IU basketball’s opponent for the 2026 Big Ten tournament is set. The Hoosiers will play No. 15 seed Northwestern on Wednesday night at the United Center in Chicago. The Wildcats beat Penn State 76-66 on Tuesday night at the United Center.
Wednesday’s game is set for a 6:30 p.m. ET tip-off on BTN:
After dropping five of its last six regular-season games, Indiana has one last chance to secure a bid for the 2026 NCAA tournament.
The Hoosiers begin postseason play in the 2026 Big Ten tournament at the United Center against Northwestern on Wednesday night. The Wildcats won the only regular-season meeting between the two teams 72-68 on February 24 in Bloomington. It was a loss that seriously damaged Indiana’s NCAA tournament hopes but now the Hoosiers have a shot at redemption.
A win would give Indiana a shot at No. 7 seed Purdue on Thursday night and a potential 20th win. A loss would end Indiana’s 2025-26 season in all likelihood.
THE FIRST MEETING
After dropping back-to-back road games at Illinois and Purdue, Indiana returned home to play Northwestern on Tuesday, February 24.
The Hoosiers led by as many as 13 points in the first half but collapsed in the second half, falling 72-68. It was IU’s sixth straight loss to Northwestern and fourth consecutive loss to the Wildcats in Assembly Hall.
So what went wrong?
Northwestern beat Indiana up on the boards, grabbing 37.9 percent of its missed shots. The Wildcats outscored Indiana 12-1 in second-chance points.
The offense also sputtered in the second half. Indiana put together a strong first half, scoring 42 points and 1.5 points per possession. The final 20 minutes were an ugly offensive performance, as Indiana shot 8-for-26 from the field, including a 2-for-12 mark on 3-pointers.
Lamar Wilkerson had a tough second half and shot just 0-for-9 from the field and Conor Enright, Nick Dorn, Jasai Miles and Reed Baily played a combined 40 minutes and didn’t score a point.
Nick Martinelli, a second-team All-Big Ten selection, was also dominant after halftime.
After a pedestrian first half in which he shot only 3-for-9 from the field and scored seven points, Martinelli exploded down the stretch. He shot 9-for-12 from the field and scored 21 of his game-high 28 points in the second half as the Wildcats recorded their third road win of the season.
Indiana’s defense, an issue for most of the Big Ten season, allowed Northwestern to score 1.178 points per possession, the fourth-highest total in a game for the Wildcats at the time.
TEMPO-FREE PREVIEW
All stats below include only the 20 regular-season Big Ten conference games.
Indiana and Northwestern finished the regular season 14th and 15th, respectively, in points per possession allowed, ranking in the bottom five in the conference.
The Wildcats are the Big Ten’s worst defensive rebounding team but Indiana was unable to exploit the weakness in the first meeting. It will be interesting to see if Darian DeVries is more aggressive in sending bodies to the offensive boards after scoring just one second-chance point in the first meeting. Northwestern will certainly be pushing to rebound its missed shots as that advantage fueled its win in Assembly Hall.
Both teams also struggle to defend without fouling and Northwestern only held a slight advantage from the line in the first meeting. The Wildcats shot 14-for-18 from the stripe and Indiana went 12-for-14. The Hoosiers would be well served to be more aggressive attacking the paint and the rim rather than settling for 3s, particularly in early shot-clock situations.
WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO
The KenPom projection is Indiana by three with a 63 percent chance of a Hoosier victory.
This is a must-win for Indiana to keep its season going. The Hoosiers are still in the NCAA tournament mix, according to most bracketologists, and need a win on Wednesday to stay there.
The status of Arrinten Page could loom large for Northwestern on Wednesday night. He scored 10 points to go along with six rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot in the first meeting but missed Tuesday’s game against Penn State due to an illness.
The keys for Indiana are to do a much better job of limiting Martinelli’s touches, particularly when he has position in the paint, and to do a better job of attacking the paint offensively. Northwestern doesn’t have great rim protection and is foul-prone, so the Hoosiers need to attack the rim rather than settle for jump shots.
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