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Indiana Men’s Basketball Responds with Win Over Penn State
After Losing at Home Sunday to Michigan by 18 Points the Indiana Hoosiers Men’s Basketball Team responded with a 74-57 over Penn State Wednesday Night inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Indiana was led by Xavier Johnson with 19 points, Race Thompson added 18 points and Trayce Jackson Davis had 15 points. The Hoosiers were lights out in the first half, shooting 17-26 from the field for 56 percent, 6-8 from three-point range for 75% and 8-11 from the free throw line for 72% as the Hoosiers jumped out to a 12-0 lead and were up 46-17 at halftime, and led for all but for 13 seconds of the first half. Trayce Jackson Davis, Race Thompson, and Xavier Johnson scored in double figures in the first half.
Indiana was 26-51 from the field for 51 percent, 10-13 from three-point range for 76 percent and 12-15 from the free throw line for 80 percent. Indiana pulled down 30 rebounds, 15 assists, 10 blocks, 8 steals and committed 9 turnovers.
Penn State was led by Jalen Pickett with 14 points and John Harrar had 13 points and 9 rebounds. Penn State was 20-60 from the field for 33%, 9-26 from three-point range for 34 percent and 8-9 from the free throw line for 88%. Penn State pulled down 36 rebounds, 10 assists, 14 turnovers, 5 steals, and no blocks. The Nittany Lions are 8-9 overall and 3-6 in the Big Ten.
Indiana is 15-5 overall and 6-4 in the Big Ten and will travel to Maryland Saturday afternoon at 2:30pm.
Indiana-Illinois Women’s Basketball Game Postponed
Tonight’s Indiana-Illinois Women’s Basketball game scheduled for 7pm at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall has been postponed due to COVID-19 Protocols within the Illinois Program. The Game was officially postponed on Tuesday. The Hoosiers have their last three games postponed. Their scheduled games against Michigan State at home January 19th and a road game at Iowa January 23rd were postponed due to COVID Protocols within the Hoosiers Program. Indiana lost a road game at Rutgers December 30th because of the same issue within the Scarlet Knights Program. Indiana is scheduled to play at Michigan Monday January 31st. The Hoosiers have eight scheduled games left plus trying to fit in four rescheduled games before the Big Ten Tournament starts March 2nd in Indianapolis. Indiana is 14-2 overall and 6-0 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers have not played since January 16th when beat Purdue on the road in West Lafayette.
Two Indiana Players Selected for the McDonalds All American Basketball Game
Two of the 48 players that were selected for the McDonalds All American Girls and Boys High School Basketball Games hail from the state of Indiana. Ayanna Patterson a 6-2 Forward from Homestead High School in Fort Wayne and J.J. Starling from La Lumiere School in LaPorte will play in the games scheduled for March 29th in Chicago Illinois at the United Center. The Girls Game will tip off at 6:30pm on ESPN2 and the Boys Game will tip off at 9pm on ESPN. The McDonalds All American Games are considered as the best High School Basketball All Star Games that you can be selected for. The First McDonalds All American Game was held in 1978 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA. The Girls game started in 2002 and became a doubleheader that was at Madison Square Garden. There were no games in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic but all-star teams were named.
Patterson is a 6-2 forward and headed to the University of Connecticut. Homestead is 20-1 on the season and have not lost since November 20 in 68-49 loss at home to Noblesville who are led by 2023 University of Connecticut Ashlynn Shade. The Spartans have won 16 in a row and host Fort Wayne Northrop in the regular season finale tomorrow at 6 PM. KK Bransford a 5-10 guard from Mount Norte Dame HS in Cincinnati Ohio is headed to Norte Dame.
Starling is a 6-3 guard who plays for La Lumiere School in La Porte and he is headed to The University of Norte Dame. La Lumiere is a prep school and is not part of the Indiana High School Athletic Association. Starling is from Baldwinsville New York and La Lumiere plays a national schedule with kids that are from all over the country and they are 13-3 on the season.
Indiana Volleyball Assistant Coach Daniel Gwitt Leaves for Penn State
Indiana Volleyball Assistant Coach Daniel Gwitt is leaving the Hoosiers to become an assistant coach at his alma mater Penn State under new coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley who takes over for legendary coach Russ Rose who retired after 43 seasons in December. Indiana Volleyball has lost both assistant coaches as Krista Vansant left earlier in the month for Illinois. Indiana Head Coach Steve Aird will have to fill both positions.
Giwitt has been at Indiana since 2017 and graduated from Penn State in 2007. In just his first season at Indiana in 2018, Gwitt helped head coach Steve Aird, a former assistant coach at Penn State, lead the Hoosiers to immediate improvement as they totaled four more wins overall and six more victories in the Big Ten over the prior season. The Big Tenwin total was the program’s most since 2010. A key factor in the improvement was the defensive effort coached by Gwitt. The Hoosiers went from 277th in the nation in total blocks the year before to 15th in 2018 and went from 273rd in blocks/set to 36th.
Gwitt proved himself as a successful recruiter at Indiana while working to get student-athletes to compete in the toughest conference in the nation. He helped put together the 2020 recruiting class that was ranked 15th in the nation, the highest-ranked class in program history. It included the second-highest ranked individual recruit (No. 32) in program history and two Under Armour All-Americans. A native of Eden, New York, Gwitt graduated from Penn State in 2007 with a degree in communication arts and sciences. He was a member of the men’s volleyball team under current head coach Mark Pavlik and helped the Nittany Lions to the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) Championship and a trip to the NCAA Final Four.
Following his time at Penn State, Gwitt joined the staff at Centenary College, a Division I program in the Summit League at the time, and took over as interim head coach in 2007. He was the youngest Division I head coach in the country at the time. He spent three seasons with the Pride, coaching more than 70 matches by the age of 24. In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Gwitt served as the director of operations and master coach for two of the largest and most successful clubs in Southern California. He took multiple teams to the Open Division for the Girls Junior National Championships. All of those teams finished in the Division 1 SCVA rankings, and his most recent 17s team finished as the top ranked team in the SCVA.
Penn State has won 7 National Championships, 17 Big Ten Championships and 41 NCAA Tournaments all under Russ Rose. Schumacher-Cawley played at Penn State from 1998-2002, won the National Championship in 1999, and has been an assistant the last four season under Rose.
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