PISCATAWAY, N.J. — And now we resume our regularly scheduled programming.

Indiana basketball – remember them? — has taken a back seat to the football team's amazing run to the national championship. They won the College Football playoff crown on Monday night, and the next day the Indiana basketball team lost at Michigan to fall to 12-7 on the season.

Let that sink in for a minute. The Hoosiers have played 19 games already, amid relative anonymity. That's never been a reality in the Indiana basketball world.

Let's get you caught up quickly. The Hoosiers beat all the nonconference softies they were supposed to in November and December. They've been a team that tends to fade in the second half, losing late leads at Minnesota and Kentucky, and blowing a 16-point lead to Nebraska at home on Jan. 10. They also lost at home to Iowa, and on the road on separate trips to Michigan State and Michigan.

They are presently on a four-game losing streak, and are in a three-way for 10th place in the Big Ten with a 3-5 mark. They are on the outside looking in for an NCAA Tournament berth at the moment — they have no quality wins — and will need to make some noise in their final 12 conference games to get in to the postseason.

That starts Friday night when the Hoosiers travel to New Jersey to take on Rutgers, a team that's just 9-10 on the year and 2-6 in the Big Ten. This is, without question, a must win game for the Hoosiers. Rutgers is, after all, the lowest ranked team in the Kenpom rankings. (see below)

Indiana has three Big Ten wins this far, beating Penn State, Washington and Maryland. Those three teams are a combined 3-21 in the Big Ten

Here's how to watch Friday's game, along with three newsy nuggets on Rutgers.

Who: Indiana Hoosiers (12-7, 3-5 in Big Ten) at Rutgers Scarlet Knights (9-10, 2-6 in Big Ten).
What: Big Ten conference regular season game.
When: Friday, Jan. 23, 6 p.m. ET.
Where: Jersey Mike's Arena, Piscataway, N.J.
TV: FOX Sports 1 — Jason Horowitz (play-by-play), Jordan Taylor (analyst).
Radio: IU Radio Network — Don Fischer (play-by-play), Errek Suhr (analyst), John Herrick
Point spread: Indiana is a 6.5-point favorite over Rutgers, and the over/under is 147.5 points, according to the Fanduel.com gambling website.
Series history:  The Hoosiers and Scarlet Knights have split the 18-game series between the two programs. IU has claimed two of the last three games, which includes an 84-74 triumph in the lone meeting last season (Jan. 2, 2025).  Indiana last beat Rutgers in Piscataway on Feb. 5, 2018, in a 65-43 game. The victory was the last of the three-game winning streak at Jersey Mike’s Arena.

1. SCARLET KNIGHTS ON WRONG PATH: Steve Pikiell is in his 10th season at Rutgers and he led the Scarlet Knights to NCAA tournament appearances in 2021 and 2022. But the program has struggled since, going just 58-59 over the past three-plus season.

2. WORKING OVERTIME: Rutgers is just 2-6 in the Big Ten, and in both wins, they've had to go into overtime to pull out victories. They beat Oregon at home 88-85 on Jan. 5 and beat Northwestern 77-75 in overtime on Jan. 11. They lost both games on a road trip last week, falling to Wisconsin and Iowa.  

3. SHUT DOWN TARIQ FRANCIS: Rutgers is led by guard Tariq Francis, a 6-foot-1 junior guard from Pittsburgh, Pa. who transferred to Rutgers from NJIT. He's averaging 15.3 points per game, and shoots 34.5 percent from three. He's been huge in the Scarlet Knights' two overtime wins, scoring 30 points both nights against Oregon and Northwestern. 

1. Michigan Wolverines (1)
2. Purdue Boilermakers (6)
3. Illinois Fighting Illini (8)
4. Michigan State Spartans (9)
5. Nebraska Cornhuskers (12)
6. Iowa Hawkeyes (20)
7. Wisconsin Badgers (35)
8. Ohio State Buckeyes (36)
9. Indiana Hoosiers (38)
10. UCLA Bruins (40)
11. Washington Huskies (50)
12. USC Trojans (51)
13. Northwestern Wildcats (61)
14. Minnesota Golden Gophers (82)
15. Oregon Ducks (88)
16. Maryland Terrapins (115)
17. Penn State Nittany Lions (126)
18. Rutgers Scarlet Knights (143)