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Published Feb 13, 2023
Indiana Basketball: Hoosiers Move up in Top 25, Sit at No. 14
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Kyler Staley  •  TheHoosier
Basketball Recruiting Analyst
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The Indiana basketball program is coming off of a 2-0 week this past week and moved up in the top 25, landing at No. 14 -- moving up four spots.

The Hoosiers successfully defended their home floor with a win over Rutgers 66-60 and then went on the road to defeat a desperate Michigan team 62-61.

Indiana is currently 18-7 overall and 9-5 in the Big Ten.

The Hoosiers are currently tied for second place in the Big Ten alongside Northwestern.

After a three-game losing streak at the start of January, Indiana went on a five game winning streak and have won eight of their last nine games. Hoosiers are 3-0 in the month of February thus far.

Indiana senior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis is starting to really cement his legacy for the Hoosiers and is putting up incredible numbers this year. He's averaging 20.2 points, 11.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 3.0 blocks per game. Indiana is going as far as he goes this season.

"This season, just at another level, man," said Mike Woodson on Monday morning. "He's doing things . . . I think we put him in position to handle the ball. I did this in the pros with guys like Al Horford, Josh Smith, 'Melo, that could rebound the ball and initiate your break offensively that gives you early strikes that way. He's really been good in that area. Been able to make plays off the bounce himself individually.

"I mean, I just don't see a lot of holes in his game now. Everybody talks about he doesn't shoot jump shots. Well, shit, he does everything else. I mean, he's playing at a high level, man.

"Hey, we going to need that the rest of the way because right now we're still shorthanded in terms of bigs, Logan (Duncomb) and Race (Thompson) being out. It's hard to find some rest time for him."

Indiana's next opponent is road contest at . It was a 15-point loss at Rutgers earlier in the season for the Hoosiers, the first of the season for Indiana.

"It's a big-time game, man. Both teams got identical records. Statistically we pretty close in different areas offensively and defensively in the Big Ten.

"They got tremendous guard play with Boo (Buie) and Chase (Audige)," said Woodson. "I thought they hurt us here. Our focus has just got to be, we got to go in with a defensive mentality. They're a good offensive team and they get after you offensively. You can't get around either one of them so you're going to have to combat that with defense and rebounding, and you're going to have to be able to put the ball in the hole.

"There was a lot of points scored in the game here. Our points came late when we were down early. We outplayed them in the second half. But, hell, they did what they needed to do the first half to get them the cushion where we had to scramble to get back in the game.

"Hey, it's going to be a dogfight. They playing in front of their crowd, their fan base. I'm just anxious to see what we made of when we get there."

Purdue remains the top ranked team in the Big Ten and the only other team from the conference that is ranked outside of Indiana, dropping down to No. 3. Northwestern, Illinois, Iowa, Rutgers, and Maryland all received votes.

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