John Beilein changed the Michigan basketball team's starting lineup for just the second time this season for Wednesday's Northwestern game. After inserting junior Stu Douglass for freshman Evan Smotrycz, he said he wasn’t sure if it was going to be permanent.

On Friday, a day before Michigan faces Indiana (4 p.m., Big Ten Network), Beilein said his starters could be a game-to-game decision.

“I’m not sure yet, but we’ll look at a lot of different things,” Beilein said. “We’re trying to get the five best players - for, in particular, who we are playing against that day - on the floor. It’ll probably depend a little bit on who they’ll start as well.”

The options are to start with a small, four-guard lineup with Douglass, Zack Novak, Darius Morris and Tim Hardaway Jr. surrounding center Jordan Morgan or to start Smotrycz and go with a three-guard lineup of Novak, Morris and Hardaway Jr.

Beilein said he has a good idea what he’s going to do, but declined to make his decision public.

“I’ll show parts of it (Friday) in practice,” Beilein said. “And I’ll probably make a decision (Friday) what we’re going to end up doing.”

Much of the decision rests with the number of ball handlers Beilein wants on the floor to start the game. Douglass is Michigan’s primary backup point guard while Smotrycz, at 6-foot-9, doesn’t have the same ball skills.

There are other factors involved, too. Smotrycz has battled fouls for most of the season. He has also struggled at points this year, scoring in double figures only three times in Big Ten games.

Even though he has only started twice this season, Douglass averages 28.4 minutes, the third most on the team. He also started the majority of his games as a sophomore before moving into the sixth-man role this year.

Michigan isn’t the only team with lineup questions. Indiana has been mum on whether sophomore forward Christian Watford would start after breaking his left hand.

Short turnaround Beilein said preparation for Indiana has been different than normal simply because of the quick turnaround. He gave his players their NCAA-mandated one day off on Thursday.

“You don’t like to do that, but maybe that’s a good thing, get to rest a little bit,” Beilein said. “We have a busy day today. Fridays we don’t have a lot of classes, we're able to do a little bit of work. We’re able to go into the Northwestern game, clean up some things and now focus on Indiana. With a 4 o’clock game tomorrow it’s a little challenging.”

Beilein said his team condensed its review of Northwestern, showing mostly items that would also apply to Indiana.

To watch or not to watch As the season winds down and almost every Big Ten game has bearing on conference tournament seeding and NCAA Tournament implications, it’d be natural to think the Wolverines would be watching.

Kind of.

Hardaway said he only watches college games when he’s watching game film, preferring to tune in to NBA games for entertainment. Novak watches games, but not for scouting or game-tracking.

“If I’m watching a game, I just kind of watch as a fan more than anything,” Novak said. “Our coaches do a pretty good job of actually breaking down teams for us, but we just have to do a good job of focusing on our next opponent.”

Although the players are aware of what teams need to win to help Michigan's scenario, Novak said “it is out of our control.”

This and that Big Ten Network sideline reporter Charissa Thompson will make her second appearance in Crisler Arena this season when she calls Saturday’s game with Wayne Larrivee and Shon Morris. … Michigan is 3-7 against Indiana in its last 10 games.

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.