Eh, I dunno about that. I don't think a home game vs. Northwestern will do much in the way of telling us what we need to know about IU this year....at least not as a barometer as to how good IU may or may not be this year. For me, I don't use a good or even great performances for home games against any opponnent outside of...say teams ranked in the top 10, as a measuring stick for how IU stacks up against the field in any given season. On the other hand, whether it seems unfair or not, poor play at home against inferiorly talented teams can often be quite telling.
There's a couple games against higher quality opponents in the upcoming weeks, a couple of them on the road - @Michigan, @MSU - and a home date vs.Iowa (currently ranked #9 both polls) that should be more telling to where the Hoosiers stack up.
But really at the heart of it all, haven't we already really seen everything we need to know as to how Indiana stacks up against the competition this year, and every year for that matter?....At least as long as this one thing remains true -- Tom Crean is our head coach. Isn't that all we REALLY need to know?