For the first time all season, Indiana (16-7, 7-6 Big Ten) is on a two-game skid and in the Hoosiers’ last time out, they were without five scholarship players – Xavier Johnson, Parker Stewart, Tamar Bates, Michael Durr and Khristian Lander – each of whom was suspended for unspecified violations of team rules. This century, Indiana is just 5-10 at Northwestern, an opponent that now has a winning record against the Hoosiers since the start of the Tom Crean era.
If Welsh-Ryan Arena is an arena considered to have given Indiana trouble as of late, then the Breslin Center is on another level, as the Hoosiers have won there just twice during Michigan State coach Tom Izzo’s tenure.