It appears Indiana basketball is back — and that’s not good news for the No. 16 Michigan basketball team.

The Wolverines face a tall task as they travel to Bloomington on Thursday night to square off with the 12th-ranked Hoosiers, who opened their season with 12 straight wins before dropping their first game of the season last week at Michigan State.

Indiana’s success is no fluke either, which the team proved when it knocked off then-No. 1 Kentucky on Dec. 10 and then toppled then-No. 2 Ohio State on New Year's Eve.

Significantly, both of those upsets were home games for the Hoosiers — Assembly Hall is notorious for being one of the most difficult road environments in college basketball.

“(Assembly Hall) holds a lot of people,” said sophomore guard Tim Hardaway Jr. “And a lot of people are down your neck every time you’re shooting. It’s going to be very hostile, like last year when we went there. We’re used to it now. … You’ve just got to block everything out and just focus on what (Michigan coach John Beilein) wants you to do out there.”

The Wolverines have been particularly susceptible to the horrors of the building. Last season, Michigan (2-0 Big Ten, 12-2 overall) got blown out in Bloomington, 80-61, by an Indiana team that ended up finishing last in the Big Ten.

And three seasons ago, when the Wolverines made the NCAA Tournament for the first time under Beilein, they had to claw their way back from a 20-point deficit to defeat the Hoosiers in overtime. That team went just 6-25 for the season.

But for all the unique challenges that Assembly Hall poses, playing on the road in general is tough for any team, particularly in the Big Ten. And in its only true road game of the season so far, Michigan played poorly in a disjointed 12-point loss to Virginia on Nov. 29.

“Road games, they’re tough,” Beilein said. “There is an element there. You’ve really got to play well. You can’t have an off game and win on the road very often. As a result, you’ve really got to have a special day to (win), and it’s hard to do that in those atmospheres.

“If we don’t (win), we learn from it, we get better for the next time. We do (win), we learn from that, and try to do it again.”

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Hoosiers’ turn around is that, for the most part, it’s the same group of players that scuffled all season long last year.

That’s except for one notable addition. Indiana (1-1, 13-1) is led by freshman sensation Cody Zeller, who paces the team in both scoring (14.2 points per game) and rebounding (6.7 per game).

The center was a five-star recruit, rated No. 15 in the country by Rivals.com. Zeller was expected to provide an early boost, but so far he has exceeded even what Hoosiers headman Tom Crean could have anticipated.

Zeller’s emergence is particularly troublesome for the Wolverines, who are still thin on the interior with the continued absence of sophomore forward Jon Horford due to the stress fracture in his foot.

So far, redshirt sophomore forward Jordan Morgan has done a solid job of keeping out of foul trouble in Big Ten play. He’ll have to maintain that trend against Indiana for Michigan to have success.

“(Zeller)’s really a tremendous player,” Beilein said. “He can pass, he rebounds, he’s tough. He’s been a big difference maker in their team from last year. … Maybe in the past, when they threw it in (the post), you didn’t have to worry about a scorer in there.

“They have a scorer in there right now in the post.”

But Beilein was quick to point out that the Hoosiers are far from a one-man show. Indiana has four other players that average double figures in points (though one of them, forward Will Sheehey, likely won’t play on Thursday night due to a lingering injury in his lower left leg).

In fact, Crean’s squad has been nearly unstoppable on offense this season, tied for eighth in the country in scoring with 82.6 points per game. The Hoosiers have been particularly lethal from deep, ranking second in the nation with a 44.7 3-point shooting percentage.

Forward Christian Watford — who hit the game-winning 3-pointer over Kentucky — and guard Jordan Hulls are both shooting 50 percent or higher from long range, as is bench player Matt Roth.

Beilein noted Michigan itself will have to play well offensively to limit Indiana’s attack, so that the Hoosiers can’t take advantage of misses and get out quickly on the break.