NCAA Basketball: North Carolina, Gonzaga tumble on latest top 25 power ranking
By Joey Loose
18. Indiana (7-1)
Even after a great start to the season, Indiana still had a number of questions to answer, and we got answers to a couple of those this week. After a slew of impressive wins over unimpressive teams, the Hoosiers had two challenging games this week and turned in mixed results. Trayce Jackson-Davis and crew ran their unbeaten start out to seven games but ran into quite the wall over the weekend.
First and foremost, the Hoosiers hosted North Carolina as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and knocked off the Tar Heels 77-65. Jackson-Davis was phenomenal with 21 points and 10 rebounds while Xavier Johnson had 20 points and 8 rebounds of his own. Unfortunately for the Hoosiers, their weekend became disastrous as they fell 63-48 at Rutgers, dropping their first game in Big Ten play. Miller Kopp had 21 points in the loss but the offense was abysmal.
A few weeks ago, the matchup with North Carolina looked like a major opportunity, and the Hoosiers took care of business. Their performance against the Scarlet Knights, however, definitely dulls that impact. The Hoosiers simply cannot have offensive performances like this or they can fall to any team, especially a solid program like Rutgers. Next week they’ll be looking to get another solid early win when they travel to Las Vegas to face a tough Arizona team.