Indiana University Men’s Basketball Hosts Rutgers to Kickoff 2025 and Restart Big Ten Play With the calendar turning to 2025 we restart the Big Ten Men’s Basketball season as the Rutgers Scarlet Knights pay a visit to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall to take on the Indiana Hoosiers at 8:30 PM this evening with the game streaming on Peacock. Both teams are 1-1 in the Big Ten after both teams played two conference games in early December. Rutgers lost at Ohio State 80-66 and beat Penn State at Home 80-76. The Hoosiers beat Minnesota at home 82-67 and road loss at Nebraska 85-68. The Big Ten has 18 teams and with the addition of Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington it makes every single game important and the top 15 teams will made the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis in March and it has always been tough to win especially on the road in the Big Ten and now it becomes harder with the new tournament format and lineup of conference play where you play every team once and three teams twice to make up the 20 game conference schedule.
Indiana is 10-3 overall and 9-0 at home but the Hoosiers have won their last two games by combined 18 points to Chattanooga and Winthrop. Indiana was without seven-footer Oumar Ballo against Winthrop Sunday Afternoon and after the game Head Coach did not address the situation and said they would sit down the next day and address the situation. Ballo status for tonight’s game remains unclear. Luke Goode started the game and gave the Hoosiers a traditional smaller lineup, but Indiana went 1-20 from the field. 6-10 Bellarmine Transfer Langdon Hatton played 26 minutes off the bench scoring 7 points, pulling down 11 rebounds and blocking three shots. The Hoosiers come into the game shooting 30.6% from the field, 49% from the field and 72.7% form the free throw line. Indiana struggles to knock down shots they struggle to put away teams. Indiana led 41-37 against Winthrop and the Eagles cut the Hoosiers lead to 1 point in the final five minutes as the Hoosiers used a 9-0 run to put the game away and win by nine points. The Hoosiers average 78.7 points and commit 12.8 turnovers per game. Malik Reneau leads the Hoosiers with 15 points and 1.4 steals per game. Gladstone, New Jersey Native Mackenize Mgbako averages 13.5 points per game. Oumar Ballo averages 12.4 points and leads the team with 9.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. Myles Rice averages 11.5 points along with 3.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. Trey Galloway is averaging a team leading 3.8 assists per game.
Rutgers is 8-5 overall and coming off 91-64 win against Columbia Monday evening at home. Freshman Dylan Harper scored 16 points, dished out 12 assists along with 11 rebounds for the first triple double for the Scarlet Knights star center Roy Hinson had 24 points, 10 rebounds and 10 blocks against Rhode Island on March 2, 1983. Freshman Ace Bailey scored 24 points, Jamichael Davis and Lathan Sommerville each scored 11. Bailey scored 13 points in the opening 12 minutes to help Rutgers build a 27-18 lead. The Scarlet Knights led 44-35 at the break and later took their largest lead of the game in the closing seconds when freshman Peter Noble made a long 3-pointer on his first shot attempt of the season. Harper grabbed his 10th rebound with 5:05 remaining in the second half and he found Bailey for a layup at the other end for his 10th assist to secure the Triple Double. The Scarlet Knights come into Bloomington averaging 79.7 points and committing 10.7 turnovers per game. Rutgers is shooting 46.3% from the field, 33.6 % from three-point range and 71.4% from the free throw line. Dylan Harper leads the team with 22.8 points and 4.8 assists per game. Ace Bailey averages 18.2 points and leads the team with 7.6 rebounds and 1 block per game. Jeremiah Williams averages 7.8 points and leads the team with 1.4 steals per game. The Scarlet Knights lead the all-time series with Indiana 9-8 and Rutgers has won 7 of the last 8 meetings dating back to 2020 and 9 of the last 11 meetings dating back to March 2018. Indiana won the first six meetings including the first five as Big Ten Conference Opponents from 2015 to February 2018. Indiana and Rutgers played in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 28, 1980 in their only non-conference matchup. Indiana is 4-2 against Rutgers in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Edgewood, Lighthouse Christian and Eastern Greene named to the New IHSAA First Team All-Sportsmanship List A tennis player willing to share knowledge with an opponent after the match. A program where students provide hospitality for visiting referees and school officials on game day. And a kind word from the players to the officials during a heated volleyball match. Just a few of the examples of why Edgewood, Eastern Greene and Lighthouse Christian found themselves among the top schools in the state in the IHSAA’s new First Team All-Sportsmanship list after the fall sports season. It’s a new program meant to reward better behavior during sporting events and after football season wrapping up, Edgewood, Eastern Greene and Lighthouse were among the 193 schools to maintain the highest rating along with Bedford area schools Orleans, Mitchell, Medora and Paoli. BNL, Martinsville and Monrovia were in the group of 108 earning honorable mention.
