Author: Seth Tow

As Ali Patberg pondered her basketball future in 2022, one big thing stood out to her. The IU women’s basketball great was drafted by the Indiana Fever in the third round of the WNBA Draft in April, but didn’t make the team out of training camp. She had a contract offer to play overseas — which many WNBA players do in the offseason. But Patberg was eyeing a future in coaching, and had to decide whether she wanted to begin her career on that side of the game or continue playing. And though it was a hard choice, one realization…

With the dust settled on rosters for the 2023-24 season, we’re going team-by-team in the Big Ten to assess where everyone stands and how things could shake out this year. Next up is Ohio State, which is coming off an extremely disappointing season. The Buckeyes finished with a losing record for the first time since 2003-04, as things spiraled out of control in Columbus. It was also the first time Ohio State missed the postseason since 2016-17, Thad Matta’s last season with the program. WHO’S GONE: Brice Sensabaugh (16.3 PPG) Justice Sueing (12.3 PPG) Sean McNeil (9.7 PPG) Isaac Likelele…

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana men’s basketball didn’t start Saturday’s exhibition game against UIndy flying high, but the Hoosiers got it together when they needed to. IU overcame a sloppy first half and pulled away with a 74-52 win at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The team will have one more exhibition game to shore things up before the regular season begins. Any takeaways from an exhibition game like this come with some obvious caveats. IU was likely keeping things vanilla in a tune-up game like this, and UIndy probably had a much more detailed scouting report on the Hoosiers. And, in general,…

With the way Indiana’s season has gone, it would have been easy to mentally check out by now. The Hoosiers now need to win out to make a bowl game, and frankly, for most of the season, they haven’t looked like a bowl-caliber team. IU has looked like a broken program for the majority of the year. Players have insisted the team is staying together despite the rough season and the current four-game losing streak, but lopsided losses continued piling up. But Saturday, if only for one game, the Hoosiers showed fight. It’s not something they’ve shown often this year,…

Indiana football hung with No. 10 Penn State for much of the afternoon, but couldn’t seal the deal. The Hoosiers tied the game at 24 with just under three minutes to play in the fourth quarter on a 35-yard field goal by Chris Freeman, after Josh Sanguinetti came up with Drew Allar’s first career interception. But Penn State answered back quickly, as Allar hit KeAndre Lambert-Smith for a 57-yard touchdown to take a 31-24 lead. Penn State (7-1, 4-1 Big Ten) sealed it one play later. IU quarterback Brendan Sorsby fumbled at the 25 yard line, and it bounced all…

Indiana men’s basketball is nearly back. The Hoosiers will take the court at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Sunday for their first of two exhibition games ahead of the 2023-24 season. IU head coach Mike Woodson met with the media over Zoom on Friday to discuss the upcoming game and his team at large near the end of preseason practice. Here are a few key points that came up in the media session. Exhibition games approaching Sunday’s matchup with UIndy will be Indiana’s first opportunity to face a different opponent this season, as opposed to intrasquad scrimmages. This, as always,…

As Indiana football’s season has gone downhill, head coach Tom Allen is trying different approaches to keep his team together and focused. The Hoosiers have lost three straight games to fall to 2-5 overall. They remain winless in Big Ten play, and really only have one win to feel good about this season. And things won’t get easier this week, as IU will face No. 10 Penn State at Beaver Stadium on Saturday. With the Nittany Lions coming off their first loss of the season against Ohio State and looking to bounce back this week, Allen has emphasized a resilient…

With the dust settled on rosters for the 2023-24 season, we’re going team-by-team in the Big Ten to assess where everyone stands and how things could shake out this year. Next up is Nebraska, who enters year five under Fred Hoiberg still searching for its first postseason appearance under the former Chicago Bulls head coach. Nebraska closed the regular season on a strong run last year, with six wins in its last eight games, including upsets over Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, and Iowa. But the Cornhuskers still finished just 9-11 in Big Ten play and 16-16 overall, and they underwent…

Add another accolade to the long list Mackenzie Holmes has accrued throughout her storied IU career. Holmes was named a preseason All-American by the Associated Press on Tuesday. She’s one of six players on the All-American team, along with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, LSU’s Angel Reese, Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley, UConn’s Paige Bueckers, and Stanford’s Cameron Brink. Clark was the lone unanimous selection. Holmes is Indiana’s first-ever AP preseason All-American. She was also the program’s first postseason AP All-American back in 2021, and she became IU’s first-ever first-team selection last year. She’s coming off a huge season, with 22.3 points and…

Trent Howland tries to do it both ways. The burly Indiana running back is well aware of his size, at 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds. He was big enough to temporarily fill a need for linebacker depth last season. His strength and power can be a real weapon in the backfield. He hasn’t always weaponized those attributes to their full potential, thinking of his style more akin to a smaller player. But Howland is coming around on that, and is earning an increased role in the IU offense. “I know I’m big and I know I can run through people and…