IU's Big Test: The Road

Beginning Thursday night, IU begins its toughest stretch of the season. Four of its next five games are on the road. It starts at Purdue, followed by a trip to Ann Arbor two days later. After a home game against Minnesota, IU goes to Michigan State and Northwestern.

When Kelvin Sampson was hired the first thing DJ White told him was "I want to win on the road." IU has shown progress in that area, playing Duke, Kentucky, and Ohio State down to the wire. When IU beat UConn in Hartford, I thought they had turned the corner. Ugly losses at Illinois (43 points!) and Iowa (completely dominated on the boards) prove otherwise. With that in mind, here are my thoughts on each upcoming game:

At Purdue: First of all, would Purdue stop the whining about Earl Calloway? Matt Painter is turning out to be as big a whiner as his mentor, Bruce Whiner. And I don't want to hear all this "lack of class" stuff. Calloway apologized - immediately! "Lack of class" is dancing and spitting on your opponents logo at half court after winning at their place and not apologizing for it, like Purdue did at IU in the 90's. Of course, Purdue's players probably can't remember that, since the last time Purdue won at Assembly Hall their freshmen were in 5th grade.

Now, back to tomorrow's game. For IU to win their 3rd straight at Mackey, and their 12th in their last 14 games against Purdue, they will first have to weather the incredible emotion that Purdue will come out with. This will especially show on the boards & when IU is trying to run their offense. If IU can avoid falling way behind, they'll have a chance. It's going to be very tough because Purdue seems to be a very different team than the one IU beat by 27 in January.

At Michigan: Prior to the Purdue game being postponed by a day, I would have felt very confident that IU would walk away with a win in Ann Arbor. Now, I'm not so sure. IU has to play at their biggest rival, get home very late Thursday/early Friday and then hit the road Friday night for a late Saturday afternoon game in Ann Arbor. This feels like the @Illinois game all over. I'm very concerned about a poor effort here.

At Michigan State: This doesn't look like a Tom Izzo team. I haven't seen them play very much, but they've had some clunkers. At East Lansing, though, they're a different team. This game has a stupid start time (9 pm) so their fans will have all day to get riled up. IU has only won once at the Breslin Center (1991). However, given the short rest before the Michigan game, this may be IU's best chance for victory out of the first 3.

At Northwestern: In the Mike Davis era this all of a sudden became a difficult place to play. I like Bill Carmody but Northwestern is not very good. (Neither was Mike Davis, but that's a different story.) If IU doesn't win this one, then they're not very good.

I used to hate when Davis would say before a stretch of road games "if we could win 1 I'd be happy." You can't say that as a coach. As a fan, though, it's OK. The players don't pay attention to me. Having said that, I would be very happy if IU can go 2-2 in these road games. Assuming they take care of business at home, that will leave them at 11-5 in the Big Ten and 21-8 overall. (BTW, 11-5 was IU's Big Ten record when they were co-champions in 2002.) That should get them a Top 3 seed in the Big Ten tourney. A win there and I would think they would get a 4 or 5 seed in the NCAA tourney. That would give them a good shot at the Sweet 16, which would make this season a resounding success.