On Sunday, Northwestern welcomes No. 2 Indiana at Welsh-Ryan Arena. It takes place at 1:00 EST and you can see it on Big Ten Network. The Wildcats are 6-2 against the Hoosiers over the last four years. They lost 71-66 the last time they played (2/15/2012).

Indiana maintains 4th place in the Big Ten while Northwestern sits at 8th place.

The 20 points by Reggie Hearn helped the Wildcats to a 68-54 victory over Illinois on January 17th. He paces the team in points per game with 14.1, and steals per game with 1.4. For the Hoosiers, Cody Zeller put up 23 points and 10 rebounds in the 64-59 loss to Wisconsin on January 15th. He puts up a team-leading 16.9 points per game, 7.9 rebounds per game, and 1.4 blocks per game.

Analyzing the differences between the teams, Indiana has the edge in two important areas. The Hoosiers have an advantage over the Wildcats in scoring, with an average of 85 points per game to 65 points per game. Indiana also has an advantage in rebounding, 41 per game to 32 per game. Indiana will attempt to capitalize on their strengths, which include free throw rate at 48.4, effective field goal percentage at 56.7, and offensive rebounding percentage at 40.3.

Indiana StatSmack

  • Dave Sobolewski is ranked 8th in the Big Ten in three-pointers and 5th in the Big Ten in assists.
  • Northwestern has a much better overall winning percentage over the last 5 years (0.586 to 0.472).
  • Northwestern has a much higher 4-year graduation rate than Indiana according to Kiplinger (86.4% vs 53%).
  • Northwestern has a much better NCSA Academic Ranking than Indiana (#12 vs #71).
  • Northwestern has a much lower average debt at graduation according to Kiplinger than Indiana ($20,802 vs $25,522).
  • You'll do better on next semester's exams, right? Northwestern currently has a higher Academic Progress Rate (984 to 952) than Indiana, per the NCAA.
  • The Northwestern basketball team finishes what they start, with a better graduation rate than Indiana (90% vs 62%).
  • Northwestern has a much better NCSA Power Ranking than Indiana (#9 vs #99).
  • Alex Olah is ranked 10th in the Big Ten in blocks.
  • Northwestern is bigger. The average weight of the top 8 players on Northwestern is 213 lbs compared to 208 lbs for Indiana.