Meet the Opponent: Indiana's Nonconference Slate Ends with Kennesaw State on Friday

On Friday night, Indiana gets one last chance to fine-tune things before the Big Ten season re-starts, playing its final nonconference game against Kennesaw State at Assembly Hall. Kennesaw has been playing well, posting an 8-4 record so far. Here's a look at the Owls.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana puts a bow on its nonconference schedule on Friday night, taking on Kennesaw State at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in the last of its 11 warm-ups to the Big Ten season.

Indiana made a point of bulking up its early slate, and they've done that with games against Xavier, North Carolina, Arizona and Kansas, all teams in the top 27 in the country in Thursday's latest Kenpom.com rankings. The Hoosiers beat Xavier and North Carolina, and lost to Arizona and Kansas, both projected No. 1 seeds at the moment.

The other games have been easy wins for the Hoosiers, who have been favored by 24 points or more in wins against Morehead State, Bethune-Cookman, Miami of Ohio, Little Rock, Jackson State and Elon. 

All six of those teams rank in the bottom 20 percent of the rankings of 363 teams, and none of them put up much of a fight. Kennesaw State, which plays in the ASUN Conference — formerly the Atlantic Sun — is 8-4 this season and has the highest Kenpom ranking of the softer part or the schedule, checking in at 213. It's the first time in school history that they've had a winning record in the nonconference, and they've done that despite playing just two home games.

Here's where they all start currently in the Kenpom.com rankings:

• Kansas (5)
• Arizona (8)
• North Carolina (22)
• Xavier (27)
• Kennesaw State (213)
• Miami of Ohio (283)
• Morehead State (286)
• Jackson State (303)
• Little Rock (326)
• Elon (343)
• Bethune Cookman (347)

Kennesaw's four losses are to Florida, Campbell, VCU and San Diego State. Three of their wins are against non-Division I teams, so it's hard to gauge how good they actually are.

The school, north of Atlanta, has 41,000 students and has played Indiana twice before. The Hoosiers won 90-66 on Dec. 22, 2013 and again on Dec. 22, 2015, winning 99-72.  he Hoosiers are the first top-25 squad the Owls have faced since a loss at No. 9 Creighton on Dec 4, 2020. This also marks the 10th meeting for Kennesaw against a team from the Big Ten conference, with the Owls still looking for their first win against the league.

They have a guard oriented attack, led by leading scorer Chris Youngblood, who puts up 14.2 points per game. He's a 6-foot-4 junior from Tuscaloosa, Ala., and he;'s a 45.3-percent shooter from three-point range. He's also making 88.5 percent of his free throws.

Terrell Burden is the point guard, and the 5-foot-10 speedster from Smyrna, Ga., is averaging 11.3 points and 3.8 assists per game. 

Indiana guard Xavier Johnson sits on the bench Tuesday with a boot on his right foot. He had surgery on Wednesday and will miss several weeks. (USA TODAY Sports)

Indiana goes into the game shorthanded. Senior point guard Xavier Johnson had surgery on his foot on Wednesday and will be out several weeks at least. The optimistic look is a mid-February return. He was injured during the loss at Kansas on Dec. 17.

Senior forward Trayce Jackson-Davis also missed Tuesday's win for precautionary reasons. He was dealing with a sore back earlier in the season, and missed a game a month ago as well. Junior forward Jordan Geronimo also didn't play Tuesday because of a foot injury. Their status is unknown for Friday's game, which starts at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

Kennesaw is coached by Amir Abdul-Rahim, who has some distant Indiana ties. He coached for a year at Georgia under former Hoosiers coach Tom Crean before getting hired at Kennesaw State four years ago.