Indiana University Basketball opens with Florida Gulf Coast
Indiana University Men’s Basketball will open up their 124th season of Men’s Basketball tonight at 6:30pm in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall with the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles and the game is televised on the Big Ten Network. Head Coach Mike Woodson will start is third season as Hoosier Head Coach with a 44-26 record and Two NCAA Tournament Appearances. The Hoosiers went 23-12 last season and lost to Miami Florida in the second round after a first-round win over Kent State. In the 2021-22 season the Hoosiers went 21-14 and lost to St Mary’s in the first round after an opening round over Wyoming. This will be the third straight year that Indiana has opened the regular season with a team that is nicknamed the Eagles. Mike Woodson’s first career win was against Eastern Michigan 68-62 two year ago and last season beat Morehead State 88-53 both in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
The Hoosiers beat the University of Indianapolis 74-52 and Marian University 94-61 in exhibition games. Kel’el Ware had a double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds against Marian along with 14 points against Indianapolis. The Seven Foot transfer from Oregon has shown that he can stretch the floor knocking down the outside shot and can drive to the basket along with finishing at the rim. Ware can disrupt on defense altering and blocking shots. Freshman Mackenzie Mgbako scored 15 points against Marian and 14 points against Indianapolis. Sophomore Malik Reneau scored 14 points against Marian and 12 points against Indianapolis. The trio started both games and poses a matchup problem for opposing teams with their length. Xavier Johnson and Trey Galloway started in the backcourt and Coach Mike Woodson has second unit that features CJ Gunn, Gabe Cupps, Anthony Leal, Anthony Walker, Kaleb Banks and Payton Sparks. Sparks a transfer from Ball State played against Indianapolis and missed the Marian game due to injury. Banks scored 12 points against Marian after he missed the Indianapolis game due to injury. One player that will not get on the court anytime soon is Freshman Jakai Newton who is coming off season surgery. Mike Woodson met with the media on Monday and said that Freshman from Covington, Georgia is “moving in the right direction” but when he comes back and is able to play is undecided.
Florida Gulf Coast is located in Fort Myers Florida and is in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Eagles made the 2013 NCAA Sweet 16 and was given the Nickname “Dunk City” by national media outlets due to their highflying athletic finishing style. Florida Gulf Coast started a basketball program in Division II in 2002-03 and moved to Division 1 in the 2011-12 season. The Eagles have made three NCAA DI Tournament Appearances but they are looking to get back for the first time since 2017. Florida Gulf Coast have won three Atlantic Sun Regular Season and three Atlantic Sun Conference Championships. This will be the second trip to Bloomington as the Hoosiers beat the Eagles 88-60 on November 12, 2010 when Christian Watford scored 23 points, Jordan Hulls added 18 points and Maruice Creek had 13 and that is the only time the two teams met and Indiana is 19-1 all time against teams from the Atlantic Sun Conference.
Head Coach Pat Chambers begins his 13th season overall and second year at Florida Gulf Coast with an overall record of 207-193. Chambers is no stranger to the Hoosiers as he was the coach of Penn State from 2011-20 with a 148-150 record and a 2018 NIT Postseason Championship with the Nittany Lions. The Eagles have a 15-player roster that includes 13 Upperclassmen led by Zionsville Indiana native and Purdue Transfer Isaiah Thompson. Thompson averaged 14.9 points and dished out 109 assists averaging 32.6 minutes a game for the Eagles and was third team all Atlantic Sun. The Eagles have team that represents from 7 states and the Bahamas and finished with a 17-15 overall record and 7-11 conference record a season ago.
IU Football’s Aaron Casey named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week
After helping the Indiana football program to a 20-14 victory over Wisconsin during Week 10, redshirt senior Aaron Casey was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, announced the conference office on Monday. Casey piled up nine tackles with seven coming in the fourth quarter to hold Wisconsin scoreless in the final frame and seal the victory. On the Badger’s final drive of the game – UW trailing by six points – Casey made three stops with two solo tackles for loss, which included a solo sack with 36 seconds remaining and the Badgers out of timeouts.
