Indiana vs. Northwestern Preview
Josh Wilson is a part of the Hoosiers-United family. You can check out his other work by following the links below:
Follow Josh and the rest of the Hoosiers-United family on Twitter: Josh Wilson (@joshwilson33), Ben Malcomson (@malcomsonben), Chris Corley (@chriscorley_3), Brian Tonsoni (@Soni42), and Bill Murphy (@Williamindiana2).
The Indiana Hoosiers welcome in BigTen foe, the Wildcats of Northwestern University, tomorrow for a matinee tip-off to begin conference play for the 2018-19 campaign. This will be the first of the two December games that kickoff the BigTen slate for the conference. We’ll take a bit of a dive into Northwestern to see what Indiana is going to be up against.
Northwestern brings in a seasoned group and returns the likes of Vic Law, Derek Pardon, and Aaron Falzon. The Wildcats also add in Ryan Taylor, who was the highly sought after graduate transfer from the University of Evansville. No doubt that Northwestern will pose problems simply because of the amount of experience they bring to the table. It will be interesting to see how Indiana handles that with the amount of youth they have on their roster. It will be a very good test for Indiana to face such a seasoned team that has had their share of adversity. Northwestern is led in scoring by Vic Law at 17.9 ppg and Ryan Taylor is a close second at 14.0 ppg. It’s easy to see that these two players lead the Wildcats and are their go-to players. In each of Northwestern’s first seven games, either Law or Taylor have led the team in scoring. If you want an easy key to the game, find a way to maintain Vic Law or Ryan Taylor.
Northwestern hasn’t really played anybody so far this season. They certainly haven’t played anybody to the stature that Indiana has so far this season. They also haven’t played in a true road environment yet. They’ve played four games at home and three games in a neutral setting. Their only loss coming to a Fresno State team on a neutral court by a 19-point margin. Assembly Hall hasn’t been kind to the Wildcats, and Indiana will look to continue that trend tomorrow afternoon. Below is a snapshot at Northwestern’s first seven games of the season. The winner of this game will obviously have a leg up in conference play by getting off to a 1-0 start. Probably more important for Indiana to win this game, as they travel to play an always pesky Penn State team in Happy Valley on Tuesday.
** Stats Courtesy of ESPN