Today’s Local Sports Headlines are brought to us by . . .
Indiana Men’s Basketball Travels to Iowa
Indiana Men’s Basketball will be looking for its first road win over the season when they take on the Iowa Hawkeyes tonight at 9 PM on Fox Sports 1. Indiana is 12-3 overall and 3-2 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers are 0-3 in true road games this season losing at Syracuse, Penn State and Wisconsin. Indiana has been lights out on defense in the last two games against Ohio State and Minnesota. IU outscored Ohio State and Minnesota by an average of 21.5 to 8.5, while shooting 61.5% from the floor. The Hoosiers committed just two turnovers total. The defense held the Buckeyes and Golden Gophers to 21.7% shooting and 27.3% from 3-point range, while forcing a total of nine turnovers. IU’s Guards combined for eight assists and zero turnovers and Race Thompson was 6-of-6 from the field.
Junior/Sophomore Forward Trayce Jackson-Davis is living up to his preseason accolades averaging 19.4 points (5th in B1G), 8.7 rebounds (5th), shooting 60.0% from the floor (4th), and contributing 3.0 blocked shots per game (2nd). He set a Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall record by scoring 43 points against Marshall, breaking the previous mark (42) set by Steve Alford against Michigan State. The leading returning scorer in the Big Ten has been named a first-team 2021-22 Preseason All-American by the Associated Press and selected to the watch list for the Karl Malone Watch, the NABC Player of the Year, Wooden Award (Midseason Top 25) and Naismith Award. He has had six double-doubles this season and 28 in his career with IU posting a 22-6 record in those games. Jackson-Davis now has scored 1,240 points as a Hoosier, rating 34th all-time in IU lore. He averaged 20 points and 12 rebounds this week in wins over Ohio State and Minnesota. He is the fifth active leading scorer in the country, is first in free throw attempts (489), and second in free throws made (326) since 2019-20.
IU is first in the Big Ten and second in country in field goal percentage defense (35.3%). The Hoosiers also lead the league in scoring defense (60.8). In conference play, IU leads in scoring defense (58.2) and field goal percentage defense (36.7%) and is second in 3-point field goal defense (28.6%). Race Thompson is averaging 10.7 points per game, Xavier Johnson is 9.7 points per game. IU’s starting lineup of Jackson-Davis (74), Sr./Jr’s. Xavier Johnson (96), Miller Kopp (89), Parker Stewart (88), and Race Thompson (42) have combined for 384 career Division I starts. Off the bench, Sr./Jr’s Michael Durr (85) and Rob Phinisee (69) have started 154 games.
Iowa is 11-4 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten. Iowa is coming off an 87-78 loss at Wisconsin. Keggan Murray leads the team in scoring at 24.6 points per game and Patrick McCaffery averages 11.2 points per game. Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery is in his 12th year with the Hawkeyes and both his sons Patrick and Connor play for him. Connor has started 2 games and averages 1.2 and Partick has started all 14 games this season. IU won both meetings last year against the Hawkeyes, 81-69 in Iowa City and 67-65 in Bloomington. The Hoosiers have won three straight in the series. IU has equaled its win total from a season ago. The Hoosiers lead the All-Time Series 106-78.
6th Ranked Indiana Women’s Basketball Host Nebraska as Freshman Keyarah Berry Leaves Team
The 6th Ranked Indiana Hoosiers will host the Nebraska Cornhuskers tonight at 6 pm inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and game and be seen on Big Ten Network. Indiana is 12-2 overall and 4-0 in the Big Ten a win tonight would give the Hoosiers their first ever 5-0 start in conference history. They matched their best-ever start with a win at Wisconsin to improve to 4-0. It ties the record set in the 2019-20 season and are the only remaining undefeated team in league action. Indiana moved up one spot in this week’s USA Today/WBCA Coaches’ Poll to #5, the highest ever ranked amongst the Coaches’ Poll. It stayed at #6 in the Associated Press Top 25 for the second consecutive week. They come back to the court after a scheduled eight-day layoff after beating Wisconsin on the road on Jan. 5. Graduate student guard Alt Patberg led the way with 18 points in the victory over the Badgers. Defense is the name of the game for the Hoosiers, who lead the Big Ten in scoring defense. They allow just 56.5 points per game and have held all 14 opponents to under 70 points this season.
