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The Indiana men's basketball 2022-23 season officially kicks off as The Hoosiers host Morehead State tonight at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. After going 2-0 in their exhibitions games versus Marian and Saint Francis, Indiana will finally get the regular season started.

Indiana comes in this as the 13th ranked team in the country and the preseason favorite to win the Big Ten Conference outright. The Hoosiers return 83.6 percent of the scoring and 87.0 percent of the rebounding from a team that finished 21-14 and earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2015-16 season.

Indiana senior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis is big part of that returning group as he comes into this season preseason favorite to win Big Ten Player of the Year as well as a preseason All-American by the Associated Press.

Indiana also brings in a very talented four-man freshman class headlined by five-stars Jalen Hood-Schifino and Malik Reneau along with CJ Gunn and Kaleb Banks.

Here's a look at everything you need to know before Indiana's battle with Morehead State in the first regular season game inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall:

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All Season Previews for each player

Mike Woodson on Jalen Hood-Schifino recruitment: 'I was hot on him'

Quick Hitters: Takeaways from Indiana's two exhibitions

Second unit finds form as Indiana breezes past Saint Francis

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The last time that Indiana played Morehead State was during the 2015-16 season where it saw the Hoosiers defeat the Eagles 92-59 on December 5th, 2015.

That game saw five Indiana players score in double digit figures with Troy Williams leading with 16 points, Yogi Ferrell with 15 points, James Blackmon Jr. with 15 points, Thomas Bryant with 14 points, and Max Bielfeldt with 12 points.

Indiana has played Morehead a total of five times since 1978 and hold a 5-0 record versus the Eagles.

Indiana's Logan Duncomb and Kaleb Banks did miss the final exhibition game versus Saint Francis so that is something to monitor.

Trayce Jackson-Davis and Tamar Bates did miss Indiana's first exhibition game versus Marian but both played versus Saint Francis. Jackson-Davis did have his non-shooting hand heavily taped. However, both should play.

Season officially gets started and the Hoosiers are ranked

The last time that Indiana came into the season with a preseason ranking was in the 2016-17 season when the Tom Crean led Hoosiers came in at No. 11. The last time Indiana even saw a ranking next to their name was in Archie Miller's second season as coach when the Hoosiers got all the way up No. 21 during the 2018-19 season.

This season, Indiana will start at the No. 13 spot and sits as the top ranked Big Ten team in the AP Preseason Top 25. While many believe the ranking is too high for an Indiana team that finished just 21-14 record and just a 9-11 record in Big Ten play, one can justify this ranking with the return of 83.6 percent of their scoring, the elite freshman class coming in, and the run that Indiana went on in the postseason last year building a ton of momentum heading into this year.

Indiana certainly has a lot of hype attached to them heading into this season. The question is if Indiana will be able to live to this high expectations.

How well will Xavier Johnson start the season?

It is safe to say that Indiana guard Xavier Johnson did not have the best of showing in the two exhibition games going just 5-of-19 from the field and adding 5 total turnovers in both outings. Instead of seeing the Xavier Johnson we saw the last two months of the season, we saw the inconsistent Xavier Johnson that was forcing a lot of things.

"Well, I told Xavier after the game (Saint Francis), you don't have to do it all this year," said Mike Woodson. "You really don't. I think we've got enough pieces on this team that you can just do your part and not have to stress out about thinking you have to do everything. That was my words to him because there's going to be nights X is going to really, really explode offensively and have big games, and there's going to be nights that might not happen. But he's still got to be Xavier Johnson for us. He's still got to defend. He's still got to get the ball where it's got to go and set us up, break press defenses and things of that nature."

It is still very early in the season and the two exhibition games are just a small sample size. With the addition of Jalen Hood-Schifino, another ball-handling guard, in the same backcourt, it really is no surprise that is taking Johnson a little bit of time to adjust. It is worth watching how consistent Johnson is to start the season.

How short will the rotation be?

In Indiana's two exhibition games, pretty much every available scholarship player was able to see the floor with at least a few minutes in both games. Obviously, that will change during the regular season as Mike Woodson himself has stated that he wants to run with about a 9-10 man rotation. Shortening the rotation like he worked on implementing last season.

At this point, the starting unit on the floor will likely have Xavier Johnson, Jalen Hood-Schifino, Miller Kopp, Race Thomspon, and Trayce Jackson-Davis with guys like Tamar Bates, Trey Galloway, Jordan Geronimo, and Malik Reneau almost positively being a part of that rotation.

The question will be if Woodson will go deeper than that distributing minutes to guys like Logan Duncomb, Anthony Leal, CJ Gunn, and Kaleb Banks. While this game versus Morehead State is classified as an "easier matchup" for Indiana, expect the rotation to be trimmed down a little here with it opening up if/when the game seems to be decided.

Who?: Morehead State (0-0, 0-0 in OVC) at Indiana (0-0, 0-0 in B1G)

When?: Monday, November 7th, 7 PM ET

Where?: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana

TV: BTN+ (Jack Edwards, Max Parker, Abby Haymond)

Radio: IU Radio Network (Don Fischer, Errek Suhr, John Herrick)

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