#9 Indiana University Women’s Basketball host Northwood in lone exhibition game
The #9 Preseason Ranked Indiana Hoosiers Women’s Basketball Team will take the floor tonight at 7pm as they host Division II Northwood University from Michigan in their lone exhibition game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The game will be streamed on Big Ten Network Plus and The Hoosiers have a new home for all IU Women’s Basketball Radio Broadcast on WBWB B97 FM with Austin Render calling all the action all season long.
The Hoosiers are coming off their best season in program history with a 28-4 overall record which game them a Number 1 Seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in School History. The Hoosiers hosted the Opening, First and Second Round of the NCAA Tournament in March where they were upset by # 9 Seed Miami (Florida) in the second round. Indiana finished the Big Ten 16-2 overall and won the Big Ten Regular Season Championship for their first time since 1983. The Hoosiers added to that Big Ten Banner at Hoosier Hysteria to go along with 2002 Big Ten Tournament Championship under then head coach Kathi Bennett.
Expectations are very high for the Hoosiers as they return four starters from a season ago. Graduate Seniors Mackenize Holmes and Sara Scalia are back along with Seniors Chloe Moore-McNeil and Sydney Parrish and Sophomore Yarden Garzon will round out the starting five. Parrish started several games after Now Indiana Fever player Grace Berger was injured early in the season. Parrish was able to maintain her starting role once Berger came back as Parrish started 26 of 32 games averaging 12 points per game. Garzon and Moore-McNeil played and started all 32 games last season. Garzon averaged 11.1 points and Moore-McNeil chipped in 9.5 points per game.
Holmes started all 31 games she played in missing one due to injury and averaged 22.3 points per game and was named a Preseason All-American. Scalia who played all 32 games last season started 14 games and averaged 9.5 points per game after playing three seasons for the University of Minnesota. The Hoosiers return Lilly Meister who played in 31 games and started in place of Holmes when she out averaging 2.4 points per game. Lexus Bargesser played in 29 games averaging 2.1 points per game. Henna Sandvik played 23 games scoring 13 points along with Arielle Wisne who played in 11 games scoring 5 points.
The Hoosiers added three new players in the offseason with UT Martin Transfer Sharneece Currie-Jelks along with Freshman Lenee Beaumont and Juliana LaMendola. All three are expected to contribute and got valuable time with their new teammates during the summer session and was capped with a 10-day trip to Greece and winning 2 games over there by big margins.
The Hoosiers lost Grace Berger and Alyssa Geary to Graduation. Berger averaged 12.9 points in all 24 games she played in but she was so huge on rebounds and assists and it paid off when she was drafted 7th overall by the Indiana Fever in the WNBA Draft in April in which she had a solid rookie season and is now spending the WNBA offseason playing in Spain. Geary who was graduate Transfer from Providence scored 46 points in 21 games. The Hoosiers also lost Kaitlin Peterson, Mona Zaric and Kiandra Browne as they all transfer out and combined scored 40 points in 27 total games between the three of them.
Teri Moren enters her 10th season in Bloomington as the all-time winningest coach in Program History with a 200-93 record and overall record 399-222 in her 21st season overall. While this game does not count in the record books Moren will have her chance to get her 400th career win next Thursday when the Hoosiers open up the Regular Season against Eastern Illinois.
Indiana University Men’s Soccer player Hugo Bacharach named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week
What’s scarier than a 6-foot-4 defender? A 6-foot-4 defender that can create scoring opportunities. IU defensive midfielder Hugo Bacharach’s frightening affairs won him the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honor this cycle as announced by the conference office on Wednesday (Oct. 31). The Spanish senior scored a goal and provided an assist in IU’s 4-1 rout of Rutgers on Sunday that clinched a share of the Big Ten regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Bacharach scored IU’s first goal against Rutgers, rebounding a Joey Maher shot on goal in the fifth minute. He helped ice the game in the 90th minute, dispossessing Rutgers in midfield before releasing an incisive through ball to Samuel Sarver, who finished the fourth goal.
