING FIVE?
It’s too early to know for certain but I would think there’s at least 10 players in the mix at this point for significant minutes. I’m not sure that you’re going to see the same starting lineup every game like was the case with some of Tom Crean’s better teams in the past. I think you’ll see four guys start every game (Yogi Ferrell, James Blackmon Jr., Thomas Bryant and Troy Williams) and then, depending on matchups, either Max Bielfeldt, Robert Johnson or Collin Hartman in particular. The other guys in the mix for significant minutes at this point include Nick Zeisloft, O.G. Anunoby and Juwan Morgan. I’m not sure if Jordan Fuchs when he comes out from football will play a significant role or not.

The important thing after two games is that IU has looked impressive enough at times to make you think that this has a chance to be a special year for the Hoosiers.

Indiana passed the first test Friday night against Eastern Illinois.

Well, maybe not a test. More like a pop quiz but the reality is that the No. 15 ranked team in the nation did exactly what it was supposed to do against an overmatched opponent like it faced in Eastern Illinois.

Spin the Panthers any way you want but Eastern Illinois is a team that is picked to finished somewhere in the middle of the Ohio Valley Conference. Eight of its players are freshmen or sophomores. They are young, undersized and looked the part Friday night.

But the mark of a good basketball team is to be able to face an opponent like that one, step on their throats early and never let them feel as if they were in the game. Yes, Eastern Illinois led by three, 5-2, with 18:18 to play.

By halftime though, the Indiana lead was 32 at 49-17. The Hoosiers never let Eastern Illinois back in the game and led by as many as 42 in the second half. The point is Indiana did exactly what it was expected to do.

It brought the hammer down on an opponent that it shouldn’t have had a great amount of trouble with.

There were plenty of good things that happened in this one. A few of those are as follows:

1. IU WAS DOMINANT INSIDE: How many times did we say that last year? Not many. Maybe not any. But in this one, Thomas Bryant and Max Bielfeldt got big inside and wanted the ball. And when they got it they knew what to do with it. They combined to make all seven of their shots from the field and combined for 22 points and 17 rebounds. That’s the kind of production that IU will need out of its two bigs.
2. INDIANA SHOT THE BALL WELL: The Hoosiers hit 52.5 percent from the field for the game and that included 57.1 percent in the first half when IU opened by making 16 of 28 shots.
3. TWO-DEEP IS A REALITY: Tom Crean talked after the game about wanting his team to be two-deep and when you look at this squad you could make a case that you’ll have 10 players in the rotation. Those include Troy Williams, Thomas Bryant, Max Bielfeldt, James Blackmon Jr., Robert Johnson, Yogi Ferrell, Collin Hartman, Nick Zeisloft, O.G. Anunoby and Juwan Morgan. Nine of those 10 played between 15 and 28 minutes Friday night. Morgan was the exception with seven minutes.
4. THE DEFENSE LOOKED GOOD: The Hoosiers had their hands on a lot of balls and made a lot of defensive stops. They held Eastern Illinois under 50 points. How many times last year did Indiana hold an opponent under 50 points? The answer: Once. That was in a 95-49 victory over Savannah State on Dec. 6 at Assembly Hall.

Were there things that were concerning? Sure. Free throws jump out. Indiana was 15 of 25. Williams, normally a good free throw shooter, missed his first four. Anunoby missed all three. IU turned it over 16 times which is too many and that led to 18 points. Fifteen assists on 32 baskets sounds low but IU scored a lot of points off second chance opportunities. The Hoosiers hit nine 3-pointers but only shoot 33 percent from distance. That means the Hoosiers missed 18 from distance.

But it needs to be remembered that this was a first game, too, and some of those things happen on opening night.

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good first pop quiz for the Hoosiers. The tests will be coming up before you know it. Creighton comes to mind next week, then Maui, then Duke.

Still, this was a good first effort for the 2015-16 Hoosiers.

As I sat on the sidelines at Hoosier Hysteria, I got those chills that roll down my spine every time I see the Indiana men's basketball squad enter Assembly Hall.

I was on the call for the Big Ten Network with the BTN Student U program, alongside Ben Wittenstein and Karley Marotta.

I saw Thomas Bryant, Juwan Morgan, O.G. Anunoby, Josh Newkirk, Max Bielfeldt and Harrison Niego enter Assembly Hall to be formally introduced as Hoosiers to fans and I have to say I was impressed.

Thomas Bryant looks massive up close. No question on that one. He's a 6-foot-10, 245 pound monster who will be a big impact immediately in the Hoosier post.

Juwan Morgan and O.G. Anunoby are not quite as big of surprises, but they will certainly deliver.

The real surprise of the night, however, had to be Troy Williams in the 3-point and dunk contests.

A lot of fans believed that Williams was going to take the dunk contest easily, which he did, but the junior also took the 3-point challenge over the prolific shooters on the team.

The junior from Hampton, Va. took down Kevin "Yogi" Ferrell, Nick Zeisloft, Robert Johnson, and James Blackmon Jr., the sharp shooters who all averaged 38 percent or better from behind the arc last season.

Williams was victorious in both, becoming the first player to win both Hoosier Hysteria events.

Williams' outstanding performance in the dunk contest proved his athletic ability for the umpteenth time.

A between the legs dunk sealed the victory for Williams, but I was more impressed by his first attempt; a 360-degree windmill slam that brought Assembly Hall to its feet.

In the scrimmage, the Cream team came away with the win over the Crimson with a 35-28 win.

Bryant, the freshman out of Rochester, N.Y., led the Cream with 13 points in the post, proving that he will quickly jump into the rotation, serving as the center that IU has needed since Noah Vonleh departed for the NBA.

Bryant also attempted the infamous Michael Jordan dunk from the free throw line during the dunk contest, but could not quite throw it down. His athleticism was amazing to watch.

I could not resist enjoying the introduction of the newcomers.

Bryant started off his career at IU in the right way; a dance performance that could not be matched. His personality and charm instantly won over thousands of fans in Assembly Hall.

Bielfeldt, the transfer from Michigan, knocked down a guarded three-pointer late in the scrimmage, so I can only hope that he will be a dual threat kind of reserve player.

Morgan and Anunoby, a pair of high school foes turned into teammates, will also act as key reserves in the post, as they averaged 18.5 points per game in their senior seasons.

Overall, I have good thoughts about this IU men's basketball squad.

Bryant will be a great addition, and he has the backups of Morgan, Anunoby, and Bielfeldt.

Of course, the shooters have all returned, and we can all trust that all four veteran guards will come back ready to go.

The Hoosiers will start off their exhibition season on Nov. 3 against Bellarmine at 7 p.m. on BTN Plus before opening the regular season on Nov. 13 at home against Eastern Illinois.