IU faces stretch of ranked opponents

Playing in what IU Coach Tom Crean has called the “best conference in the country” numerous times this season certainly has its benefits.

In preparation for the NCAA tournament this March, the Hoosiers will have played at least nine different teams who were ranked at some point during the 2012-13 campaign.

But now, with just 12 games left in regular conference season play, the Hoosiers will play seven games against opponents currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 25.

It’s a tough road for a team that at the beginning of the season sat atop the rankings in the country and one many thought could secure the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament come March.

For Crean and his players, though, this road begins 1 p.m. Sunday in Assembly Hall as the No. 7 Hoosiers take on No. 13 Michigan State in the teams’ first battle of the season.

The Spartans come to Bloomington with the best record in the conference at 6-1, a half-game ahead of the second-place Hoosiers (5-1). Like IU, the rest of Michigan State’s conference schedule contains more than half of the teams that are currently ranked.

With a win Sunday, IU could hold a share of the conference lead with Michigan, if the Wolverines can beat Illinois when the teams play Sunday.

If the Hoosiers and Wolverines were to win their mid-week games next week, both teams could play Feb. 2 for the outright conference lead as ESPN College Gameday comes to Bloomington.

Crean said his players always emphasize the importance of only looking at the next game ahead, but after Wednesday’s contest against Penn State, even he could not help but recognize the uphill battle his players will face this week, starting with the Spartans.

“We got a hard stretch coming up,” Crean said. “The next week is three games. It’s Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday and every game is going to be an absolute battle.”

Sunday’s game marks a seven-day stretch where the Hoosiers will play three games, including Sunday against Michigan State, followed by a matchup with in-state rival Purdue Wednesday before taking on Michigan the following weekend.

Crean said, though, that even though the latter half of IU’s Big Ten schedule is as tough as it is, the key to the rest of his team’s season is to stay focused on every team one at a time, no matter where they stand in the conference rankings.

“It sounds very cliché-ish and corny, but you want to be on a one-game winning streak constantly,” Crean said. “These guys do an excellent job looking at each game. They’ve never played with the intention of the next game being on their mind, other than the game that they’re in.

“Sometimes when you’re older and sometimes when you have a lot of expectations on you and you play in a league like this, you can look at the schedule and lose sight. Those teams get beat. You can’t get too high. You can’t get too low. You’ve got to take each game for what it is: the most important game.”