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Indiana is set to take on North Eastern Conference foe Merrimack Sunday after losing a heartbreaker to Wisconsin in Madison.

The Hoosiers got their first taste of Big Ten action and find themselves with a 1-1 conference record. They get a brief respite from Big Ten play Sunday against a 4-7 Merrimack squad.

Merrimack has only been a division one school for three seasons, and head coach Joe Gallo has already secured one regular-season conference title (2019). However, his team has struggled this year, although they have played some good competition.

The team is coming off an 80-55 loss to No. 5 Gonzaga earlier this week. They have also played Rutgers and Viriginia Tech earlier in the season, losing both games by a wide margin.

The Warriors play at a snail-like pace, ranking 334th in the nation in pace. As a result, the individual states of their players are a bit underwhelming. Their goal is to control the game's tempo much like a Virginia or Wisconsin would.

Jordan Minor is the standout player for the Warriors. The 6-foot-8 forward leads the team in scoring and rebounding at 14.4 points and 6.5 boards per game. Minor is almost entirely limited to the paint but does good work down there, making 52.3 percent of his shots. He's also a terrific defender, leading the NEC in defensive rating (85.4) and ranks second in steal percentage (4.4). However, he averages over three fouls per game, and ranks first in the conference in total fouls.

Minor is joined by four guards in the starting lineup. Mikey Watkins is second on the team in scoring (9.3 ppg) and dishes out the most assists with 3.2 per game. He's not super efficient, however. He also averages 3.0 turnovers per game and shoots just 40 percent. Alongside Watkins is three-point shooter Mykel Derring, who shoots 43.6 percent from three on five attempts per game. 81.9 percent of his field goal attempts per game come from three.

Ziggy Reid and Devin Jensen round out the starting lineup. Both are guards but have good size (6-foot-6 and 6-foot-5 respectively) and contribute a combined 11.6 points per game.

The Warriors also have a spark plug off the bench in Malik Edmead. Edmead is only 5-foot-10, but he scores 8.5 points per game and shoots 35 percent from three.

G - Mikey Watkins (Sr; 5-11; 175)

Season Stats: 9.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 3.2 apg

G - Mykel Derring (Jr; 6-2; 180)

Season Stats: 7.6 ppg, 1.4 rpg

G- Ziggy Reid (Jr; 6-6; 235)

Season Stats: 7.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg,

G- Devin Jensen (Sr; 6-5; 225)

Season Stats: 4.1 ppg, 1.8 rpg

F - Jordan Minor (Jr; 6-8, 220)

Season Stats: 14.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg,

How Indiana responds to a crushing loss at Wisconsin. Blowing a 22-point lead in an arena in which you have not won since 1998 is beyond demoralizing. WIll that make this team more hungry?

Xavier Johnson had an unquestionably bad game and played a prominent role in the loss, but the coaching and team play were also bad. The ball movement stopped in favor of hunting matchups which played into Wisconsin's hands.

Maybe the Hoosiers had to learn the hard way. Expect Xavier Johnson to take fewer shots and Trayce Jackson-Davis to dominate against a very small Merrimack team.

Who: Indiana (7-2) vs. Merrimack (7-2)

When: Sunday, Dec 12th, 12:00 p.m. ET

Where: Bloomington, IN

TV: BTN

Radio: IU Radio Network with Don Fischer, Errek Suhr and Joe Smith

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QUICK HITTERS

• This is the first-ever matchup between these two schools.

• Merrimack plays one of the slowest paces in the NCAA (334th in the country)

• Merrimack is among the lowest-scoring teams in the NCAA (355th)

• Merrimack is one of the worst rebounding teams in the nation. (358th)

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