Maybe this is not vintage Indiana cutting down nets as the premier institution of men's college basketball, but this is still Indiana. It's still Assembly Hall, hanging banners and steep balconies and all.
And for South Carolina men's basketball, it represents the biggest non-conference swing of the Lamont Paris era to date.
"Some of the history of Assembly Hall and all that probably will be lost on these guys," Paris said. "They're young, and it's been awhile since they were the Bobby Knight Indiana Hoosiers that were winning national titles. But it's a good team in a tough environment to play."
History and mystique may not be a concern for Paris, but No. 16 Indiana poses more than enough of a challenge without any ghosts on the bench for chairs flying across the floor.
The Hoosiers have won two buy games in convincing fashion against SIU Edwardsville and Eastern Illinois, two teams outside the top-300 in KenPom. But the nuts and bolts of Mike Woodson's roster look good, even if it is untested.
Seven-footer Oumar Ballo presents a challenge for South Carolina's post players, and the Hoosiers have a frontcourt which will be difficult to contain anyway with three forwards 6-foot-9 or taller in the starting lineup. Facing a South Carolina team which clearly wants its offensive identity to flow through bigs, it feels like a match-up of best-on-best in Bloomington.
"They're real aggressive," Collin Murray-Boyles said. "Big, physical, especially down low. Really just being real physical and not letting them get anything easy is our biggest point."
Excluding last year's trip to Clemson, and annual game on the schedule, this will be the first time in he Paris era the Gamecocks are playing a power five conference opponent on the road outside the SEC slate. Last time the program did it period was 2019 at Virginia, also a nationally ranked team at the time.
It is not a home-and-home, or part of any kind of invitational. This is a one-off game Paris wanted to schedule, taking his team into a hostile environment against what projects as an NCAA Tournament squad early in the slate.
And after dropping the season opener against North Florida, what looked like simply an early season measuring stick game is now an opportunity to help offset that early slip with a key resume-building win.
It's never too early to start talking about March, right?
"The team is going to grow from it," Paris said. "If you come out of there with a win, it really helps later on the season I think, as well as what it does for the confidence early on. So, a lot of good, positive things for playing a good team in a tough environment like this."
Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. ET Saturday on Peacock.
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