Each school begins the year with 100 points and points may be accumulated through teams completing an online NFHS Sportsmanship Course, parental meetings, student attendance at fall principals’ meetings and other leadership opportunities and submitted exemplary sportsmanship reports. Points are deducted by contest ejections of players, coaches, administrators, and fans and other negative reports. First Team honorees have 100 points or more with honorable mention for those with 95-99. So sportsmanship literally counts. “I think the big part is they want to push us to compete at a high level but being education-based athletics, there are a lot of things to learn along the way,” Edgewood athletic director Jerry Bland said. “Sportsmanship is how you conduct yourself on and off the court and all of it is what education-based athletics is all about. “It’s learning to compete and at the same time, doing it the right way.
The IHSAA has rewarded good sportsmanship in prior years. Eastern Greene was one just a few schools in the southern half of the state to receive a banner for its behavior last school year. Eastern started a hospitality program through a student leadership team. The students fill a role as ambassadors at three events each season, greeting the game officials and the attending administrators from the opposing school bringing them water and snacks or meeting any other needs they might have. The T-Birds had 117 points after the fall season. “It’s pretty important to us,” Eastern AD Aaron Buskirk said. “It shows the coaches put a lot into being good sports and good human beings, just holding themselves and the team accountable to that. it shows that our community is on-board with it as well.” With Lighthouse, there is a religious aspect to it as well, in the Lions living out their faith. “It’s kind of what our school values and believes in,” LCA AD Joseph Hasseman said. “Sportsmanship and having good values are the Christian way. So honestly, we couldn’t be happier to get it.”
This is just one way the IHSAA’s members and leadership are attempting to reverse a trend of the shortage of officials in all sports. Lessening the temperature in the gym, pool or fields helps with that since bad behavior often feeds and builds on itself. One way to change the course of that is by encouraging athletes, fans and coaches to display a calmer response to negative outcomes. “The IHSAA is trying to do its best to keep high school sports sacred with how people act,” Bland said. A positive environment is certainly more attractive for all involved. “I think it’s very important,” Hasseman said. “They should have done this a long time ago. It keeps teams and coaches and fans in check. We don’t have a lot of officials and people don’t understand how hard the work they put in to go out there in front of people. “Losing or winning, we have to be able to lose with integrity.” The Mustangs program is winning. The right way. “That’s why we’re real excited,” Bland said. “Four years ago, we struggled in that area, so we wanted to make that an emphasis, getting the kids and coaches on board and heading in the right direction. “How they act in victory and defeats the whole gamut of that is what it’s all about.”
Bloomington South was among four new schools to receive grants from the IHSAA and the IHSAA Foundation to foster an Officiating 101 program within the schools’ P.E. curriculum. The grant provides multi-year support to activate officials’ education and training within the curricular day while receiving PE credit towards graduation. When the students’ finish the course, they are able to apply for a provisional officiating license to officiate youth and community contests. Upon graduation from high school, students will be eligible and prepared to become fully licensed IHSAA officials. The IHSAA has partnered with RefReps, an online training program that Bloomington’s David Pillar helped get off the ground, to combat the shortage of officials in all high school sports. Bloomington North, Edgewood and Owen Valley have programs in place already.
