Bryant McIntosh administers the offense. The freshman point guard could only muster up 5 points against Penn State but will likely need to produce a lot more offense if Northwestern hopes to keep up with high-octane Indiana.

Northwestern is trying to not let winning go to its head.

The Wildcats (13-14, 4-10 Big Ten) are riding a three-game winning streak after impressive victories over Iowa, Minnesota and Penn State in the past two weeks. NU will try to keep its winning ways going on Wednesday at Welsh-Ryan Arena against Indiana (19-9, 9-6), another potentially tournament-bound opponent.

But the Cats are determined to treat the matchup like any other contest.

“It’s another Big Ten game. It’s another great opportunity,” freshman point guard Bryant McIntosh said. “It’s a great school with a lot of history, so it would be a big win for us as a team. But I’m not treating it any differently.”

That calm attitude flies in the face of playing yet another squad that’s fighting for its NCAA Tournament life, teams that coach Chris Collins said can be very tough to go against late in the season.

And that extra motivation is being added on to a team that already poses matchup problems for NU. Led by star point guard Yogi Ferrell, who is averaging 16.2 points and five assists per game, the Hoosiers are the highest-scoring offensive team in the conference. McIntosh had an off night against the Nittany Lions, scoring just 5 points on 2-of-7 shooting, but he’ll need to be at his best Wednesday.

“(Indiana) is a dynamic team, a lot of firepower,” Collins said. “They have multiple ball handlers too. Ferrell is a tremendous guard, but (Robert) Johnson, (James) Blackmon and (Troy) Williams are all guys who create equally as well for them.”

The key to Indiana’s high-octane success is its sizzling 3-point shooting. The Hoosiers are the best in the Big Ten with 41.2 percent shooting from beyond the arc, 2 percent better than runner-up Michigan State, and have five players — Ferrell, Blackmon, Johnson, guard Nick Zeisloft and forward Colin Hartman — on the roster shooting 40 percent or better from 3-point range.

That perimeter precision poses a threat to the Cats’ newly established allegiance to the 2-3 zone, a defensive set that is designed to limit dribble penetration at the expense of giving up outside shots. The switch to the zone was the catalyst for NU’s win streak, and Collins said he plans to stick with it for the rest of this season, regardless of the matchup.

“(The zone) has helped us. It’s kept us out of foul trouble,” Collins said. “It’s helped our personnel, our team. Our guys believe in it, so I think more than anything that’s what’s been good. … For this year it’s something we’re committed to doing.”

Despite all the lip service paid to consistency and not treating one game differently than the next, the Cats haven’t been able to hide the uptick in confidence that has infected the team since it started winning. It’s evident in Collins sticking with the 2-3 zone against an elite shooting team, and “confident” was the coach’s buzzword of choice when he talked about the progress freshman forward Vic Law, who led NU with 17 points and 11 rebounds against Penn State, has made this season.

Collins is hopeful the recent change in attitude can be an enduring one.

“Now that we’ve won, we can’t lose sight of the formula,” he said. “We’ve won because we’ve prepared well. We’re hungry. … I feel like we’re one of those teams that is still excited to play.”

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Twitter: @BobbyPillote

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