In all, he piled up 4.0 tackles for loss, the most by a Hoosier since 2016 and a total that is tied for No. 9 on the FBS single game charts in 2023. Of those four tackles behind the line of scrimmage, he had two solo sacks. All four TFLs came in the second half, with three in the fourth quarter. The TFL total ranks tied for third-most in a Big Ten game this season. The Douglasville, Georgia, native also forced a fumble in the fourth quarter, which led to IU’s first recovered fumble of the season. His efforts helped IU to consecutive wins over Wisconsin for the first time since 2001-02 and the first home win over the Badgers since 2002 (five games). He is the first Hoosier to earn B1G Defensive Player of the Week since Micah McFadden’s nine tackle, 2.0 sack effort in 2020 at No. 18 Wisconsin.
Indiana University Head Coach Tom Allen’s statement after win over Wisconsin
Good morning. Appreciate everybody being here. Just want to begin by — really proud of our guys, the way they battled on Saturday. Last couple weeks, been able to see some growth of the way our guys have prepared the last couple weeks and starting to play complementary football, eliminating mistakes.
Didn’t have any penalties by our offense, no turnovers by our offense. Scored the opening drive of the game, which is a great tone setter. Then defensively getting off the field on the first drive and several drives to start the game. Finally got us a takeaway on a fumble recovery. It’s taken many, many games to get to that. Got two of those for the game, counting the three 4th down stops. Had five opportunities where we consider those takeaways by our guys, by our unit, so those were huge in the game.
Just feel like we secured the football on the punt returns and no penalties on special teams, just playing all three phases working together, got some good flip the field with our punter again, pinning them down inside and making them have to punt and getting points off that, and obviously at the end getting the key stop. Aaron Casey was phenomenal, as we all saw, and the big sack he got to knock them out of field goal range, and then to be able to take the ball and get some key 1st downs and make them burn their time-outs and kick a field goal right in that area where you try to make a decision what you need to do. Trust in Chris, and he did a great, great job. Proud of our players.
We just go through and try to recognize players of the game. Brendan Sorsby on offense was our offensive player of the game. Just really proud of his development. Just showed growth, poise, toughness, made some really big throws, and had some opportunities — we left some things out there offensively. Didn’t play consistently in the second half to where we need to be for sure. But he did a really good job of distributing the football and continuing to grow and develop. Aaron Casey was the defensive player of the game, as you would expect with his nine tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks, caused fumble. Just played the way I believe and know he can, and he was very motivated to — he didn’t love the way he played — this past week was solid, but the week before that was not. He’s really taken some ownership of that and just taking it personal to make sure he’s playing his best football, and I thought he just did a tremendous job in every way.
Special teams players of the game, James Bomba and Chris Freeman. James did great job with our punt team, makes all the checks and calls to get everything right there I thought was excellent, and they were a big pressure team, so thought he was really huge in that. Scouts of the week: Defensive scout, TD Collins. Ta’Derius is his birth name. We call him TD. That’s his name that he goes by. Going to be a really good football player for us and excited for his development and growth. Drew Pearce does a great job for us every week in so many ways, so proud of him. Offensively, scouts, Austin Barrett, one of our true freshmen. Really talented player who’s really developing and working hard. Declan McMahon brings great energy, as well. Players love him. Just has a great personality, works really hard and helps us get better, and love having him on our team. Then special teams scouts of the week: Reece Bellin and Reece Lozano, two guys that work extremely hard, consistently giving us great looks on special teams and also in their offensive positions.
Proud of our football team. Got to continue to get better. Got a great opportunity and challenge this week as we travel to Illinois, a team that’s playing really good football, their best football of the season. Got a big win this past weekend. A big, physical football team, have the biggest back we’ve played against, biggest running back, very athletic quarterback, really talented receivers, and then a big, physical defense, one of the best defensive lines in the Big Ten. A team that has played well defensively. Just a very well-coached football team in all phases. A lot of respect for Coach Bielema and the job he’s doing there. We have to continue to develop and be able to build off momentum that we have from this past weekend and just keep getting better and play our best football this coming Saturday.