Bacharach is the third Hoosier to win a Big Ten weekly award this season. Maher was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 17, and Sarver won the offensive award on Oct. 10. Since moving into a defensive midfielder role, primarily, in IU’s 2-1 win at Penn State in early October, Bacharach has four goal contributions (one goal, three assists). IU has not given up multiple goals in any match he’s played in that role, including both games he played last week.
IHSAA State Finals will be available via Streaming and will not be on Televison
Livestreaming has become a fact of life in the television world over the past few years. More often, programming is being moved from linear (or conventional) television to streaming platforms. For the past decade, Bally Sports Indiana (formerly Fox Sports Indiana) had been the television home for the state finals. However, Diamond Sports Group which owns 19 regional sports networks, including Bally Sports Indiana filed for bankruptcy this past March.
In June, according to IHSAA Assistant Commissioner Chris Kaufman, Bally Sports Indiana informed the organization that the partnership would end. “They called and said they weren’t allowed to renew the contract with us,” Kaufman said. “It was an amicable parting and, all in all, Bally was a great partner. We enjoyed working with them and we will stay in touch.” This means, at least for now, IHSAAtv.org will be the exclusive platform for the state finals and will be behind a paywall. “The state finals have been on IHSAAtv.org for many years now,” said Heath Shanahan, IHSAA’s Director of Broadcasting/Executive Producer. “It’s been a destination website that people hit, not just for the state finals, but the entire tournament and regular season. “We decided this is a great release point, not just for the state, but worldwide,” he added.
The changes will affect all state finals, except for golf, tennis, and Unified sports. Those broadcasts will remain free to view. To see state finals events, viewers will need to download the free IHSAAtv app to their devices (e.g., a computer, phone or OTT/television appliance device) or visit IHSAAtv.org. The prices to view state finals contests will be the same as buying a ticket at the venue: generally, $15 per game or $20 for an all-access pass. The IHSAAtv OTT app is available for Roku, Firestick, Apple TV, and Android Tv devices allowing fans watch in high definition on their televisions. “We are working to make this as easy as possible for fans,” Shanahan said. “Fans can navigate to one site, click the link and follow the steps. It’s no different than getting on a phone and going to any app or website.”
Kaufman and Shanahan said IHSAA realizes there will be pushback due to a natural resistance to streaming content previously available on certain television packages. “It can be difficult for some who aren’t technologically savvy, but that’s an issue we can’t solve alone,” Kaufman said. “The overall climate of change in television has helped as people are seeing they will get their TV [content] differently. But whether you watched on [cable] television or on a stream [streaming platform], you are paying for it.” “With Bally,” Shanahan added, “it was rolled into your cable bill.”
Kaufman also said the quality of the production won’t change. Since 2010, IHSAAtv.org has delivered streaming content. Shanahan said the site currently has 150 schools from across the state who contribute games on the network, along with 30-plus independent broadcasters. “On a recent Friday night, we had 95 football games being streamed,” Shanahan said. While the state finals and semi-state contests are pay-per-view, the sectional and regional rounds of each state tournament — will remain free to view.
Also, the IHSAA Champions Radio Network, supported by Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, will not be impacted. In fact, that network added seven more stations this year, bringing the total to 79. “Television is changing rapidly,” Shanahan said, “and linear TV isn’t close to what it was even five years ago. The pandemic put an importance on livestreaming. This is the future and we’ve been preparing ourselves for it for several years.”
Trayce Jackson-Davis has a Big Game in the Big Easy
Trayce Jackson-Davis played just five total minutes in the Golden State Warriors’ first three regular season games, but he had a productive night in Monday’s 130-102 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. The 6-foot-9 rookie forward from Indiana scored 13 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked four shots in 20 minutes of action. He shot 5-for-9 from the field and 3-for-4 from the free throw line. Jackson-Davis said postgame the most important lesson he’s learned in the NBA is to always be ready, and he did just that. “Those guys instill a lot of confidence in me, and they expect me to go out and perform when your name is called,” Jackson Davis. “I found out I was playing kind of this morning, so you’ve always got to be ready.”
