Indiana Men’s Basketball: Rankings Roundup

Jan 30, 2023 - 6:19 PM

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Through the ups and downs of a college basketball season, the various polls and statistical rankings of a team provide a nice counterbalance to the euphoria or despair the fanbase may be experiencing in a given moment. This new weekly column will take a look at how the Hoosiers stand in each ranking and how it’s changed over the previous seven days.

I’ll be focusing most on Kenpom, Bart Torvik, NET rankings, and the AP poll, but if you have another site you want me to cover, sound off in the comments and I can give it a look. That said, let’s take a look at where Indiana stands today, Monday, January 30.

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Kenpom

Indiana moved up precisely one spot to 19th this week after beating both Minnesota and Ohio State. The Hoosiers were heavily favored going into the matchup with the Gophers, so the fact that Indiana only won by four actually dropped them three spots in the rankings before the Ohio State game.

Ohio State was actually ahead of Indiana in the Kenpom rankings entering the game (and somehow still is on Bart Torvik?), even in the midst of their losing streak, which made the 16 point victory even more significant. Now, Rutgers (18) and Purdue (4) are the only ones ahead of the Hoosiers within the Big Ten.

Also on the rise has been Trayce Jackson-Davis’ individual stock. After falling out of the Kenpom POY race for a bit when he was clearly not healthy, he’s back at 3rd on the list, behind only Zach Edey and Jalen Wilson.

Looking ahead, Kenpom gives Indiana a 45% chance of victory at Maryland (32) tomorrow and a 46% chance at home against the Boilermakers (4) this Saturday.

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NET

The best thing that Indiana did last week, from a NET perspective, was avoid the quadrant 3 loss at Minnesota. Without Mike Woodson, the Hoosiers did their best to lose to the #220 Gophers, but ultimately escaped unscathed, keeping their perfect quadrant 3 record intact.

As of now, the win against Ohio State is a quadrant 1 victory, which boosts Indiana to 3-5 against quadrant 1 opponents. The Buckeyes sit at 29th though, so Indiana fans should probably pull for a Buckeye win streak over the rest of the season to keep it that way.

Overall, Indiana still dropped a spot from last week, moving to 20th in the NET rankings. Both Maryland and Purdue are quadrant 1 games though, so the Hoosiers have a shot to make a real jump and get to .500 in that category this week.

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Bart Torvik

Bart Torvik remains the toughest on Indiana, but the Hoosiers have made some progress, moving up two spots over the week to 29. On the season, Indiana is now projected to finish 20-11.

That said, it wasn’t the best week according to the individual game scores. Without Mike Woodson, the Hoosiers got a 62.00 game score, the lowest in a win all year and by far the worst performance over the five game winning streak.

Indiana now has a 98% chance of making the tournament, per Torvik’s metrics, and projects to be a five seed with the chance to move up to a four seed.

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AP Poll

Indiana is back in the AP Poll this week, coming in at 21st in the week 13 rankings that came out this morning. The Hoosiers are the only other Big Ten team ranked this week and will have a chance to knock off the season’s first unanimous number one this Saturday when Purdue comes to town.

Indiana hadn’t been ranked since week nine, when it sat at 15 before the three game conference losing streak. It may require another 2-0 week to stay ranked, since Maryland isn’t even receiving votes, but it’s hard to bet against an Indiana team that appears to be playing its best basketball of the season right now.