It was announced Wednesday Afternoon that Freshman Keyarah Berry is leaving the Indiana Women’s Basketball program. She becomes the 2nd player to leave the team after graduate student Caitlin Hose left in December. Berry is a 5-9 from Rockmart Georgia. Berry played just 3 games for a total of five minutes. She had 2 fouls and 1 turnover and never attempted a shot.
The Hoosiers starting five all average double figures with Mackenzie Holmes leading the way at 17.9 points, Grace Berger at 13.9, Nicole Cardano-Hillary 10.7 and Aleska Gulbe at 10.4. The Hoosiers bench is led by Kiandra Browne at 3.4, Chloe Moore-McNeil at 3.0, Kaitlin Peterson at 1.8, and Grace Waggoner at 0.4. Mona Zaric and Arielle Wisne have not scored this season. Coach Teri Moren is in her 8th season as Indiana Head Coach with a 160-82 record and in her 19th season overall; she is 359-212.
Nebraska 13-2 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten are coming off a ranked win last week against then #8 Michigan before falling to #21 Iowa on Sunday. The Huskers are led by Junior Guard Jaz Shelley who averages 13.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Freshman Center Alexis Markowski is coming off Big Ten Freshman of the Week and Junior Guard Sam Haiby adds 11.1 points per game. One of the most productive offenses in the country, Nebraska averages 82.4 points per game. Amy Williams is in her 6th season as Nebraska Head Coach with an 85-77 record and in 15 seasons overall she is 278-186 in 15 seasons.
Indiana leads the all-time series 9-5. The Hoosiers won the last meeting 81-53 on December 20. 2021in Bloomington.
Indiana Football Announces Revised 2022 Football Schedule
The Big Ten Conference announced its 2022 football schedule on Wednesday afternoon. Indiana will host Illinois to open the season on Saturday, September 3rd and will welcome seven opponents to Memorial Stadium. The updated schedule accounts for alternations made during the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The full 2022 schedule is below:
Sept. 3 Illinois (Replaces Northwestern as a Home Game)
Sept. 10 Idaho
Sept. 17 Western Kentucky
Sept. 24 at Cincinnati
Oct. 1 at Nebraska
Oct. 8 Michigan (Was To Travel November 12th)
Oct. 15 Maryland (Was to Play October 8th)
Oct. 22 at Rutgers
Oct. 29 Bye (Replaces Bye Week October 15th)
Nov. 5 Penn State
Nov. 12 at Ohio State (Was to Play October 29th)
Nov. 19 at Michigan State (Was to Host on Same Date)
Nov. 26 Purdue
Dec. 3 Big Ten Championship Game
The Big Ten Conference Administrators Council, which includes the Directors of Athletics and Senior Women Administrators from all 14 member institutions, approved the schedule. Please note that select games from Saturday will be adjusted, to either Thursday or Friday, as in past seasons.
Friday’s Edgewood-Owen Valley Girls Basketball Game Postponed
One day after it was announced the Edgewood-Owen Valley Boys Basketball games would be postponed. The news came Wednesday afternoon the Edgewood-Owen Valley Girls Basketball game has been postponed. This comes after the Edgewood Girls Basketball team has been hit COVID for the 2nd time this season. Edgewood did not play the week of November 15though 20 moving home games against Bloomfield and Sullivan to later in the season.
Edgewood is 16-4 on the season and their game next Tuesday at Eastern Greene has been postponed. The Mustangs are scheduled to play Bloomington North January 25th. Owen Valley is coming off a 51-47 loss at Northview Tuesday Night. The Patriots are 9-12 on the season and scheduled to host North Putnam January 25th.
Edgewood and Owen Valley play a Girls and Boys JV Doubleheader the night before the varsity doubleheader. The JV doubleheader was to be played at Edgewood and the Varsity to be played at Owen Valley. Both schools will work to reschedule as they are both in the Western Indiana Conference.
For more local news . . .
Check out our archived episodes of What’s Happenin’ and Talkin’ Sports with Nick Jenkinson here