Bloomington North’s Kenli Sullivan Signs with Vincennes University Volleyball for 2025 The four-time defending Region 24 Champion Vincennes University Volleyball team picked up the first signing of their 2025 recruiting class with the signing of outside hitter Kenli Sullivan. “Kenli reached out to us early in May,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. “We were interested right away knowing that we are going to have to replace quite a bit of offense from this past season. We’re also, along with everyone else in the country, always looking for six-rotation players that can do just as well in the back row as they do in the front row. So, it was a pretty quick response from us after watching her video footage, that’s for sure”
“One thing that I think was important to Kenli is that she wanted to stay close to home,” Sien added. “She attends Bloomington North, but she actually lives closer to Bloomfield so she’s more of a local athlete.” “With Kenli we like her skill set, her ability to play in six rotations, her ability at the net to hit and block and definitely her first ball contact skills,” Sien said. “But we’re also looking at her as someone who has potential leadership ability. I really see her as someone who can come in right away and contribute to being a leader as a freshman.”
Sullivan comes to Vincennes University from Bloomington High School North and the Limestone Capital VBC club team. Sullivan is coming off of a strong senior season where she helped guide the Cougars to a 21-12 record with 374 kills, 121 digs, 46 aces, 21 block and four set assists and a .287 hitting percentage and the school’s first Volleyball Sectional Championship in 19 years. Sullivan was named three times to the Conference Indiana Volleyball All-Conference list, being an honorable mention as a sophomore and earning First Team honors as a junior and senior. Sullivan was named three times to the Conference Indiana Volleyball All-Conference list, being an honorable mention as a sophomore and earning First Team honors as a junior and senior. Sullivan was also named to First Team All-Area by the Herald-Times in Bloomington and was twice named Area Volleyball Player of the Year, including earning Co-Player of the Year honors alongside teammate Avery Freeman who has signed to play at Indiana University next season. Sullivan was named Bloomington North Volleyball Offensive Player of the Year twice and won the team’s Gold Award for being team MVP this past season.
Sullivan is a multi-sport athlete as Bloomington North, earning All-Conference honors and a Sectional Championship as a High Jumper and was an All-Conference basketball player, finishing the season as the team leader in field goal percentage and rebounds in 2022. Sullivan got her start as a freshman at Eastern Greene High School where she earned All-Conference honors in Volleyball, Basketball and Track and Field as a freshman and led the Thunderbirds in kills in volleyball, field goal percentage and rebounds in basketball and was a First Team All-Area basketball player. Sullivan was a member of the Bloomington North Track and Field team that placed fourth at the State Championships as a sophomore and were Runner-ups last year as a junior.
“Obviously we’re in the state of Indiana,” Sien said. “I think everybody here has to play basketball at some point in their life. One thing that I can say about players who have played basketball is that they have faced some hard coaching. Not saying that you won’t get that in volleyball because I don’t deflect from coaching hard at times. But if you are getting athletes that have played basketball at a high level, I think you are going to get athletes that are more hard-nosed.”
“In volleyball, you have the net between you and the other players,” Sien added. “Obviously in basketball you don’t have that, so you are going to get hit left and right, go up against maybe five or six other people on rebounds. I’ve found that athletes who have played basketball and she played some serious basketball for a while tend to be a little more tougher”. Sullivan is the daughter of Dawn Hostetter and Curt Sullivan and plans to major in Business at Vincennes University. “Kenli’s heart is in Southern Indiana,” Bloomington North Volleyball Coach Disney Bronnenberg said. “She comes from a great family and she loves this place. As a respected mentor to younger players and a trusted peer with her fellow teammates, she has developed into a true ambassador of volleyball in the highly talented arena that is Southern Indiana High School Volleyball. It’s so exciting to see her decide to continue that at a University that resides so close to the place and people she values so dearly.”
