Author: Mike Schumann

There have been questions at times this season about IU basketball center Oumar Ballo’s weight, conditioning and motor. But on Friday night in Columbus, the 7-footer played 40 minutes and made one effort play after another. Each one could be considered a difference maker in IU’s 77-76 overtime win over Ohio State. Ballo scored 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor. He grabbed 15 rebounds and added four assists in the victory. Over the last six games, Ballo is averaging 18.7 points per game and 12.7 points per game. Let’s take a look at several of his hustle plays…

Indiana had four-straight sellouts to close the 2024 season.  But there were even more eyeballs watching the Hoosiers on television. IU football was the 18th-most seen program on television in calendar 2024. That’s according to the College Football Network, which compiled data from Nielsen totals. The Hoosiers were on a national broadcast 10 times, tied for 23rd most.  It isn’t clear what was considered a national broadcast.  IU played on the Big Ten Network six times, FOX twice, and NBC, Peacock, CBS and ESPN once each. CFN says IU had 34.5 million TV viewers in those 10 games, good for…

Don’t count these Hoosiers out yet. The first half was close throughout but led most of the way by Ohio State.  The Buckeyes led 35-29 going into the break, as neither offense was clicking.  But IU controlled the first 15 minutes of the second half, and took a 68-58 lead with 5:12 left.  OSU stormed back to force overtime.  A Luke Goode three with 1:07 left sealed it for the Hoosiers. Let’s take a deeper look at how Indiana won 77-76 in overtime with our latest edition of The Report Card. Indiana (14-5, 5-3) will next travel to Northwestern on…

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Indiana defeated Ohio State Friday evening at Value City Arena by a final score of 77-76 in overtime. Ohio State led 35-29 at halftime.  The Hoosiers were led in the game by Luke Goode with 23 points.  Oumar Ballo had 21. The three keys to the game, highlights and final stats are below. For Mike Woodson, Oumar Ballo and Luke Goode postgame, GO HERE. Indiana (14-5, 5-3) will travel to Northwestern on Wednesday. THREE KEYS TO THE GAME 1. Goode and Ballo step up.  The two players in the headlines following Indiana’s loss to Illinois had massive games…

Indiana will continue to be without leading scorer Malik Reneau on Friday evening in Columbus. Reneau was listed as out on the Big Ten availability report ahead of the 8 p.m. ET tip (FOX). Freshman reserve forward Bryson Tucker is also listed as out, along with sophomore guard Gabe Cupps. Redshirt freshman guard Jakai Newton is questionable. He played in Indiana’s game on Tuesday after being listed with the questionable designation. Ohio State’s Meechie Johnson and Devin Royal are both out as well.

When you go on the road in the Big Ten and win by 25 points, you’ve clearly done your homework and executed a solid gameplan. So what was Illinois’ approach to playing Indiana on Tuesday night that led to their historic win in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall? After watching Iowa scored 26 fast break points against IU, Illinois coach Brad Underwood said they came to Bloomington ready to push the pace on offense. “That’s one area where we felt like we could hurt them,” Underwood said following the game. While Illinois only scored six first half “fast break points” according…

IU coach Curt Cignetti has a long record of success with quarterbacks. A former QB himself at West Virginia, Cignetti coached multiple consecutive conference players of the year at James Madison, and his first quarterback at Indiana, Kurtis Rourke, had the number one regular season quarterback rating in the country. So what does Cignetti think of his likely 2025 starter Fernando Mendoza, who comes to Bloomington from Cal where he’ll join his brother Alberto in the IU quarterback room? Alberto committed to Cignetti when he was still the head coach at James Madison.  So there’s a family relationship that goes…

A somewhat startling report two weeks indicated quarterback Kurtis Rourke played the entire 2024 IU football season with a torn ACL. Reporting through Rourke’s agent Casey Muir, Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network said Rourke was having ACL revision surgery and that “Rourke is believed to have re-torn his ACL in August.” It seems clear something happened, as Rourke wore a right knee brace throughout the 2024 season, but he did not wear it during the spring. While acknowledging he couldn’t go in depth on the situation, IU coach Curt Cignetti discussed how things played out with his star quarterback…

If Curt Cignetti has any plans to stop being edgy in 2025, he didn’t start on Thursday. The now second-year head coach posted on X a photo from his office at Memorial Stadium, and a seemingly motivational message that reflects his program culture. “Get better today! Structured, organized and relentless work creates opportunities,” Cignetti said in his post. The photo included a step plan on Cignetti’s desk for Indiana to accomplish its program goals.  But conspicuously placed on top of that was Cignetti’s hand written “Post Season Top 5.” And it was not a list of IU’s top five post…

As many of you know, we typically file a report card after every IU basketball game, win or lose. And each time we take a comprehensive look at the offense, the defense, the coaching and the players. I guess we can do some of that real quick as it relates to Indiana’s 94-69 loss to Illinois on Tuesday. The Hoosiers allowed a dismal 1.22 points per possession to Illinois.  That was their third worst performance of the year, slightly behind embarrassing losses to Louisville and Nebraska.  And Illinois’ 1.54 points per possession in the first half, and 60 total points,…