Indiana University Baseball Assistant Coach Denton Sagerman Leaving to Join the Cleveland Guardians Organization Assistant coach Denton Sagerman, a member of head coach Jeff Mercer’s original staff at Indiana, will begin his coaching journey in professional baseball as he joins the Cleveland Guardians organization this summer. He departs Bloomington after eight years on staff with the program. “I’d like to thank Denton and his wife Kelly for their tremendous impact on the program over the last eight years,” Mercer said. “No one has worked harder or been more invested in providing a great experience for our players and program. I’m very happy they’ll be moving back home closer to family as they take on this next journey in life. They will always be Hoosiers and I’m proud to call them friends for life.”
Sagerman came to IU when Mercer accepted the job back in the summer of 2018. Prior to his tenure in Bloomington, he was the Director of Baseball Operations/Analytics for two seasons with Wright State. During his time with the Hoosiers, Sagerman served a number of roles including his most recent work assisting the pitchers and catchers on staff. While with the program, Sagerman helped assist a pitching staff that set the top four single-season strikeout marks in school history. That includes a 600-strikeout effort in 2022 with a group of arms that featured future big leaguer Jack Perkins. Five former pitchers that worked with Sagerman went on to pitch in the MLB.
Curt Cignetti Continues to Tease Stadium Expansion in Indiana University Football’s Future Since Memorial Stadium was completed in 1960, the idea of expanding its capacity has been a bit of a joke among fans. With the completion of two end zone projects over the last 20 years, the available seats have actually grown by around 5,000. But a major expansion has never made much sense in Bloomington until recently. Prior to 2024, Indiana had rarely sold out its home stadium, and on those rare occasions the visiting crowd often played a significant role. Just four times prior to the arrival of Curt Cignetti had Indiana sold out multiple games in a single season. But sellouts have become the norm over the last two year with four in each of the last two years. And the eight-game 2026 season projects to be the program’s first full season at capacity since 1969.
Last August IU AD Scott Dolson said facilities enhancements are the third priority behind compensating the players and coaches. Twice Dolson and his department have surveyed the fan base to understand what updates they’d like to see at Memorial Stadium. And for his part, Cignetti has been vocal about the need to expand IU football’s home venue. During an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show in 2024, Cignetti said “You keep winning and maybe you build up that (east) side of the stadium and get 80,000 in here.” The 65-year-old Cignetti also suggested the west side press box would be replaced before his tenure was up in Bloomington.
Naming rights deals like the agreement with Merchants Bank for the field at Memorial Stadium help. Perhaps there’s a stadium naming rights deal in the future, and/or we’ll see a sponsor on the football jerseys sooner than later. Those kinds of arrangements would provide the kind of cash flow to justify a major stadium project while keeping donor funds aimed at the roster. Significant projects like what is needed on East 17th Street take a lot of time and money. Several schools have announced or completed overhauls well into the nine figures recently. Florida announced a renovation project of more than a billion dollars.
But Cignetti isn’t backing down. “The stadium will expand,” he told Adam Breneman last week, while acknowledging that it won’t happen overnight. Cignetti can confidently say that because of the combined support from the administration, including Dolson and IU President Pam Whitten, along with a large a enthusiastic alumni base. “We’re in the top third of the Big Ten in resources,” he told Breneman. “Everything here has improved from a facility standpoint and rev share, etc. And I think, you know, what a lot of people don’t understand about Indiana and the term the old sleeping giant was the 800,000 plus alums. More alums than any university in America.”
The support IU saw on the road during its College Football Playoff run has Cignetti convinced if Memorial Stadium is expanded, they will come. “You go to Rose Bowl, 75% of people are Indiana fans. You go down Peach Bowl, 90-95%, play Miami for national championship on Miami’s home field and have 55 to 60% of the people there,” Cignetti said. While Indiana has been gathering data and opinions regarding updates to its 66-year-old home stadium, no major plans have been revealed to this point. The obvious focal points appear to be refinements to the concourse areas, updates to the aging mechanicals and infrastructure, and the addition of more luxury suite options. But the extent of what’s possible in Bloomington seems to keep changing by the day.
Bloomington South’s Ellie Barada Makes the United States Under 20 World Track and Field Championship Team Eugene, Oregon is becoming a second home for Ellie Barada this summer. The now-former Bloomington South track standout met a big goal by representing the United States on the world stage and had some extra fun by winning a couple of other races as well to finish off her stay at the USATF U20 Championships. Barada ran a lifetime best in the finals of the 800 in the USTAF U20 meet, taking second in 2:02.72 to Stanford commit Paige Sheppard, a rising senior at Union Catholic in New Jersey, who won in 2:01.76. As such, the North Carolina commit earned a spot on Team USA for the U20 World Championships in the first week of August, back in Eugene, at Oregon’s Hayward Field. She joins former Panther teammate Violet Hall, who ran at the Para World Championships in India last fall, in repping the US in international competition.
