IU basketball game day: Hoosiers open Big Ten Tournament with third meeting against Rutgers

Rutgers ended Archie Miller’s first season at Indiana at the 2018 Big Ten Tournament in New York.  Another win by the Scarlet Knights at the event three years later could end Miller’s tenure in Bloomington.

Once thought of as the league’s bottom feeder, the Scarlet Knights are looking to complete their first ever Big Ten three-game sweep.

Rutgers took the home-and-home series against Indiana this season, and have now won five of the past six meetings with the Hoosiers.  The Scarlet Knights claimed a 74-70 victory on January 24th that was the program’s first ever win at Assembly Hall, and ended a five game losing streak. Rutgers then claimed a 74-63 victory in the return meeting in New Jersey on February 24.

With a depleted roster, Indiana must find a way to avoid the sweep and live to fight another day.  Otherwise, an offseason full of uncertainty begins tonight.

GAME DAY ESSENTIALS

Big Ten Tournament

No. 7 seed Rutgers (14-10, 10-10) vs. No. 10 seed Indiana (12-14, 7-12)

• Tip time:  Thursday, 6:30 p.m. ET
• Location: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Ind. (8,000 fans in attendance)
• Television:  BTN (Brandon Gaudin and Shon Morris)
• IU Radio Network (Don Fischer, Errek Suhr, Joe Smith)
• Series:  Indiana leads 7-5 (Rutgers won last meeting 74-63 in Feb.)
• Point Spread:  Rutgers is around a 3-point favorite
• KenPom has No. 33 Rutgers by 2 points over No. 39 Indiana, 67-65.

Rutgers is guided by Steve Pikiell, who is 270-231 overall for his career, and 78-74 in his fifth year at Rutgers.

See also:  

• Indiana could be down two starters vs. Rutgers
• Miller, Durham and Jackson-Davis preview the game
• KenPom chances to advance (round 2 to finals:

7   Rutgers 100   53.7   12.8    3.8    1.2
10 Indiana 100   46.3    9.8     2.6    0.7

RUTGERS 2020-21 STATISTICS

ARCHIE MILLER ON RUTGERS

“We have a difficult match up with Rutgers,” Miller said on Wednesday.  “We have played them twice and haven’t had a whole lot of success. In our most recent game, they dominated the back 10 minutes of the first half and in the second half after we got off to a pretty good start. For us we are really trying to concentrate on being as good as we can for the third time around as we approach them most importantly on both ends of the floor. They are a strong and tough-minded group with some veteran guys that have played a lot of games together.”

On center Myles Johnson and his impact on the defensive end —

“I would say based on how they’re playing from our standpoint in conference play, one of the advantages for him is staying between 15 feet and the rim,” Miller said.  “He doesn’t have to get extended very much, they’re not bringing him out and being as aggressive as they usually are at one time in his career. He doesn’t have to be exposed as far away from the basket. I think if you keep a guy like him in between the rim and his man, that’s where he’s at his greatest strength.”

STEVE PIKIELL ON INDIANA

“Trayce Jackson-Davis could be a first-team All-American, so whenever you have a player like him around the basket that causes many problems, they have very athletic guards,” Pikiell said on the Steve Pikiell Podcast earlier this week. “You’re talking about a program that’s won five national championships. Archie does a really good job. We were fortunate. We played really well when we went to Indiana and won there for the first time in program history. And then we came back here on Senior Night, and played really good basketball, especially for the stretch in the middle when we went on a huge run.

“Every team is getting on that bus. It’s a whole new season now. Throw away all the records, throw away everything. They’re playing for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament just like everybody else that’s arriving there. What happened last time doesn’t necessarily mean anything other than you have to do it again. It will be very challenging.”

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST TWO MEETINGS

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