Author: Seth Tow

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — It wasn’t always pretty. Indiana men’s basketball had to battle hard against North Carolina — as you’d expect. Foul trouble piled up, some shots didn’t fall, some stretches of tough basketball. Some primary rotation players struggled to make an impact. But if there’s one thing to glean from IU’s 77-65 win over the Tar Heels, it’s that it doesn’t have to be pretty for these Hoosiers. This was the first major test of the season for 10th-ranked IU. The Hoosiers made a statement by winning a road game at Xavier nearly two weeks ago, but this is…

For the first time ever, Indiana men’s basketball and Indiana women’s basketball are simultaneously ranked in the top 10 of the AP Poll. Both teams moved up one spot in their respective polls. The men’s team checks in at No. 10, while the women are No. 5. Only Indiana and UConn can claim two programs in the top 10. Major movement in men’s poll IU men’s basketball moved up in the rankings Monday following comfortable wins over Little Rock and Jackson State. The Hoosiers’ next opponent, North Carolina, suffered the biggest fall from the top spot in AP Poll history.…

Indiana football closed out its whimper of a season with a whimper of a game. The Hoosiers dropped the Old Oaken Bucket game to Purdue, 30-16. It’s the second straight rivalry game win for the Boilermakers and their fourth in the last five contests. And now, once again, Indiana (4-8, 2-7) enters the offseason in need of soul-searching. This year is different than last year. The Hoosiers entered 2021 ranked in the AP Top 25, and full of promise after a successful stretch in 2019-2020. The ruins left by that season were accentuated by the expectations that preceded them. While the…

Tamar Bates finally had a breakout game. The sophomore guard has shown short flashes of brilliance in his spells off the bench during several games over his first season-and-change in Bloomington. But he’d yet to have a real signature performance. The type where he was the best player on the court, and one of the biggest reasons Indiana men’s basketball won a game. But quickly after checking in around six minutes into IU’s game against Jackson State on Friday afternoon, it was clear he was on another level. Within three minutes of action, he matched his career high of three…

With Trayce Jackson-Davis out, Indiana men’s basketball needed its other bigs to step up. Race Thompson and Malik Reneau answered the call. IU’s forwards were the center of attention for much of the evening, as the Hoosiers pulled away from from Little Rock for a 87-68 win at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall on Wednesday. Jackson-Davis missed this game for precautionary reasons, allowing Reneau to make his first start as a Hoosier. The senior’s absence stemmed from apparent back soreness at the end of IU’s win over Miami (OH) on Sunday. IU head coach Mike Woodson isn’t concerned about anything long-term…

As Bryant Fitzgerald sat in the Indiana football team room on Monday, it started to hit him. This is, in all likelihood, his last week playing for the Hoosiers (barring a win and an unlikely 5-7 bowl bid). He and his fellow seniors will go through senior day proceedings ahead of the Old Oaken Bucket game Saturday, and they’ll go to battle one last time. And the finality of that began to set in for Fitzgerald Monday. “After this game, this team would never be assembled again,” Fitzgerald said. “So just thinking about that, just thinking about all the years,…

Much has been made of Indiana men’s basketball’s depth this year. And Sunday, some of those players got a crack at bigger roles. Junior guard Trey Galloway missed IU’s 86-56 win over Miami (OH) in Indianapolis because he twisted his knee in the Xavier game on Friday. That made some first-half minutes available, and there was plenty of flexibility as the game became lopsided in the second half. Freshman forward Malik Reneau playing well off the bench in a sizable role is nothing new, but extended run for freshman guard CJ Gunn and sophomore guard Tamar Bates was notable. “Our…

This Indiana football season had felt like a foregone conclusion for several weeks, if not more. The Hoosiers weren’t just losing. They were getting embarrassed. From sputtering around lifelessly for most of the game at Rutgers to getting run out of the building against Penn State and Ohio State, Indiana seemed destined to end the season on a nine-game losing streak. But Saturday in East Lansing, the Hoosiers did something that’s become unusual for them. With their backs against the wall, they battled back. After trailing 24-7 and 31-14, Indiana tied the game and caught a break from Michigan State’s…

It’s through tough games in unfriendly environments that you can learn a lot about a team. Friday’s game at Xavier met that criteria for No. 12 Indiana men’s basketball. And IU’s 81-79 win at the Cintas Center showed that this crop of Hoosier veterans is capable of leading them to victory in games like that. “It’s hard to win on the road,” IU head coach Mike Woodson said. “You’ve got to do all the things right. They built a lead, a couple times, against us, and we just held fast and steady. We were able to get back in it.…

Road games have not been kind to Indiana men’s basketball in recent history. Over the last five seasons, IU owns a 14-40 record in true road games. That mark was 3-8 last season, when the Hoosiers endured some particularly painful results on the road. IU lost in double-overtime at Syracuse, blew leads against Wisconsin and Ohio State, and lost tight games at Penn State and Purdue. The 12th-ranked Hoosiers will look to reverse their road fortunes Friday at Xavier in their first game away from Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The game tips off at 6 p.m. ET at the Cintas Center in…