– Tom Allen, IU Head Football Coach
Indiana University Wrestling wins Team Title at the Battle at The Citadel in South Carolina
Indiana Wrestling opened its 2023-24 campaign at The Battle at The Citadel tournament on Sunday in McAlister Fieldhouse in Charleston South Carolina. The Hoosiers took first place in the tournament with 118.5 points and three individual champions winning their weight class’ bracket, along with seven total Indiana wrestlers placing. Indiana’s Dan Fongaro (141), No. 6 Graham Rooks (149) and Gabe Sollars (197) each won the bracket for their weight class. Tyler Lillard (165) took second place while No. 22 Cayden Rooks (133), Nico Bolivar (157) and Roman Rogotzke (184) each finished in third. Indiana entered 16 total wrestlers in the tournament, and they faced opponents from The Citadel, American, Appalachian State, Drexel and George Mason.
Rogotzke worked his way through wrestlebacks to finish in third place. Rogotzke dropped his first match of the tournament and then won four matches in a row to take third. Graham Rooks looked the part of his No. 6 national ranking, winning his three matches en route to his title and only allowing a combined six points in his bouts. Anthony Bahl and Aidan Torres each won their first match in their collegiate debuts as true freshmen. Bahl won by major decision over The Citadel’s Jeffrey Boyd by major decision, 16-6. Torres defeated Gage Owen from American by major decision, 13-4. Sollars won his first two matches of the tournament by fall. The team title was Indiana’s first team win at a tournament since winning the Maryville Open last season (Nov. 5, 2022). All four of Sollars’ wins were by fall or major decision. Rogotzke and Fongaro made their Indiana debuts after transferring to Bloomington this offseason. Every wrestler who entered the tournament for Indiana at least won one match and advanced past the Round of 16. Indiana Wrestling will be back in action for on Friday for the team’s first dual action of the season. The Hoosiers will host Rider with a 6 p.m. start in the historic Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Indiana University Men’s Tennis close out the Fall Season at the Big Ten Indvidual Championships
The Indiana Men’s Tennis team completed the fall season this past weekend at the Big Ten Individual Championships. The Hoosiers were represented by Nishanth Basavareddy, Michael Andre, Luc Boulier, Ekansh Kumar, Andrew Meier, Jagger Saylor, Deacon Thomas and Ilya Tiraspolsky.
In the singles event, senior Jagger Saylor secured a win in the opening round of the tournament, defeating Penn State’s Harrison Janes, 6-3, 4-6, 10-3. Sophomore Ekansh Kumar put together a string of wins in the consolation draws, topping Northwestern’s Jackson Caldwell and Greyson Casey, both by A score of 7-5, 7-5. In the doubles event, seniors Nishanth Basavareddy and Jagger Saylor captured a win en route to the quarter final round, defeating Wisconsin’s Oliver Olsson and Tomas Zlatohlavek, 7-6 (7-5). Michael Andre and Ilya Tiraspolsky were able to secure a couple of wins in the consolation draw, with the first win coming against Michigan’s Nicholas Steiglehner and Will Cooksey, 6-3. The duo secured their second win against Nebraska’s Lars Johann and Calvin Mueller, 6-4.
Indiana University Rowing competes in the Princeton Chase
Indiana rowing competed in the prestigious Princeton Three-Mile Chase Sunday on Lake Carnegie in Princeton New Jersey. IU’s Varsity Eight, 2V8 and 3V8 crews competed against some of the top programs in the country, including No. 3 Princeton, No. 8 Penn, No. 8 Harvard and Big Ten rivals No. 15 Rutgers, No. 20 Iowa and Wisconsin. RESULTS- Open 8+ Round One (10 a.m. ET) – 57 Crews
13. Varsity 8 – 15:10.671
25. Second Varsity 8 – 15:38.533
29. Third Varsity 8 – 15:47.458 Open 8+ Round Two (12:20 p.m. ET) – 11 Crews
3. Second Varsity 8 – 15:15:587
6. Third Varsity 8 – 15:49.664 4+ (Split V8) (1:20 p.m. ET) – 35 Crews
4. Indiana A – 16:27.337
12. Indiana B – 16:48.765 Indiana will host the 14th Annual Dale England Cup next Saturday (April 29) at the Dale England Rowing Center. The regatta is IU’s last competition before the Big Ten Rowing Championships.
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