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With the seasonal chill in the air and the leaves showcasing their final flashes of color, the return of Indiana basketball is finally upon Bloomington.

With head coach Mike Woodson and his squad opening up in exhibition play with Marian University on Saturday, all eyes are on the Hoosiers to see just how close they can get to meeting -- or exceeding -- the lofty expectations placed on them this season. Led by a veteran returning core and an exciting and impactful freshman class, much will be made of how the Hoosiers come together. After all, with no games to show for it just yet, the most anyone can really do is speculate.

Yet, this season also brings on an interesting challenge for Woodson himself, who now has a year under his belt at the college ranks. With some stability on the table and a better sense of symphony between coach and player, Saturday can't come soon enough for Woodson.

"A lot of guys didn't know who I was last year," Woodson said on Friday as he met with the media. "I was new, they were new, and the fact that we've got a big part of our team back, adding in the freshmen, these guys, they kind of know who I am from an offensive standpoint and a defensive standpoint."

The growth his team encountered last season was apparent, coming together nicely for the end of season run that saw Indiana play themselves back onto the bubble and into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016. But, as Woodson noted, those connections took time to materialize.

Take for instance the connection between Xavier Johnson and Trayce Jackson-Davis, one that steered the ship through the use of the top-of-the-key pick and roll for much of the second half of the season. As they began to come together and play better, Indiana began to see better results. It's not groundbreaking news to know that chemistry allows a team to play more successful, harmonious basketball together, but it's a relevant example directly from within the program.

For a team that had it's fair share of ups and downs last season to come back as a unit with a reengineered focus and playstyle, thanks in part to knowing their system in a much heightened sense, chemistry could abound in hopes of ironing things out in the second year of the Woodson era. Regardless, the Hoosier head man's mentality stays the same.

"I go into any season with the same attitude: To win," Woodson said. "The way we ended last season, it left a nasty taste in my mouth because I know our team was better, and I'm not taking anything away from St. Mary's. They were great. They played an unbelievable ballgame, and we didn't show up. I don't like that."

The reason Indiana's postseason status was in jeopardy in the first place resulted in shoddy play throughout the grueling Big Ten schedule, hitting lulls in the schedule where the Hoosiers were seemingly stuck in a rut. With one of the more difficult conference slates on paper this season, not to mention an impressively tough assortment of non-conference tilts, Woodson knows that for this team, a repeat is not in the cards. They have to show improvement.

"I know we've got to be better as we start this season and as we go into the Big Ten," Woodson said. "We were really a shot away -- up nine with four and a half minutes to go, I've got to get them over the hump in that Iowa game. Those are the things I look at. We've got to win that ball game to go to the Big Ten finals to try and win a Big Ten Tournament, and we didn't get it done."

More examples come to mind when thinking of games Indiana could, and in some cases probably should, have closed out last season. Both Wisconsin matchups, at Penn State, at Iowa, and many others are just examples of the close games Indiana didn't get over that proverbial "hump" in last season. Whether it was faulty offensive play and the inability to close or defensive letdowns that otherwise nullified great scoring performances, it felt as if the Hoosiers struggled to really put it all together in many of their losing results.

Still, after an overall success for year one under Woodson and a big offseason in the rearview mirror, the memories of last season are just that, memories.

See also: Mike Woodson checks all the boxes during first full offseason

Now, Indiana returns their best players from a season ago, injects an electric freshman class, and features a whole slew of guys that are poised to play a significant role. With Woodson having a better sense of the grind that is the college basketball schedule as well, a more unified basketball team seems ready to take on everything that the upcoming winter can throw at them.

Thrusted back into the national spotlight, actions always speak louder than words and the job is never finished until you win the last game of the season. Either way, you can only take it one game at a time, and with the culmination of buildup and anticipation finally on the horizon, Woodson and his Hoosier squad is eager to show everyone what they've got.

"At the end of the day, we've still got a lot of work to do," Woodson said. "We've just got to go out and play the game and see how it plays out. I'm just kind of anxious to get to a game and just see where we are."

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