“It’s crazy,” Barada said. “This was the kind of big thing I’ve been working for all year. It’s always been in the back of my mind. One of my end goals was to make that U20 team. Just to get to go back to Eugene, it’s so awesome there. “I’m grateful for every opportunity to run there. It is such a cool environment.” And for the first time in a while, an environment in which she had some serious competition nipping at her heels. Heading into the prelims two days earlier, she was confident she would make the team. “I thought it was the top three,” Barada said. “Then someone told me it was only two. I didn’t know that. I was feeling good, ‘I can be in the top three.’ Then I found out it was two, and that made it a little more difficult. But I also knew I was in a good spot now. I felt really good about my fitness and tried not to think too much about the other racers. “But it was probably the best field I had ever raced against. That was a little nerve-wracking. I’ve raced against a few of them, never against them together in one race.”
There were few occasions during the high school season where she was challenged in any length of race, so having bodies around her was a different experience in the prelims. She was able to make the switch but wasn’t pleased with how it unfolded. Still, she managed to make it around mostly in Lane 2 well enough to make the finals. “Not my smartest race,” she said. That would have to change in the final, and it worked itself out as well as it possibly could have. “I really want to make smart racing decisions, so I was nervous about that,” Barada said. “We were bunched up, so I was nervous about my position, but it ended up perfect. I was in Lane 5 and until the cut-in I waited to see where everyone else went and I was in second or third, exactly where I wanted to be. “59 (seconds) was the fastest ever gone through (the first lap), but I felt good about it. I hoped it wouldn’t cost me, but I think I’m ready. The only thing was not making my move a little bit earlier knowing others were responding. I started kicking with 200 to go. Paige was in front of me and I was hoping nobody was on my heels. I don’t like looking back so I had no idea if someone was coming up.”
They were not. They couldn’t catch her in the same way she couldn’t catch her breath afterward. “I was exhausted, but I was excited about the holding flag, super excited,” Barada said. Two more to go Barada had signed up for the 1,600 two days later, Sunday, but immediately after the 800, was ready to back out. “I was talking to my parents a half-hour after the race, and said, ‘I’m not doing the mile,’” Barada said. “I can’t do it. My parents said I didn’t need to, that it was just an extra thing. I had a day off on Saturday, a full day. So after that, I said, ‘Why not?’ “I thought I could put myself in a position to hang on and be in position to win. I was confident I could do that. A mile is not something I’ve explored as much, and I wanted to stay curious about it and helped me be in good position to the end.” She was not only in position, opening with a 2:15 at the halfway point; she came out on top in another career-best 4:34.25.
“In the past, I’ve avoided the pain of the mile,” Barada said. “Embracing that hurt. My brain and body want to stop after two laps and 2:15 is pretty quick, but I felt good and made a move in a perfect spot. “I could tell on screen, they have a huge screen there, it was only us two. And when I saw that, it just gave me more adrenaline. If I’m in a position to a win race, I get a boost. But I was not expecting that time at all.” She finished up by getting with teammate Lexi Kollbaum to bookend Indiana’s win in the Distance Medley Relay for state teams, running with 300 hurdles state runner-up Chloe Senefeld and state 400 champ Anissa Lammie of Hamilton Southeastern. They ran an 11:36.99 to beat Kansas by two seconds, wearing bibs printed up like the state’s license plates.
“That was a very last-minute thing,” Barada said. “(Kollbaum) texted the day before the deadline to enter the state DMR. Originally, I said no because I thought it was before the mile. But she told me it was at the very end of the meet and said she had Annisa and Chloe signed up. “So why not? It wouldn’t hurt anything, and I’m glad we did it because it was really fun. It was cool to win and run one more time with Lexi. That was really special. I’m glad she pushed for that.” Barada, on the advice of her coaches at North Carolina and Nike, plans to run a couple more times to fill the nine-week gap, just to stay in racing shape.
Bloomington North Graduate Riley Crean to Join the Orlando Magic as an Assistant Coach Bloomington North graduate Riley Crean, son of former Indiana men’s basketball coach Tom Crean, has been added to the Orlando Magic’s coaching staff as an assistant coach according to Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype. Crean was the head video coordinator of the Dallas Mavericks and for four years and in three of them he worked with Sean Sweeney, Orlando’s new head coach who is leaving his position as an assistant for the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs. Crean played basketball and was an all-state baseball player at Bloomington North and was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the 35th round of the 2017 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. After a year at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, he followed his father to Georgia and played baseball there and also worked as a student manager on the basketball team. He graduated in 2022 and has been with the Mavericks since.
Former Indiana University Men’s Basketball Player Tamar Bates Signs a Two-Way Contract with the Utah Jazz The bulk of NBA free agency has yet to kick off around the league just yet. But it hasn’t stopped the Utah Jazz from making moves on the market in the form of signing a new wing to a two-way contract. According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Jazz have agreed to sign Tamar Bates to a two-way deal. Bates now becomes the second two-way contract to be brought onto the Jazz’s 21-man offseason roster, joining Blake Hinson, who’s been signed on since the middle of last season. And considering the news comes days before free agency negotiations officially open up around the league, Bates now becomes the first external signing for the Jazz for this offseason, likely with more to come in the days ahead.