“That great love for this sport is evidenced by Kenli’s training mindset and her performance in high-pressure moments,” Bronnenberg added. “Looking at her stats, the 800-plus kills in just three years at BHSN, it’s easy to see she was trusted with the ball as a hitter when the pressure was there but here’s another stat, from the service line, when both teams were over 20 points in a game, she had a less than six-percent error rate and she served the opposition out of system 73 percent of the time in those moments. This is Kenli. She is mindful but still wholly aggressive when the heat goes up in the game. I look forward to watching her bring that intensity to the VU gym.” “Something that stands out to me is how the Trailblazer roster is highlighted by many players with multiple positions next to their names,” Bronnenberg said. “There is a lot of breadth and depth to what Kenli brings to this game. She has played opposite, six-rotation outside hitter as well as helping out in the middle for us during her time as a Cougar and it’s great to see her join a program that encourages and trains such versatility in their players. I can’t wait to see her continue her growth as a player and a student as a Trailblazer. She has a lot of greatness ahead of her and I know the team at VU will find their time with Kenli as meaningful and memorable as we have at Bloomington North.”
“We’re always looking for length,” Sien said. “I think every coach in every sport, here and everywhere is looking for athletes coming from winning programs and getting athletes who know how to win because that’s something that I can’t coach. No coach can teach someone how to win or how to be competitive, those are things that they have to bring with them. Being less than competitive is unacceptable. Losing happens, you are going to lose at times but if you know the difference between losing but being competitive, as a player, coach and a team, you’re going to be fine.” “We’ve got a lot of offense that we are graduating this year,” Sien added. “At this level that’s just the way that it is. It happens almost on a yearly basis that we have to recruit to replace those types of numbers, so it’s not something we’re not used to. This year it’s our hitting and blocking, we’re looking to replace almost 90 percent from this past season.” “We see Kenli as a player whose game will translate very well to this next level. She will certainly contribute to replacing those offensive numbers.” Sullivan is joining a Trailblazer squad coming off a 30-13 season, securing VU’s fourth straight NJCAA Division I Region 24 Championship and an 18-3 record against Region 24 opponents.
Former Indiana University Men’s Soccer Defender Hugo Bacharach signs with Rhode Island FC Rhode Island FC announced Tuesday it has signed midfielder Hugo Bacharach for the upcoming 2025 USL Championship season, pending league and federation approval. The Benicàssim, Spain native becomes the second new signing for the 2025 season and 26th all-time acquisition for RIFC. “Hugo is a young defender that we believe has a lot of upside,” said Rhode Island FC Head Coach and General Manager Khano Smith. “He is very good in and out of possession and will add quality to our defensive unit.”
Bacharach, a 2024 first-round MLS Superdraft selection, joins RIFC after making his professional debut with Minnesota in 2024, finishing his first season with nine appearances for the club’s MLS Next Pro reserve side and tallying one goal and one assist. The 23-year-old defender’s first career goal came in a regular season matchup with Sporting Kansas City II on Sept. 22, where he opened the scoring down 2-0 and sparked a four-goal comeback en route to a 4-2 win. Bacharach also made three appearances for Minnesota’s first team in 2024, going the full 90 minutes in his MLS debut on April 13 and playing 65 minutes across two appearances in the club’s 2024 Leagues Cup campaign.
Prior to his time as a professional, Bacharach played collegiately at Fairleigh Dickinson University (2020-2022) and Indiana University (2023). In his final season with Fairleigh Dickinson, the defender was named the Northeast Conference Defender of the Year. Following his transfer to Indiana for his final college season, Bacharach started in all 20 of his appearances for the Hoosiers en route to a Big Ten regular season championship, scoring four goals and assisting four in almost 1,700 minutes. He was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team and All-Big Ten Tournament Team after helping the Hoosiers to their 12th Big Ten Tournament Championship and 29th NCAA Tournament Quarterfinal appearance, before being selected ninth overall in the first round of the 2024 MLS Superdraft by Minnesota.
