Indiana vs. Penn State: Preview for Tomorrow's Game

Indiana is off to a surprising 14-1 start and coming off of two very big Big Ten victories. They beat No. 2 ranked Ohio State last Saturday and No. 13 ranked Michigan on Thursday night.

Penn State, on the other hand, is off to a better start than we thought they would be with losing their top two players from last year's NCAA Tournament team and their coach.

The Nittany Lions are 9-7 overall and 1-2 in the Big Ten this year. They got their first Big Ten victory on Thursday in their home opener 65-45 over Purdue. They lost 71-53 at Michigan and 68-56 at Northwestern prior to the Purdue game.

Penn State will try to build off the 20-point blowout win over Purdue tomorrow afternoon against Indiana. Forward Billy Oliver scored a career high 21 points on Thursday night, and the Nittany Lions defense held Purdue to a season low 31 percent shooting percentage. The Boilers also committed 12 turnovers in the game.

Penn State will try and build off that and their recent success against Indiana to tie the Hoosiers at 2-2 in league play.

Indiana was swept by Penn State last year after losing 69-60 at home in the Big Ten opener for both teams and were knocked out in the first round of the Big Ten tourney in Indianapolis 61-55 as well.

The Hoosiers have won the last game in University Park 67-61 on January 21, 2010, but have lost six of seven to Penn State since March 2008. The Hoosiers have only lost nine total games against Penn State so that's a huge swing for Penn State to win six in the last three years.

Penn State is built for junior guard Tim Frazier. Frazier leads the team in all three major stats—points (17.1), assists (6.8) and rebounds (5.6). I think Indiana needs to put Victor Oladipo on the 6'1" junior and make it hard for him to score.

If Indiana can make it tough for Frazier, then Penn State really doesn't stand a chance against a better Indiana team.

The Nittany Lions are small up front with the tallest player being 6'9" sophomore Sasa Borovnjak. He comes off the bench and averages 5.4 points per game.

Penn State's starting front line are both 6'8 and very inexperienced. Oliver is a sophomore, and Jonathan Graham is a freshman. I think Christian Watford and Cody Zeller will once again have huge days.

Another factor will be the lack of crowd there. Penn State struggles to get fans in the stands as there was literally no one behind either basket the other night against Purdue. There should be even less fans at a noon tipoff on a Sunday afternoon. The Hoosiers should be able to work without any crowd involvement.

Prediction:

Indiana 75 Penn State 57