IU basketball faces Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue each twice in Mike Woodson's second season

BLOOMINGTON – June figures to be a revelatory month for IU’s 2022-23 schedule, and the Hoosiers got their first big chunk of news Thursday with the release of the Big Ten’s schedule pairings.

Across the 2022-23 season, Mike Woodson’s team will face Purdue, Northwestern, Michigan, Michigan State, Rutgers, Iowa and Illinois both home and away. The Hoosiers will only see Nebraska, Wisconsin and Ohio State and home, and they’ll play Minnesota, Maryland and Penn State each only on the road.

A substantial and near across-the-board talent drain makes the coming season difficult to forecast. IU is widely seen as the Big Ten favorite, but not without reservations over the Hoosiers' 3-point shooting and general offensive struggles.

Nevertheless, with impactful departures affecting Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue, Ohio State, Rutgers, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois, Woodson's team appears the surest thing.

That league-wide uncertainty makes handicapping those pairings tricky.

On the one hand, trips to Columbus and Madison are rarely straightforward. Indiana hasn't won in the latter city in this century. On the other, roster churn and coaching changes leave Nebraska, Maryland, Penn State and Minnesota all fighting to stay out of the conference's bottom four. The Hoosiers will only see each of those teams once, and three of the four will be road games.

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At minimum, Woodson should have a firm sense of his team's capabilities by the time he reaches the meat of the Big Ten season, thanks to more aggressive scheduling.

The Hoosiers are expected to challenge themselves with numerous high-quality nonconference games in November and December. They'll go to Kansas on Dec. 17, and are expected to finalize a meeting with Arizona in Las Vegas seven days before that. Their status as Big Ten frontrunners should draw them a plum opponent in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge — national semifinalist North Carolina at home would make a lot of sense — adding another bright light to the marquee. And there is the potential for (though not the guarantee of) a Big East opponent in the Gavitt Games in November, possibly on the road.

It seems unlikely at this point Woodson and his staff will add a noteworthy nonconference opponent outside those opportunities, with the rest of his schedule likely filled by guarantee games at home.

The Hoosiers are expected to host a multi-team event at Assembly Hall during the week of Thanksgiving, with games lined up against Miami (Ohio), Little Rock and Jackson State. It stands to reason the rest of the nonconference schedule will fill out with teams of similar profiles, before launching the Hoosiers into the late-November, early December proving ground.

Big Ten schedule dates will be set either later in the summer, or in early fall, when the conference announces its full slate.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana basketball to face Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue each twice