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Indiana's win over Jackson State Friday marked the end of their early season cupcake schedule until their winter break matchups with Elon and Kennesaw State.

Next, Indiana welcomes a slipping, yet No. 1 ranked North Carolina team, to Assembly Hall for the Hoosiers' first home matchup with a top-ranked team since their historic win over the Kentucky Wildcats.

Indiana had a relatively swift week of games, knocking off Miami (OH) on Sunday, sweeping the Hoosier Classic after steamrolling both Arkansas-Little Rock Wednesday evening and Jackson State on Black Friday.

It'd be tough to say the same for North Carolina, a loaded team that has already had a tough start to the season took a cross-country flight to Portland to participate in the Phil Knight Invitational. The Tar Heels squeaked by a solid Portland team on Thursday but face a tough matchup with Big 12 opponent Iowa State Friday night in which they are only 5.5 point favorites.

However, when asked about North Carolina being battle tested and what challenges that may create for Indiana, Woodson didn't seem to agree that the Tar Heels have struggled. If there's one team this Hoosier squad won't look past, it's North Carolina.

"Who said they've underperformed?" Woodson asked. "What's their record? They haven't lost a game, so I don't call that underperforming. They're doing what they're supposed to do. You've got two teams that will probably be undefeated come Wednesday. Something's got to give. Only time will tell."

Xavier Johnson took his comments on North Carolina as an opportunity to satisfy his "one-word" challenge given by Miller Kopp.

"They have a big 'dinosaur' coming down in Armando, and we have two or three big dinosaurs coming down that are ready to compete at a high level," Johnson said. "We have a couple of guys banged up, but as coach said we have to get our treatment the next couple of days and be mentally sharp."

Optimism surrounding Wednesday night's contest wouldn't be misplaced, Indiana has given little to no reason to support claims that they haven't lived up to expectations. Yet, Injury concerns for Trayce Jackson-Davis and Trey Galloway would at least cause one to sit upright in their seat. Woodson spoke on his All-American's injury postgame.

"Well, he didn't play a lot of minutes today, we'll go back and assess where he is," Woodson said. "You know, he has these next few days to get ready for Wednesday's game. So like I told him when I broke huddle, you guys that are a little beat up, you've got to get in and get treatment and get yourselves ready for Wednesday because that's our next game."

Luckily, Indiana didn't have a UNC-type schedule this past week, giving Woodson more than enough reason to have his players on a pitch count or just sit them altogether. Jackson-Davis didn't play against Little Rock on Wednesday and Galloway hasn't played all week since sitting out Sunday's game with Miami (OH), suggesting that Galloway's injury may be more serious and his status for Wednesday's game could actually be up in the air, unlike Trayce's.

Jackson-Davis went through initial warmups against Jackson State with no wrap on his hand, supposedly testing to see if he could go without, but inevitably had a large amount of white tape on his right hand as he has had all season. No reason to really risk that against Jackson State.

Depending on your stance on the rest vs. rust debate, you could look at Wednesday two ways.

1. North Carolina is battle-tested, having successfully persevered through adversity multiple times. The raucous Assembly Hall crowd and nationally touted Indiana team won't be able to punch them in the mouth like they need to.

or

2. Indiana comes in not 100% healthy, but fully rested. Fortunately, their only hole might be a true freshman guard who is a little over-aggressive offensively.

Either way, as Woodson always says, "only time will tell."

North Carolina offers Indiana an opportunity to cement itself as a top-5 team and waltz confidently into the first stage of their Big Ten schedule with the chests out, having beaten the No. 1 ranked Tar Heels as well as a fringe top-25 team in Xavier in their home arena.

Buckle up.

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