Gameday Preview: Portland State (1-0) vs. Indiana (1-0)

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana's innocuous November basketball schedule continues on Saturday when Portland State of the Big Sky Conference comes to town.

The Hoosiers are 1-0, opening the season on Tuesday with an 84-54 win over Western Illinois. Portland State is 1-0 as well, winning its season opener 94-69 against Puget Sound.

Here are the game details:

Who: Portland State (1-0) vs. Indiana (1-0)
When: 2 p.m ET
Where: Simon Skjodt Aseembly Hall, Bloomington, Ind.
TV/Streaming: BTN-Plus
Line: Indiana by 20 (per vegasinsider.com)

The Hoosiers play all seven of their November games at home, and all but one are against teams ranked 200 or worse (out of 353) in the national kenpom.com rankings. Portland State, which finished 16-16 a year ago, is ranked No. 277 as of Saturday morning.

(If you were wondering, here are the rest of those November rankings: Western Illinois (298), North Alabama (286), Troy (274), Princeton (202), Louisiana Tech (90), South Dakota State (201).

Indiana is No. 32.

Here's what you need to know:

What to know about Portland State

Applying pressure: Portland State likes to pressure the ball, which should be a bit of a challenge for Indiana's guards. The Vikings forced 31 turnovers in the win over Puget Sound, which led to 32 points. Portland State had 18 steals and blocked 9 shots in the opener.

Rare Big Ten game: Portland State has never played Indiana before, and it is its first game against a Big Ten opponent since 2004 and only its fourth ever. Portland State is 0-3 all-time against members of the Big Ten, with losses to Michigan State (1979), Nebraska (1979) and Ohio State (2004). The only other Power 5 team that Portland State plays this season is Oregon State.

Early leader: Senior Matt Hauser led Portland State in its opener with 13 points. Four others were in double figures. He's a 6-foot-2 guard who is a transfer rom Santa Clara.

What to now about Indiana

Career start: Junior forrward Justin Smith got off to a great start for Indiana in its opener. He finished with a career-high 24 points.

Perfect debut: Junior guard Al Durham was perfect in the opener, going 7-for-7 from the field, 3-for-3 from 3-point range and 4-for-4 from the line. It was a great debut, especially for someone who missed some practice time before the opener with a sore knee. He was injured in Indiana's closed-door scrimmage Marquette and missed the exhibition game, but he looked just fine on Tuesday.

Minutes for Phinisee: It will be interesting to see how much sophomore point guard Rob Phinisee plays on Saturday. He's been dealing with a lower abdominal injury that's kept him out of practice most of October. He was on a "15-to-20-minute" playing time limit Tuesdasy, and played 17. It will be interesting to see how he responded to the playing time. There's no rush, obviously, so he won't need to be pushed.

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