Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball and recruiting coverage. Sign up with TheHoosier.com here.

Wednesday night's Big Ten matchup between Indiana holds a bevy of stakes. The Wildcats are coming off one of their biggest wins in school history after knocking off No.1 ranked Purdue on Super Bowl Sunday.

Despite losing their best player to North Carolina in the portal, Northwestern has somehow found themselves tied with Indiana for second place in the Big Ten. Led by stellar guards Boo Buie and Chase Audige, head coach Chris Collins has this Northwestern team biting at the ankles of history.

"They've got tremendous guard play with Boo and Chase," Indiana head coach Mike Woodson told reporters Monday morning. "They're one of the best guard combos in the Big Ten. We're going to have to combat that for 40 minutes."

Part of that history is a wing from Houston, Texas, Miller Kopp. The Indiana sharpshooter committed to the Wildcats in 2017 and transferred to Bloomington after the 2020 COVID season.

Since, Kopp has not beaten his former team, losing in Evanston last season following the suspensions of multiple Hoosier players before tip, and then January's pitiful performance in Assembly Hall, causing many to smash the panic button following the 84-83 loss.

He played two seasons with both Buie and Audige.

Kopp played in 87 games during his Northwestern career; he averaged 9.6 points per game in three seasons. His time at Indiana has been different, however. He's averaged 6.9 points per game in 60 games. This year, however, he's shooting a career-high 45.5 percent from three.

“The Miller Kopp at Northwestern had a different role than the Miller Kopp at Indiana, based on the personnel, the play style, those things. Which is what I came here for in terms of the culture, the program and the step in the direction of having the goals to win a national title," Kopp said earlier this season. "So that was different, obviously. So having that difference, obviously, I knew that there was gonna be some changes in terms of my involvement in the offense and what I was asked to do and how involved I was in certain things.

"My role is not to shoot 20 times a game, my role is to help the team win," Kopp added last month. "I got a shot when we needed it and made it and that's my role. That's my job. It's about seeing what's in front of me and accepting it."

Woodson spoke to the media over zoom Monday morning and discussed Kopp's return to Evanston, reinforcing that pressing too much is the worst thing Kopp can do.

"I mean I go back to the NBA," Woodson said. "When you get traded from a team you always want to go back and show them why they shouldn't have traded you. He didn't play particularly well there last season and I'm sure that's on his mind. I'm going to talk to him about relaxing a little bit. Just play man, when you got shots, take them. Don't put so much pressure on yourself."

The evidence of Woodson's claims is absolutely there. Kopp shot 1-of-5 from three-point range in Evanston last year. That one conversion was his only points on the night. The student section was letting him hear it and no less is expected Wednesday night.

Woodson may have tried to curb that in Kopp's last matchup with Northwestern earlier this season, playing him only 26 minutes and taking just two shots. He only played less against North Carolina, Jackson State and Miami (OH).

In his Indiana career against Northwestern, he's averaged 4.0 points on 2-of-7 from three in two games.

All of a sudden, Wednesday's game is among the biggest of the year for the Hoosiers. It's a good team and it's on the road. Back-to-back road wins in the Big Ten against good teams would do nothing but declare Indiana as a national contender.

The biggest thing Kopp can do to help the Hoosiers is play within himself, and take what comes to him as Woodson mentioned on Monday.

He can have a profound impact on the outcome of the game even if he doesn't have a Rutgers-like game. You saw it against Michigan, one solid defensive possession at the end of the game and your three points are forgotten about.

----

• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum

• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes

• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals

• Like us on Facebook.