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Indiana Men’s Basketball opens NCAA Tournament with Wyoming
The Indiana Hoosiers Men’s Basketball Team is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 when the take on the Wyoming Cowboys in a First Four matchup in Dayton Ohio at 9:10 pm this evening. Both Teams are a number 12 seed in the East Regional. The Hoosiers are 20-13 while the Cowboys come in at 25-8. The winner gets Saint Mary’s (25-7) in Portland Oregon Thursday Night at 7:20 pm. IU Head Coach Mike Woodson gets the Hoosiers into the Big Dance in his first season. Woodson played in four NCAA Tournament Games in 1978 and 1980 going 2-2. He was also a member of 1979 Postseason NIT Championship Team.
Indiana is making its 40th NCAA Tournament Appearance but this the first for every player on the Indiana roster. The Hoosiers lost to Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals on Saturday in Indianapolis and both teams had just over 48 hours to get ready for this matchup. Trayce Jackson-Davis was named to the All-Big Ten Tournament Team with his performance in three games scoring 31 against Iowa, 24 against Michigan and 21 against Illinois. Jackson-Davis pulled down 10 rebounds against Iowa. Xavier Johnson scored 20 points against Iowa, 17 against Michigan and 13 against Illinois. Race Thompson scored 10 points and pulled down 9 rebounds against Illinois.
Wyoming won 24 regular-season games, its most since the 1951-52 season. The Cowboys are in their first NCAA tourney since 2015, and 16th overall. It’s their first at-large bid since 2002. Wyoming is led by Ike Graham, a 6-9, 252-pound forward who averages 19.6 points and 9.6 rebounds. Hunter Maldonado, a 6-7 guard, averages 18.4 points and 5.8 rebounds. Drake Jeffries, a 6-5 guard, averages 10.5 points and 5.7 rebounds. It has six players 6-8 or taller on its roster. The Cowboys have Power 5 Conference experience on their resume. They lost at Arizona, a No. 1 NCAA tourney seed, 94-65. They also lost to Stanford, 66-63.
Both Indiana and Wyoming along with Norte Dame and Rutgers were the last four at-large teams into the field of 68. This is the fourth all-time meeting between the two teams with Indiana winning the previous three in 1951 in Laramie Wyoming along with wins in 1982 and 1999, in Bloomington.
Game times announced for Saturday’s NCAA Women’s Basketball First Round matchups in Bloomington
The #3 Seed Indiana Hoosiers will host the #14 Seed Charlotte 49ers in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Saturday at 1:30pm in the First Round of the Bridgeport Region for the NCAA Tournament. The game is televised on ESPN2. The #6 Seed Kentucky Wildcats will take on the #11 seed Princeton Tigers at 4pm with that game televised on ESPN, with the winners playing the winners of the earlier game in Round Two. This the first time that Indiana University will host NCAA Women’s Tournament Games.
Indiana is 22-8 Overall and lost in the Big Ten Championship Game to Iowa. Charlotte is 22-9 overall won the Conference USA championship beating Louisiana Tech 68-63 in Frisco Texas on Saturday. The Hoosiers were a #4 seed last season and made the Elite 8 for the first time in school history.
Kentucky is 19-11 overall and won the SEC Championship knocking off number 1 South Carolina 64-62. The Wildcats have made the trip to Bloomington this season losing to the Hoosiers 88-67 in November. Princeton is 24-4 and won the Ivy League. Princeton is in the tournament for the 9th time and all since 2010. The Tigers only win in the tournament came in 2015 when they knocked off Green Bay 80-70.
Indiana Baseball hosts Kentucky
Indiana Baseball returns home with 5 pm matchup this evening against the Kentucky Wildcats at Bart Kaufman Field. The Hoosiers are 6-9 on the season and Edgewood Grad Luke Hayden is set to make his third start this season for the Hoosiers. Hayden is 2-0 on the season has pitched 6 innings, given up 3 hits, 1 earned run, 3 walks and struck out 8 in 4 games he has appeared in. Indiana was swept at Troy over the weekend. The Hoosiers have hit 20 home runs so far this season and pitching staff has allowed 6 so far. The Hoosiers have 127 hits with 94 runs and 83 RBI’s. The Hoosiers have 21 doubles and six triples on the season. Brock Tibbits leads the team a .360 batting average followed by Bobby Whalen at .356 and Linton Grad Josh Pyne at .310.
Kentucky enters with a 14-3 overall record and is 7-2 over its last nine games with a series win over TCU and a series sweep of High Point. Two of the Wildcats three losses have come in the midweek, with Western Kentucky and Ohio defeating the Wildcats. After starting the season with a three-game road series, UK has played its last 14 games at home. The Wildcats will play four straight on the road with this game this evening. Chase Estep enters the week hitting .476 with 25 runs, 30 hits and 21 RBIs on the season. He has walked 14 times to just eight strikeouts, and owns a team-best seven home runs and six stolen bases. As a team, Kentucky is tied for the national lead in hits (164) and is #24 nationally in runs scored (9.3).The pitching staff is #20 in the NCAA in strikeouts per nine inning (11.2).The midweek contest with the Wildcats will mark the 44th all-time meeting between Indiana and Kentucky.
It’s a series that dates back to the 1903 season, when the two programs split a pair of meetings. They met seven times between 1903 and 1920 and didn’t play again until 1974. The longest winning streak in the series belongs to Kentucky at six games from April 19, 1977-April 22, 1981. Indiana preceded those six wins with five straight victories in the series from May 11, 1920-April 1, 1975. Of the 44 all-time meetings, 10 of them have been played at neutral sites.
Mitchell’s Chase Briscoe Wins NASCAR Race in Phoenix
Mitchell Indiana Native Chase Briscoe won his first ever NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway in Arizona. The 27-year-old has won 11 times in the Xfinity series and twice in the truck series. Briscoe was making his 40th career start in the Cup Series and executed two great restarts over the final 20 laps to pull away from Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick during the race. Briscoe’s childhood idol was NASCAR great Tony Stewart who is also an Indiana native. Briscoe now drives Stewart’s Number 14 car for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Briscoe channeled some of Stewart’s late-race moxie during an intense battle between three drivers who had never won in the Cup Series. It’s more evidence of the parity across the series in the Next Gen cars, with four drivers winning the first four races this season. Chastain and Reddick — both driving Chevrolets — made things interesting over the final laps, but Briscoe’s Ford was simply too strong. On the final restart with four laps left, the 27-year-old Briscoe started on the inside, dipped low on the dogleg apron, and was able to hold off the rest of the field for a trip into victory lane.
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