The 2026-27 IU basketball season continues Thursday evening as the Hoosiers host Tennessee Tech at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
The Golden Eagles are 2-1 after a 97-94 win against Western Kentucky on Sunday. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET on BTN.
Game information
Who: Indiana (3-0) vs. Tennessee Tech (2-1)
Where: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana
When: Thursday, November 12, 2026, 6:30 p.m. EST
TV: BTN, Jack Kizer (Play-by-Play), Steve Smith (Analyst)
Radio: Don Fischer (Play-By-Play), Errek Suhr (Analyst)
All-time series: Indiana leads 5-0
Last meeting: Indiana 89, Tennessee Tech 59 on November 25, 2020, in Bloomington
The line: Indiana -25.5, O/U 169.5 (DraftKings)
KenPom prediction: Indiana 92, Tennessee Tech 73 (95 percent chance of an IU win)
Indiana’s non-conference slate continues with Tennessee Tech after the Hoosiers narrowly beat Syracuse in Indianapolis on Monday.
First-year coach Tobin Anderson leads the Golden Eagles. If Anderson sounds familiar, his Fairleigh Dickinson team became a March Madness darling in 2023 after knocking off No. 1 seed Purdue before falling to Florida Atlantic in the Round of 32.
Anderson then spent two seasons at Iona – he was fired at the end of the second season – before working at South Florida last season as a special assistant to Brian Hodgson. Anderson was hired by Tennessee Tech last spring.
Thursday’s matchup should have Indiana’s attention. Tennessee Tech scored 88 points in a season-opening loss at Mississippi State and it made 19 3-pointers, a program record, in a 97-94 win against Western Kentucky on Sunday.
Meet the Golden Eagles
Tennessee Tech was picked to finish sixth in the 11-team Southern Conference in the preseason. Tech is located in Cookeville, Tennessee, 80 miles east of Nashville.
Over its first three games, Tennessee Tech has attempted 39 3-pointers per game and is 45-for-117 from deep (38.4 percent). Tennessee Tech is averaging 100.7 points per game, with six players averaging in double figures.
Its leading scorer is 6-foot-6 sophomore forward Caleb Sanders, who barely played last season at South Florida but followed Anderson from Tampa to Tennessee Tech. A top-150 player in the final 247Sports Composite rankings for the 2025 class, Sanders is averaging 18.7 points and leads the team with 7.3 rebounds per game.
The tallest player in the Tennessee Tech starting lineup, senior De’ante Green, also followed Anderson from South Florida. Green began his career at Florida State, where he played for two seasons before spending last season at South Florida. Like Sanders, he was a nationally ranked high school prospect. Green was a four-star and the No. 95 player in the final 247Sports Composite rankings in 2022. The 6-foot-9, 210-pound big man is averaging 14.3 points and seven rebounds per game.
The Golden Eagles start 6-foot-5 senior Trent Mosquera at the three with 6-foot-2 freshman Kamai Samuels at point guard and 6-foot-3 junior Cbo Newton joining him in the backcourt.
Mosquera, a transfer from Le Moyne, is 11-for-27 on 3s and made 77 3-pointers last season.
Samuels is the starter at point but 6-foot senior Ty Owens shares time off the bench. Samuels is averaging 11.7 points in 20 minutes per game but is shooting just 1-for-9 from three. Owens has dished out a team-high 17 assists in three games.
Newton, a transfer from Abilene Christian who began his career at Grambling State, made six of his seven 3-point attempts against WKU and led the Golden Eagles with 23 points in the win. Over three games, he is 12-for-21 from three and is second on the team in scoring at 14.7 points per game.
Caleb Hollenback, a 6-foot-4 senior, transferred from Marshall and has attempted 15 3-pointers over the first two games. He made two of his nine attempts in the season opener at Mississippi State and then four of six against Western Kentucky.
Other names to know off the bench include Shaun Arnold, an Indianapolis native, and Davante Hackett. Arnold, a 6-foot-5 forward, provides backup minutes at the four but isn’t an offensive threat. Hackett is a 6-foot-3 transfer from Stonehill who is 4-for-11 on 3s.
Keys to the game
• The defense must improve: Indiana is 3-0, but the defense has been underwhelming through three games. The Hoosiers rank 270th in 2-point field goal percentage defense as of Wednesday morning, per KenPom.com. Offensively, Tennessee Tech’s 3-point shooting is a concern. Still, overall, Indiana hasn’t shown it can stay engaged defensively for more than a few minutes at a time early in the season. Unless that changes, Indiana won’t beat good teams consistently.
• Dominate the glass: This may become a permanent fixture in the keys for IU this season. Darian DeVries built this roster to rebound. Rebounding is one of this team’s primary strengths right now – on both ends – and the Golden Eagles are not a good rebounding team. Indiana needs to impose its will again on the offensive glass. The Hoosiers also need to secure the 50-50 balls and long rebounds off Tennessee Tech’s 3-point attempts.
• Get to the line and convert: Tennessee Tech plays up-tempo and is aggressive defensively, which should lead to plenty of free-throw attempts for the Hoosiers if they take care of the ball. In its two games against Division I opponents, the Golden Eagles have allowed a free-throw rate (FTA/FGA) of 63.6 percent. In three games, Indiana is shooting 77.1 percent from the line and free throws (22-for-26) helped secure Monday’s win against the Orange.
What it comes down to
Tennessee Tech comes to Bloomington beaming with confidence after beating Western Kentucky and with nothing to lose. The Golden Eagles will try to get up as many 3-pointers as possible and see what happens.
If Indiana looks ahead to next week’s schedule – Arkansas in New York City and Kentucky in Indianapolis – it may have a battle on its hands, particularly if Tennessee Tech makes 3-pointers.
The KenPom projection is Indiana by 19 with a 95 percent chance of a win. Bart Torvik’s ratings favor the Hoosiers by 24 with a 96 percent chance of victory.
