Saturday. Noon. Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans.

For Indiana basketball, it all comes down this. It’s NCAA tournament hopes and possibly the future of Tom Crean are riding on the result.

There’s simply no other way to put it. If the Hoosiers want to be invited to the Big Dance, they have to defeat the Spartans. Here’s what they have to do in order to win.

Shoot Better From Three

Over the last four games the Hoosiers are shooting just 37% (37-of-99) from beyond the arc. A normal team would be ecstatic at that number, but for the Hoosiers who depend on the long ball, that number is not near good enough.

As we’ve seen this season, Indiana is more than capable of hitting 15+ threes, and I think it will need to make around 12 or 13 (shooting efficiently) to win on Saturday. But it all comes down to do the Hoosiers have one last barrage of threes left in their arsenal?

Shorten the Rotation

When I look at the box score from last game, glaring back at me is the fact that Crean used 11 guys against Iowa. Yes, 11. That’s just too many at this point of the season. I understand Collin Hartman is unavailable but Jordan Fuchs, Max Hoetzel and Ryan Burton are not the answer.

Hoetzel has seemed to have lost all confidence from earlier in the season, Fuchs is still not adjusted to the college game and looks lost out there and Burton really can’t offer anything besides average defense. Outside of Hoetzel (and he barely qualifies) having these players on the floor totally stifles Indiana’s offense because they can offer so little. In fact, Emmitt Holt shouldn’t be losing minutes to any of these three, but I digress.

The fact of the matter is, it’s win or go home. The best players need to be out there as much as as they possibly can.

Stop Travis Trice

The senior guard saved his best basketball for the end of the season. In his last five games, Trice has been an absolute force, averaging 20.8 points and 6.0 assists a night.

If Branden Dawson can’t go, the scoring load shifts to Trice. The Spartans will need him to have another big game and as he’s shown recently, he’s more than capable of lighting up the Hoosiers.

Yogi Ferrell, I’m looking at you. It will be the junior’s job to shut Trice down. Ferrell has guarded an array of dangerous players so far this season (usually the opposition’s best), so he will be in familiar territory. If he can keep Trice out of the paint, it will go a long way in improving Indiana’s chances.