No. 5/5 Indiana Visits Penn State Monday

IU SPORTS INFORMATION

THE OPENING TIP
Indiana is in its 113th season of college basketball and will visit Penn State as IU is the only team in the Big Ten to start the season with two road games. The Hoosiers are coming off a 69-65 win at Iowa on New Years Eve. The Hoosiers are currently ranked No. 5 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and by the Associated Press, the 22nd straight week they have been nationally ranked, the longest since they were ranked for 71 straight weeks from 1989-94. This was the first time since the 1979-80 preseason and the third time in school history (1975-76), that IU started the season as the top ranked team in the country.

Indiana was also picked by the Big Ten media to win the conference championship. The Hoosiers, who have won 20 Big Ten titles, including 11 outright, have the best winning percentage in league game history winning 59.5 percent of its conference tilts (820-558). The Hoosiers will play its Big Ten home opener on January 12 against Minnesota.

THE COACHES
Indiana named Tom Creanas its 28th men's basketball coach on April 2, 2008, and he is in his fifth year with the Hoosiers. In just five years, he has taken over a program that returned 36 career points among two walk-ons and built a team that was ranked No. 1 in the country this preseason. He is 258-172 all-time as a head coach and has seven wins over nationally ranked foes in the last two-plus seasons. Crean was named National Coach of the Year by ESPN's Jason King, and Big Ten Coach of the Year by the Sporting News last season.

Patrick Chambers is in his second year at Penn State and has a 20-24 record with the Nittany Lions. Overall, it is his fourth season as a head coach after spending two years at Boston. His overall record is 62-52.

THE STARTING FIVE
The Hoosiers have the top offense in the country and the ninth-best defense in the nation according to kenpom.com.

The Hoosiers are 12-9 away from Assembly Hall since the start of the 2011-12 season and have won three of its last four Big Ten road games dating back to last year (Purdue, Minnesota, Iowa). IU has the second best overall record against Division I programs among Big Ten teams with a 40-10 record in its last 50 games.

Indiana leads the nation in scoring (87.9), scoring differential (28.3) and are second nationally in free throws made per game (20.4) and free throws attempted per game (26.9).

The Hoosiers are the only team in the Big Ten with five players averaging 11 points or better per game (Zeller, 16.6; Oladipo, 13.6; Watford, 12.5; Sheehey, 12.4; Hulls, 10.9).

The biggest statistical improvement for the Hoosiers has been their rebounding. Last year at this time, they were outrebounding their opponents 35.6 to 32.4, while this year they lead the Big Ten in rebounding margin with 42.5 boards to 29.8 (+12.7, 4th in the country).

ZELLER'S IMPACT
It's doubtful that you could find a player who has had more of an impact on a college basketball program over the last two seasons than sophomore Preseason National Player of the Year Cody Zellerof Indiana. Since he put on the Cream and Crimson, Indiana is 40-10 for a .800 winning percentage and the Hoosiers lead all Big Six Conference school's in field goal percentage (49.8 percent), 3-point field goal percentage (42.6 percent) and free throw percentage (76.1 percent).

He had 19 points and 10 boards against Iowa and leads the conference in rebounds (8.1), free throws made per game (5.3) and attempted (7.3). In the last five games, he is shooting 83.3 percent from the charity stripe making 35-of-42 charity tosses.