Indiana basketball is in the midst of an extremely difficult portion of its schedule. How can the Hoosiers snag a big road win over Maryland?
Big Ten basketball is going to be a gauntlet this season. Quite simply, after the top two teams in the league, Michigan and Michigan State, the rest of the rankings could end up being a bloodbath over the coming months. Road wins, in particular, will be nearly impossible to come by and that much has been made evident to this point in the year. And with Indiana basketball playing three of their next four games on the road, the team will be on the prowl for some of those ever-valuable wins away from Assembly Hall.
After falling to Michigan in their most recent game (another one away from home), the Hoosiers are looking to get back on track in College Park when they take on Maryland. This game, though, will be extremely difficult due to the idea that the Terrapins are not only a fringe top-25 team in the nation but also one that consistently plays well in front of their home crowd. They have also won four consecutive games and are coming off of a strong road performance against Minnesota.
With this said, Indiana basketball will need to play at an extremely high level in order to come away with a victory. Thankfully, Indiana has the star power in Romeo Langford and Juwan Morgan needed to take down just about anyone in the country. And while they have certainly struggled outside of Bloomington so far this year (rated at 319th away from home by Haslametrics), they are due for a strong performance.
They will, of course, have their hands full with Anthony Cowan, Jalen Smith, and Bruno Fernando but this should be an extremely fun matchup. So, without any further ado, let’s dive into analyzing three facets of the game that will be vital for Indiana basketball to pull out the road victory. (Unless otherwise noted, all statistics used for this article were found via Sports-Reference or KenPom.)