The Mike Woodson era officially begins this week. The 2021-22 college basketball season kicks off Tuesday, Nov. 9 and the Indiana men’s basketball program opens the season with a home game against Eastern Michigan.

Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup.

Date, tipoff time, TV channel

Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 9 in Assembly Hall. The game will air on the Big Ten Network or you can listen to the game here.

The spread, total

Indiana is projected to win 81-58, with a 98 percent chance of victory, according to kenpom.com. Barttorvik.com projects a 79-59 victory for the Hoosiers, whom the site projects to win 96 percent of the time.

As of Monday afternoon, gambling spreads haven’t been released for the game.

Opponent preview

Like Indiana, Eastern Michigan has a first-year head coach in Stan Heath, who previously served as the head coach at Kent State (2002), Arkansas (2003-07) and South Florida (2008-14). He owns a career record of 209-207, with four total NCAA tournament appearances in his career.

In Heath’s lone season at Kent State in 2002, the Golden Flashes went 30-6, earned a No. 10 seed and advanced to the Elite Eight, where they fell to No. 5 seed Indiana, which finished as the national runner-up that season.

Eastern Michigan finished 6-12 (3-11 MAC) last season, with a kenpom.com ranking of No. 289. The Eagles will have to replace the production of their leading scorer last season, 6-8 forward Ty Groce, who averaged 15.2 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, but they return second-leading scorer Bryce McBridge, a 6-foot guard who averaged 13.7 points per game.

Historically, Heath’s teams have played at a slow tempo. From 2011 through 2013, his South Florida teams ranked among the 30 slowest nationally, per kenpom.com. His teams have often been strong defensively in terms of the opponent’s 3-point percentage, while also struggling at 3-point shooting themselves.