Warriors point guard Steph Curry had an incredible game, scoring 42 points on 7-for-13 3-point shooting. Playing alongside an NBA legend like that has helped Jackson-Davis’ transition to the professional game. “It’s really easy when you’re playing with guys like Steph Curry, Chris Paul, Klay Thompson,” Jackson-Davis said postgame. “It makes the job easy – just roll and make the right play.” Jackson-Davis wrapped up an All-American career at Indiana last season under coach Mike Woodson, averaging 20.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.9 blocks. He graduated as Indiana’s all-time leader in rebounds and blocked shots and finished third on the school’s all-time scoring list.
Jackson-Davis gave a shoutout to his coach Monday, following his impressive performance. “Coach Woodson did a great job and prepared me in the two years that he had me,” Jackson-Davis said. “Just basically the style of offense that we ran, defensive coverages all translated over. So, it’s a huge thanks to him and the Indiana family.” The Warriors are off to a 3-1 start this season and carry championship aspirations. Next up, they host the Sacramento Kings tonight at 10pm Bloomington Time.
Corey Taylor named Interim Coach for Ben Davis HS Boys Basketball
An assistant for the varsity boys basketball team will take over as head coach, Ben Davis High School announced Monday. Corey Taylor was introduced as the interim head coach “for the foreseeable future.” The announcement came amid reports that Don Carlisle, who led the Giants to a state championship in March, is under investigation for a reported assault on school property. A redacted police report described the incident as a “simple assault” with an “unknown weapon” at the school, 1200 N. Girls School Road. Indianapolis police were told the incident happened about 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 6, and the report was made at 11:55 a.m. the next day.
The 2022-2023 Giants defeated Kokomo Wildkats 53-41 in March for the Class 4A state championship, capping a 33-0 undefeated season. An announcement Monday from the Ben Davis athletics department says Carlisle is on administrative leave. The announcement said, in part, “The investigatory process is ongoing, and, while we do not have a clear timeline, we respect the right to privacy and due process and remain committed to sharing more information when it becomes available.” Jeannine Templeman, the chief communications officer for the Wayne Township Schools district, said in an email Monday night, “While the investigatory process regarding Coach Carlisle is ongoing, we respect the right to privacy and due process and will share more information when it becomes available.”
The Giants will now be led by Taylor, who played basketball collegiately at Eastern Illinois University. He began coaching in Illinois at Champaign Central before moving to Central Indiana for a two-year stint as an assistant at Noblesville High School. Since Taylor and Carlisle joined the Ben Davis coaching staff, the Giants have won a state runner-up title, a conference championship, a Marion County championship, and a Hall of Fame Classic championship in addition to the 2022-23 Class 4A state championship. The Ben Davis boys’ basketball team will host Fishers High School to open its season Nov. 21.
Chicago Bulls hand the Indiana Pacers their first loss of the season
Nikola Vucevic scored nine of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, and the Chicago Bulls rallied past the Indiana Pacers 112-105 on Monday night. The Bulls trailed by five entering the fourth but surged down the stretch as Vucevic delivered three key layups. The first two tied the game, and the third gave Chicago a one-point lead. DeMar DeRozan put the Bulls ahead to stay on a layup that made it 101-99 with 3:46 remaining. Zach LaVine had 23 points and DeRozan scored 20 for the Bulls, who have split four games to start the season. The pair shot a combined 12 of 36 from the field. Chicago went 26 of 31 at the line, whereas Indiana went 21 of 25.
The Pacers, who had opened with a pair of victories, were their own worst enemy in settling for long-range shots. They made 12 of 46 3-pointers (26.1%). Myles Turner led the Pacers with 20 points. Tyrese Haliburton had 19 points and 13 assists, and Bennedict Mathurin and Bruce Brown each scored 15 points. Haliburton’s driving layup in the final seconds gave Indiana a 55-53 lead at halftime. Two nights after scoring a career-high 51 points at Detroit, LaVine struggled early. The All-Star made two of seven shots but hit five free throws for 10 points in the first half. DeRozan missed six of seven shots in a four-point half. The Pacers return to action tonight at Boston at 7:30pm.
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