Bates will technically be entering his second season in the NBA after being picked up as an undrafted free agent by the Denver Nuggets before the 2025-26 season. The reason why it’s only technically his second season was because of the injury-shortened implications that Bates had dealt with on his first two-way deal with the Nuggets last year. Bates suffered a significant foot injury in December of 2025 that left him with a multiple-month recovery timeline, and unable to suit up for Denver, either in the NBA ranks, or in the G League with the Grand Rapids Gold. Inevitably, he would be waived at the beginning of March, that’s left him on the open market for the past few months. And considering he’s been a free agent since the end of last season, it’s allowed the Jazz to agree to a new deal with him in principle without stepping over any tampering guidelines.
Bates was a four-year college player who spent two years with Indiana, then went to Missouri for his junior and senior seasons. His best season in college actually came during his third year with the Tigers, where he averaged 13.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists while shooting 49.5% from the floor. He’s got a good size for an NBA guard at 6-foot-4, 195 pounds, with the ability to be a serviceable scoring threat in the backcourt, and is still only 23 years old, which gives him room to grow moving forward. In terms of how he fits on the Jazz, Bates now becomes Utah’s second of three two-way spots on their roster heading into next season––giving the Jazz some certainty for the back end of their roster as Elijah Harkless is set to hit free agency, and Oscar Tshiebwe is ineligible to sign another two-way contract. As long as Bates is healthy from his foot injury from this past season, which signs seem to hint towards him being back to 100%, he’ll likely be among the names joining the Jazz’s roster for summer league later next month, both in Salt Lake City and in Las Vegas.
Former Indiana Hoosier and Miami Hurricane Malik Reneau Signs an Exhibit 10 Contract with the Orlando Magic Malik Reneau came home to play his final college season at Miami and will now stay in the Sunshine State to begin his NBA career. The Orlando Magic signed Reneau to an Exhibit 10 contract after he went undrafted in the 2026 NBA Draft. Reneau spent one season with the Hurricanes after three years at Indiana. He led the Hurricanes in scoring at 18.9 points per game while adding 6.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists. He shot 54% from the field and made 34.7% of his 3-point attempts. In the opening round of the NCAA tournament, Reneau scored 24 points in an 80-66 win over Missouri, with 19 of those points coming after halftime.
Reneau enters the Magic organization as a 6-foot-9, 238-pound forward with four seasons of major-conference experience. Before Miami, he spent three years at Indiana and earned All-Big Ten honorable mention recognition in both 2024 and 2025. Reneau has strong footwork around the basket, a physical frame and a reliable midrange touch. He also showed meaningful growth as a perimeter threat at Miami, making 34.7% of his 3-pointers after shooting 33.3% from deep as an Indiana sophomore and 25% as a junior.
Orlando entered the draft without a first-round pick and ultimately kept only one selection, South Florida forward Izaiyah Nelson at No. 51, after trading Tennessee center Felix Okpara to Washington in a three-team deal. Reneau now joins a Magic offseason group that added Nelson through the draft and gave the former Miami forward an Exhibit 10 opportunity. Reneau is the third member of Miami’s veteran core to land a professional opportunity after the draft. Point guard Tre Donaldson signed a two-way contract with the Miami Heat, while center Ernest Udeh Jr. agreed to a two-way deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Those three players helped lead Miami back to the NCAA Tournament in HC Jai Lucas’ first season.
Indianapolis Indians Rally Late in 6-5 Victory to Split the Series with the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders The Indianapolis Indians fell behind early against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, but a late seventh-inning surge allowed Indy to complete a 6-5 win on Sunday afternoon at Victory Field. Rafael Flores Jr. dropped in a high fly ball for a three-run single and Nick Cimillo grounded a single to right field to put the game away. Indians (3-3, 34-47) tied the game up 1-1 in the third inning. The tie was ended in the top of the fourth from a Garrett Martin fielder’s choice single and a Tyler Hardman line drive single to left field that gave the RailRiders (3-3, 40-40) a 3-1 lead.
The RailRiders continued their run into the fifth inning adding an additional run from a ground ball single by Abrahan Gutierrez to push the lead to 4-1. They would not score again until the ninth inning when Ernesto Martinez Jr. shot a homer over the right field fence. Antwone Kelly started on the mound for the Indians allowing one run in his 3.0 innings. Followed by Thomas Harrington (2.0ip) who allowed an additional three runs, Derek Diamond (W, 1-0), Mike Clevinger (1.0ip) and Cam Sanders (S, 1) to close things out. Alexander Cornielle pitched the first 3.0 innings for the RailRiders and gave up one run. Carlos Lagrange (L, 1-4) takes the loss allowing five runs in his 0.2 inning outing. The Indians rested Monday and began their six-game series against the Omaha Storm Chasers tonight at 8:05 PM ET. Starters have not been named at this time.