BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – It’s been 235 days – make it 235 VERY LONG days — since the Indiana basketball team played a game that counted in the stands. That drought ends Wednesday night when the Hoosiers host SIU-Edwardsville at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to kick off the highly anticipated 2024-25 season.

Indiana is ranked No. 17 in the country and with a roster loaded with several talented new faces, the Hoosiers hope to contend for Big Ten titles — and more. This journey begins Wednesday, with tip-off at 8 p.m. ET. The Hoosiers are a huge 26.5-point favorite according to gaming site Fanduel.com. The over/under is 150.5. There was movement. (The line opened at 10:55 p.m. Wednesday morning.)

Indiana has a fairly light non-conference schedule, starting with SIU-Edwardsville, then Eastern Illinois on Sunday. According to the KenPom.com power rankings as of Wednesday morning, SIU-E is ranked No. 321 out of 364 teams. Eastern is #341. Indiana, by the way, is No. 42, which is surprisingly 10th among the 18 teams in the Big Ten.

But while that may seem easy, remember that the Hoosiers didn’t cover in their first five games against non-Power 5s last season. They won all matches in a row, but failed to cover the number. Indiana went 19-14 and failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament. They were 16-17 against the spread.

SIU-Edwardsville, which plays in the Ohio Valley Conference, was 17-16 a year ago and was 12-16-2 ATS in line-up games. In their first two highest-profile non-conference games at Dayton and Missouri, they lost but covered the gaps — 16.5 at Dayton and 18.5 at Missouri — by a bucket.

Indiana has two exhibition games under its belt, winning 66-62 at No. 12 Tennessee October 27 and defeating Marian University 106-64 last Friday in the Assembly Hall.