Bacharach also spent time with Flint City Bucks of USL League Two during his college years, playing two seasons with the club (2022-2023) including back-to-back USL League Two Central Conference Titles and a pair of national semifinal appearances. The defender was named Player of the Year for Flint City and to the USL League Two Central Conference Team of the Year in 2022. In 2023, he was named USL League Two Defender of the Year. Originally from Spain, Bacharach spent twelve years in the Spanish Academy system in his youth development years, spending a decade with Villarreal before moving to CD Castellón for his final two years.
Indy Fuel end 2024 with a road win against the Kalamazoo Wings The Indy Fuel headed to Kalamazoo for an evening New Year’s Eve game against the K-Wings. After being tied for two periods, the Fuel closed the game out in the third and took a 3-2 win. The first half of the first period went quickly as Indy racked up shots but neither team scored. At 13:20 Joseph Arntsen took a high sticking penalty which resulted in a power play for the Fuel. Colin Bilek, who returned to the lineup tonight, capitalized for Indy and scored with the help of Ryan Gagnier and Bryan Lemos to make it 1-0. Indy’s Bennett Stockdale took a delay of game penalty at 15:21, giving Kalamazoo their first power play chance of the game. While the K-Wings did not score on the power play, at 18:21, Zach Okabe scored to tie the game 1-1. At the end of the first period, the Fuel were outshooting the K-Wings 11-5.
The first half of the second period was a lot like the first, with no goals or penalties. Instead, this time it was Kalamazoo who collected nine shots before the Fuel tallied one in the second frame. At 11:00, Arntsen scored to give the K-Wings their first lead of the game, 2-1. Cam Hausinger, who leads the Fuel in scoring, tied the game up at 2-2 with a goal at 14:51. Kevin Lombardi claimed the lone assist on that goal. At 17:23, Ben Berard took a holding penalty to give the Fuel a power play chance but at 19:46, Darby Llewellyn took a tripping penalty to even it out. Time expired without another score and the Fuel were outshooting the K-Wings 20-16. Again, the first half of the period went by quickly without much excitement. Kevin Lombardi broke the tie with the help of Nathan Burke and Thomas Farrell at 8:24. With about a minute to go, the K-Wings pulled their goaltender in favor of the extra skater. Despite putting pressure on, they could not score to tie the game again. In the final game of 2024, the Fuel took a 3-2 win.
Indiana Pacers end 2024 with a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at Gainbridge Fieldhouse Giannis Antetokounmpo shook off a four-point first half and finished with 30 points and 12 rebounds as the Milwaukee Bucks rallied from a 19-point deficit and beat the Indiana Pacers 120-112 on Tuesday. Antetokounmpo, a two-time MVP who missed the previous three games with a non-COVID illness, stepped up in the second half after the Bucks fell behind 83-64 in the third quarter. The NBA scoring leader made 11 of 20 shots from the field and 8 of 13 from the line while adding five assists. Brook Lopez scored 16 points and Bobby Portis Jr. had 14 points and 15 rebounds for the Bucks, who outscored the Pacers 67-48 after halftime. Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers with 25 points. Pascal Siakam had 20. Just when it seemed as if the Bucks were headed to a third consecutive loss, they went on a 12-0 run and trimmed a huge deficit to three points entering the final quarter. The strong second half made up for a sluggish first half. Each time Indiana nears .500, there’s a setback with another disappointing loss. Blowing such a big lead at home could sting for a while. Gary Trent Jr. hit two clutch 3-pointers late, the first with the Bucks leading by one and the second with a two-point lead just as the shot clock expired to make it 115-110 with 1:39 remaining. Damian Lillard missed all seven shots, including three 3s, and committed two turnovers in a forgettable first half while being hounded by top Pacer’s defender Andrew Nembhard. Lillard finished with 3-for-14 shooting for nine points. The Pacers are back in action this evening when they face the Miami Heat on the Road starting at 7:30 PM.