Game preview: #5 Michigan at Indiana

Who? Indiana Hoosiers (12-7 (3-5), #38 KenPom) vs Michigan Wolverines (18-1 (7-1), #6 KenPom)

When? Friday, 1/25/19 6:30 P.M., Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall

Channel? FS1

Vegas? Wolverines -4.5, o/u 133.5

KenPom? Michigan by 4, 66-62, 39% chance of IU Victory

Look, I’m not going to mince words for this preview. You know this team has been bad and is on a five-game losing streak. The Hoosiers are shorthanded by injury. Nothing is going well on either side of the ball! And furthermore, the season is going off the rails during the only year that Romeo Langford will be in Bloomington. Very legal and very cool!

How bad are things? Well, I graphed KenPom offensive and defensive efficiency for conference-only games of Big Ten teams:

As you can see, Indiana being in the bottom-left quadrant on here isn’t great! We’re in the same realm as Penn State, Northwestern (who we lost to by 7 on Tuesday night), Illinois, and yes, Rutger. Also, our only three B1G wins come from these teams.

As for tonight’s opponent, Michigan has already defeated us earlier this season in Ann Arbor. Indiana got off to one of its World Famous Slow Starts and by the time it settled into a rhythm Michigan was too much to overcome. Since that point, the Wolverines have struggled and taken their first L of the season at Wisconsin, but they’re still a top-5 team coming off an emotional buzzer-beating victory against Minnesota Tuesday night.

I don’t know, man. Instead let’s talk about the women’s team, who beat Michigan 70-60 last night on the strength of Jaelynn Penn’s career-high 28 points. A great victory for the Hoosiers, who improved to 16-4 on the season. They’ll have a huge opportunity to climb back into the polls on Sunday, when #11 Maryland comes to Bloomington for a matinee at Assembly Hall at noon.