Indiana Basketball: Projecting the Hoosiers' Record Month by Month

With college basketball practice officially underway in Bloomington, head coach Tom Crean believes his Indiana Hoosiers basketball team will be significantly improved over the previous three seasons.

The Hoosiers return their top seven players (minus an injured Maurice Creek) to go along with Cody Zeller—a 6'11'' High School All-American who can play inside and out.  

Zeller is without a doubt the best recruit of the Tom Crean era (for now), and one of the best recruits in the history of Indiana basketball.  

He will be the 26th Indiana Mr. Basketball to attend IU and will join teammate Jordan Hulls as the 13th pair to play for the Hoosiers at the same time.

Now that the Tom Crean finally has his big man in Zeller, let's take a look at what the Hoosiers' record could look like on a monthly basis.

November: Seven Games

Five home games: Stony Brook, Chattanooga, Savannah State, Gardner Webb and Butler.

Two road games: At Evansville and at North Carolina State (part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge).

Five automatic wins here with two games against teams that the Hoosiers are better than in Butler and North Carolina State.

I'll be conservative and project IU to beat an extremely down Butler team (compared to the last two years) at home and lose a close one on the road at North Carolina State.

November record:  6-1

December: Seven Games

Five home games: Stetson, Kentucky, Howard, Maryland-Baltimore County, Ohio State.

One road game: Michigan State.

One neutral site game: Notre Dame (played at Coseco Fieldhouse as part of the Crossroads Classic).

Wow.  What a tough month, games against Kentucky, OSU, MSU and Notre Dame.

I'll take a stab at this one and predict "closer than you think" losses at home to two of the top three teams in America in Kentucky and OSU.  

I'll guess a loss at Michigan State and a close win over the Irish (lost top two players from last season) at Conseco in front of a Hoosier friendly crowd.

December record:  4-3

January: Eight Games

Four home games: Michigan, Minnesota, Penn State, Iowa.

Four road games: Penn State, Ohio State, Nebraska, Wisconsin.

Not a terribly difficult month outside of games at Ohio State and Wisconsin—let's just mark those as losses for now.

I like the Hoosiers to win on the road at Penn State and Nebraska, while going 3-1 at home with a loss to either UM or Minnesota.

January record:  5-3

February: Eight Games

Four home games: Illinois, Northwestern, North Carolina Central (non-conference), Michigan State.

Four road games: Michigan, Purdue, Iowa, Minnesota.

I like the Hoosier to run the table at home in February. IU beat Illinois at home last season and will do it again this year.  The Hoosiers are beyond due to beat Michigan State after giving one away in East Lansing last season and will take care of business in front of 17,000 plus in Assembly Hall.

On the road, I'll give the Hoosiers one win at Iowa.

February record:  5-3

March: One Game, Big Ten Tournament and Postseason Tournament

Home game: Purdue.

Big Ten Tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse (March 8-11).

NIT Tournament or NCAA Tournament?

IU will dominate a much less talented Purdue team at home to start March off with a bang before heading to the Big Ten Tournament.

I'm guessing the Hoosiers win one and lose one in Indianapolis ahead of Selection Sunday.

Final Record:  22-11

Postseason Prediction: Squarely on the bubble and one of the "last four in" to the NCAA Tournament.

Mark it down IU fans, you heard it here first, your Hoosiers are headed back to the Big Dance in 2012.