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Lady Hoosiers enter March Madness as 4th Seed
Indiana women’s basketball has earned an at-large berth to the 2021 NCAA women’s basketball tournament as the No. 4 seed in the Mercado region, announced on Monday evening. Indiana will face No. 13 seed VCU, the winners of the Atlantic 10 champion, on Monday, March 22nd at 2 p.m. ET on ESPNU. The team will head down to San Antonio on Wednesday to get settled in and begin preparations for their first-round match-up. Although the Hoosiers are the 12th nationally ranked team in the country, and amassed an 18-5 overall record, they had an early parting from the Big Ten Tournament last week, losing to MSU in the Quarter-finals, their first and only game.
Coach Teri Moren said that the team had set goals for themselves before the season, including winning the Big Ten Championship, for which they lost in the regular season to Maryland by one game. When asked what would constitute success from here on out, she replied, “Ultimately, our goal is to make the NCAA Tournament year in and year out and make a deep run; not just playing for a Sweet 16 or Elite 8, but a Final Four.” She added, “Those are our goals and those have always been our goals, particularly in the past couple of years.”
This year’s pairing marks the highest seed ever for the program, besting its highest overall seed as a No. 6 seed in the 1983 season when the field was 36. In the modern format of 64 teams, the program’s previous high seed was No. 8 in 2002. The Hoosiers will play in its seventh NCAA Tournament in school history and received back-to-back berths to the Big Dance for the first time since 1994-95. Indiana (18-5) is 3-6 all-time in the NCAA Tournament as seventh year Head Coach Teri Moren brings a 2-2 record into tournament action.
Deckard jury deliberates for 3 hours
58 year-old Phillip “Butch” Deckard has been found guilty on four of the five charges in Lawrence County Superior Court II yesterday afternoon. He was acquitted of murdering his girlfriend Charlene Silvers in August of last year, but was found guilty on felony charges of aggravated battery with a substantial risk of death, reckless homicide, involuntary manslaughter, and domestic battery by means of a deadly weapon. Deckard will be sentenced on April 9th.
I-69 Finish Line update
Construction moves to the north, on the I-69 project from Martinsville, in Morgan County toward Johnson and Marion counties.
Morgan County
- Drainage structure installation is expected to close Southview Drive today for realignment west of Mahalasville Road in Martinsville. Access to the nearby Williamsburg Apartments will be from the west using Burton Lane and Southview Drive.
- Asphalt plants have reopened and more permanent pothole repairs have begun in the I-69 work zones. Stay alert for flaggers and short-term lane closures while the asphalt cools. Where needed, a final layer of surface asphalt will be paved as temperatures warm this spring.
- More permanent lane markings have been applied in downtown Martinsville where traffic patterns were changed ahead of the State Road 37 closure.
Johnson County
- North of State Road 144 near Bargersville, some local roads have permanently closed at State Road 37 to install new utility lines and to start access road construction. You can see where existing local roads will be connected to I-69 access points by viewing maps of the State Road 144, Smith Valley Road, and County Line Road interchanges.
- Both Stones Crossing Road and Travis Road are closed west of State Road 37. The best local access to the area is from the south using State Road 144 and Old State Road 37/Old Port Royal Road.
Marion County
- Watch for I-465 shoulder closures each workday, as weather allows, on the southwest side between I-70 and I-65. Specialized crews are collecting soil samples to inform the design of added lanes for I-465 in the area.
- New utility lines are being installed, both underground and overhead, near State Road 37 from County Line Road to I-465 to make way for I-69 construction.