2. Indiana (4-0)
The faithful in Bloomington are hoping that this is finally another special season for Indiana. The Hoosiers made a few trips back to the Big Dance under Mike Woodson before falling short last season. Instead of panicking, Woodson and his staff went hard to work building a roster that can win the Big Ten this season, and that’s what we’ve seen in the first few weeks of this season.
Much like with other Big Ten teams, Indiana hasn’t really been challenged quite yet, but there’s nothing to be disappointed about either. Their first four contests have all come at home, with their best offensive effort in a 16-point win over South Carolina. The other three wins came against mid-majors, with the Hoosiers doing more than enough to get four straight double-digit victories.
Mackenzie Mgbako is averaging 22.0 points and 7.7 rebounds per game and is taking a massive step forward in his sophomore season. As expected, both Oumar Ballo and Malik Reneau are making major contributions in that frontcourt as well. There’s a lot of legitimate talent in this rotation and the Hoosiers are hoping to ride that to success. This team doesn’t need to make a ton of 3-pointers to win each night; we’ll just have to see how those bigs stack up when the going gets tough.