BLOOMINGTON – In a dominant, wire-to-wire Wednesday win over Marquette, IU showed college basketball just how good it might be.

In one respect, that’s all Wednesday’s 96-73 win accomplished. Marquette arrived in Bloomington ranked No. 24. The Golden Eagles are considered a dark-horse Big East title contender, but hardly a Final Four favorite.

The Hoosiers (3-0) didn’t knock down a giant, even if they dazzled and delighted a sold-out Assembly Hall. But they did deliver a message, handed their first opportunity of the season:

This Indiana team is not like last year’s. It doesn’t play well only when things are going its way, and it isn’t the paper-thin defensive outfit that spent half of last winter chasing shadows.

This Indiana defends, attacks and persists. This Indiana will be a handful. This Indiana isn’t scared of anybody.

“Tonight,” Miller said postgame, “no one blinked.”

Doyel: Hoosiers show nation — and their own coach — just how good they can be

Marquette (2-1) brought its own defensive concerns to Bloomington. It also traveled south with one of the nation’s most-efficient offenses, surrounding sharpshooting guard Markus Howard with accurate big men, hell-bent on spreading the floor and knocking down shots.

The Golden Eagles looked exactly like the kinds of teams that routinely undid Indiana last season. Think Fort Wayne, Indiana State, Michigan. Teams that would challenge ball-screen defense (a weakness last season), rotations (another weakness last season) and help (you get the idea at this point).

In short, Marquette looked like the perfect test for Indiana’s Year 2 defensive resurgence, under a coach who will forever demand an identity headquartered at that end of the floor.

The Hoosiers passed.

“They have an identity,” Miller said. “I think if you watched us play on film and you just kind of know what’s going on, you say to those guys, yeah, they’re giving great effort. When you add in the mix that there are new guys in there, the older guys have really been able to hold down the rules and the talk and the communication.

“I think that’s the vital part of growing as a program.”

Short-handed because of injuries to Zach McRoberts (back) and Devonte Green (thigh), Miller played freshman guard Robert Phinisee and sophomore guard Al Durham a combined 62 minutes Wednesday, many of them spent trading Howard back and forth.

Miller compared Howard to former Oklahoma star Trae Young pregame. Phinisee and Durham never let him get comfortable. He finished with 18 points on 14 shots, hitting just one 3-pointer.

“We knew how good Markus Howard was, and how capable he was of scoring,” Durham said. “Our coaches really set us up to execute the game plan.”

Their good work exemplified a defensive effort Miller might find flaws in when he breaks down film Thursday — but he’ll have to watch closely.

Marquette’s Hauser brothers, Sam and Joey, scored a combined 36 points. No other Marquette player beyond Howard had more than six. Last season’s 12th-most efficient offense nationally finished averaging just 1.01 points per possession.

“They’re very difficult to guard, and (Howard) is very difficult to guard,” Miller said. “But I thought our guys figured out if we’re going to get better on defense, part of it is the pressure. Part of it is the ability to pressure the ball, keep the ball in front. Then we’re a help-oriented team. You’ve got to be able to help.”

And that was just the defense.

Indiana was actually shorthanded four players Wednesday. Race Thompson and Jerome Hunter weren’t even on the bench. Thompson has been dealing with a concussion. Hunter’s status remains worryingly vague, with Miller only confirming he’s out indefinitely while evaluation of a leg problem continues.

Even handed those absences, Indiana turned in the kind of offensive performance it never could last year, because it has the kinds of weapons it never had last year.

The Hoosiers finished 9-of-20 from behind the 3-point line, thanks in no small part to graduate transfer Evan Fitzner’s 4-of-4 performance there.

Phinisee and Durham weren’t just defenders — they finished with a combined 13 assists and just one turnover, pacing an Indiana team that’s moving and sharing the ball like it rarely did last year.

Romeo Langford scored at will Wednesday, using his first national TV appearance to prove his lottery pick potential. He finished with 22 points, five rebounds, two assists and three steals.

It spoke volumes about Indiana’s progress offensively that senior forward Juwan Morgan could turn in what was, by his standards, a quiet night (13 points, eight rebounds), and Indiana beat a Big East team by 23. That never would’ve been possible a year ago.

“We were in transition quite a bit, and we were very unselfish,” Miller said. “I think we had numbers, we shared the ball, we got guys open and there were some seams.”

Wednesday night was all sorts of encouraging for Indiana. It was also only one night. Miller joked postgame that the Hoosiers would “give up 20 3s on Sunday (at Arkansas), I’m sure. It’s just how it works.”

Time will tell how good Marquette is, and therefore how much this performance is worth to IU, both in the tangible, NCAA-resume sense, and in more intangible ways. All the Hoosiers can do right now is deal with what’s in front of them.

On Wednesday night, that was an outfit that fancies itself in a Big East opened at the top by a coaching change at Xavier, and a talent drain at Villanova.

Michigan went to Philadelphia and laid down a statement performance of its own Wednesday, a 73-46 win against the defending national champions. That will grab the headlines in Big Ten country Thursday morning.

Indiana ensured at very least that the Wolverines won’t get that spotlight all to themselves. Michigan might be the Big Ten’s frontrunner right now, but Wednesday night suggested IU is going to make life difficult for everyone in the conference this winter — offensively, defensively and in all the ways Miller demands.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.