The 2019-20 Indiana basketball schedule: What we know

  • 08/16/2019 9:51 am in

Update: The full 2019-2020 Indiana basketball schedule is now available. 

The full 2019-20 Indiana basketball schedule is expected to be finalized later this month, but a good chuck of dates and non-conference opponents for the upcoming season have already been revealed.

Here’s an early look at what we know so far about the 2019-20 schedule:

· Year nine of the Crossroads Classic: Archie Miller is 2-0 so far in the Crossroads Classic and Indiana is 5-3 overall with three wins over Notre Dame and two wins over Butler. The Hoosiers will play the Fighting Irish in this year’s iteration of the Classic at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Saturday, Dec. 21. Indiana is likely to be an underdog as Notre Dame is ranked No. 21 in Bart Torvik’s current preseason rankings and boasts a solid trio of seniors in John Mooney, T.J. Gibbs and Rex Pflueger.

· Finally, a break from UNC and Duke in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge: For the first time since the 2014-15 season, Indiana will play an opponent not named Duke or North Carolina in the Big Ten’s annual challenge with the ACC. The Hoosiers will host Florida State at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 3. It will be the first meeting between Indiana and Florida State since 1992. The Hoosiers lead the all-time series 4-0. Indiana is just 7-11 all-time in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge.

· A return game in the Arkansas series: For the second time in two seasons, Indiana will host Arkansas in Bloomington. The Hoosiers lost to the Razorbacks last season in Fayetteville on Nov. 18, but avenged that loss with a second round NIT win in Bloomington on Mar. 23. As part of an agreement between the two programs reached in the summer of 2018, Arkansas will visit Bloomington this winter. The Razorbacks made a coaching change in the offseason as Mike Anderson was fired and Eric Musselman was hired as his replacement.

· New York, New York: Indiana will return to Madison Square Garden for the first time since the 2018 Big Ten tournament as the Hoosiers will square off with UConn in the Jimmy V Classic on Tuesday, Dec. 10. The Huskies, led by Danny Hurley, are ranked No. 68 in Torvik’s preseason ratings. The event will also feature a matchup between Texas Tech and Louisville, who are both ranked in the top 10 of Torvik’s preseason ratings.

· IU sitting out of the Gavitt Tipoff Games: After facing Marquette last season in the Gavitt Tipoff Games, Indiana is not in the event this season. The Gavitt Tipoff Games features eight Big Ten and Big East programs facing off in the opening week of the season. Indiana is 2-1 all-time in the Gavitt Games with wins over Creighton and Marquette and a loss at Seton Hall.

· Other known non-conference opponents: In addition to the four games mentioned above, the Hoosiers will also host Portland State (Nov. 9), Princeton and Troy. That leaves four non-conference opponents that have not been revealed.

· Big Ten opponents: Indiana’s 20-game Big Ten schedule hasn’t been finalized with dates, but the opponents were announced back in the spring.

Indiana will play these seven programs twice: Purdue, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin.

Single plays for Indiana will be Iowa (Bloomington), Michigan State (Bloomington), Northwestern (Bloomington), Illinois (Champaign), Michigan (Ann Arbor) and Rutgers (Piscataway).

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