Insider: One thing left to do with IU basketball schedule

There's one thing left to do with Indiana's non-conference schedule for next season.

It's not to hammer out the final details of an agreement to start that three-year series with Louisville, although that would be a fantastic short- and long-term decision. And it's not to ask the schedule makers to allow IU a second-consecutive Big Ten/ACC Challenge home game, because given the Hoosiers' potential next season, a trip to somewhere like Durham, Chapel Hill or Charlottesville appears very much on the table.

No, the last step in assembling next year's schedule comes at the other end of the conversation -- it's time to prop up the bottom of the non-conference slate.

You can't deny Indiana has toughened up its scheduling in the last two seasons. IU willingly sought out Georgetown and SMU last year, and this season will be no different. Whether the Louisville game happens or not, Indiana will play Notre Dame, Creighton, three games in a loaded Maui Invitational field and likely a marquee ACC opponent on the road.

Non-conference schedules can hardly come tougher.

The concern is the other side of the pre-Big Ten slate, where too many opponents last season were too low in quality.

Consider: Seven of Indiana's 13 non-conference opponents last season sat outside the KenPom top 200. Six of those seven were ranked 253rd or worse.

Ken Pomeroy's rankings aren't dissimilar to team RPI numbers. According to CBS Sports, six of those seven teams also appeared outside the RPI top 200 last season, and four of those six fell below the top 300.

This presents a straightforward problem: On Selection Sunday, the committee tends to disregard those games.

Every high-major team is going to want guarantee games. There's little value in playing a non-conference schedule just as demanding as your league slate, for obvious reasons.

And, when talking about scheduling, Fred Glass has been quick to point out that trying to project the strength of every team on the docket is an imperfect science.

Still, Indiana must do better. It can do better, even just by staying local, and scheduling teams from tough mid-major conferences like the Missouri Valley. Wichita State isn't required, but what about Illinois State, Evansville or Loyola-Chicago, all of which were RPI top 150 teams last season?

According to CBS Sports, Indiana ranked 26th nationally in strength of schedule last season. That's a superb number. Yet the Hoosiers' non-conference SOS was 109th, a sharp decline.

Indiana can obviously always count on the Big Ten for quality wins. It doesn't need to add land mines to its non-conference schedule just to keep up appearances.

But it can do better at the back end. That's the last step.

Follow Star reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.