Aaron

This weekend is big for the resume. Big Ten stinks this year in Softball and IU could easily win it. Michigan has fallen apart since their legendary coach Carol Hutchins retired. Northwestern has started slow, but expect them to come on. Outside of these two who have been power houses for years, there is not much quality in the conference usually and don't expect any different in 2024. The Hoosiers and Wildcats series in Evanston at the very end of the season could well decide who wins the league.

Game is at 5pm

Kansas St lost as well today so IU's host spot should be really safe now unless committee does something really weird.

Every Hoosier fan needs to send Iowa State a big thank you. They singlehandedly have almost certainly kept IU as a host spot by knocking Baylor and Oklahoma out of the Big 12 tournament in back-to-back days. Between Oklahoma and Kansas State for final four seed now.

It's down to four games for IU to likely hold onto the final host. Monday Iowa St. Vs. Oklahoma 230 pm ESPN2 Pacific Vs. Gonzaga 3 pm ESPN+ Kansas St Vs. Texas 5 pm ESPN2 Tuesday St Mary's/Portland Vs. Gonzaga* 4 pm ESPNU *If they beat Pacific. If not this game is irrelevant. As long as either Cyclones, Tigers, Longhorns, Broncos, or Pilots win one of those games IU should be fine. In other words as long as that slate of games is not 0-4 we should see the Hoosiers in Assembly Hall one more time just under two weeks from now.

Something of note yesterday is Tonghini was not available for his normal three solid innings on the mound which likely cost them the second game. Nothing serious but probably the difference in result second game.

Yes. That is who IU wants matchup wise whether it be in Bloomington or Manhattan.

Creme still has them on the four line as of this morning

Kansas St. won so it is going to be really close if IU is last four seed or first five seed. Nearly identical resumes if Wildcats lose to Texas in next round (if they beat Longhorns its over and they take IU's host spot unless Gonzaga or Oklahoma drop). Resumes are so close it is scary: https://www.warrennolan.com/basketballw/2024/team-net-sheet?team=Kansas https://www.warrennolan.com/basketballw/2024/team-net-sheet?team=Indiana No matter what though, after watching almost all the four and five seeds, there is zero doubt in my mind KSU is the team IU wants in their pod whether in Bloomington or Manhattan over anyone else for best chance to get to Sweet 16. As long as Holmes is healthy enough to bang with their big Lee in the post (she reminds me of Czinano in build), these two squads are nearly clones of each other in their style. Neither is overly athletic (besides Lee inside) or strong on the boards and both employ a post player surrounded by four shooters. Baylor is presses a ton and is really athletic, and Notre Dame and Oklahoma are a bit more talented and athletic with guards who drive. Give me Wildcats in either team's home over anything else. I am convinced now that is what Hoosiers need. Better off going to Manhattan than hosting Irish, Bears, or Sooners.

Another thing: Win over OSU likely moves Maryland into top-30 in NET and makes home game against them Quad one win instead of Quad two. This helped IU in every way,

Saw that. Definitely not perfect but not worst case.

Meister and Holmes both participated in shootaround today:

If you listen to the presser at 2:25, it sounds like the kneecap is the issue and not anything else going on but who knows for sure:

The VA Tech coach was crying after the game about it as oppose to Moren's optimistic nature on Holmes. That makes me think that the initial diagnosis on Kitley is more serious. Kitley is every bit the player Mack is at the same position and VA Tech not having her would drop them out of hosting potentially and stop any chance of a deep March run.

RPI while contently moving, now in top-30 at moment with two high-end quad one wins over Dallas Baptist on a neutral site and Coastal on road. Probably need one more like this tom completely cancel Purdue-Fort Wayne out.

Well that was much better today! IU with a thrilling 9-7 win over no. 25 Dallas Baptist. Like I said yesterday what we learned they are not as good as an elite SEC team but that is not surprising. However, Purdue-Fort Wayne not withstanding, we are a borderline top-25 team that will be in a Regional somewhere and compete with most good teams and fight Iowa for Big Ten Championship.

I look at tonight the same way I did the loss to Stanford for women's basketball early in the season. It could be this team is not as good as we think or it is just a really bad night against an elite team. That was the best squad and pitcher IU will see until the postseason in all honesty. The one concern I have is Risedorph the last two starts has been pretty bad. They are counting on him for big innings and he needs to be better. I would have overlooked tonight if last week had not been bad. Then again, Kraft was awful in his first outing and tonight gave two really good innings to settle things down for a while. Purdue Fort Wayne concerns me far more than tonight. Even if IU is exactly who we thought they are, this beatdown was possible tonight. Only team all year you will see that is this good is Vandy and that is on a weekday where Indiana won't see their top arms.

And going from enemy to friend for most Indiana fans as she will be drafted by Fever.

Speaking of this, just so everyone knows, this weekend is a stream on D1 Baseball that is $30 for a month and includes access to whole site. If you have the D1 subscription right now for reading, you can add the stream for $15. There is no way to watch this weekend without at least spending some money. Feel free to rant and not a huge fan of it, but just wanted to make sure everyone understands this. This is only time this stream is being utilized and is clearly being done to help D1 baseball putting some extra money in their coffers for reading subscriptions all season and introduce people to site.

And now its 4-0 as PFW continues to dominate.

So far team appears to not be taking the game seriously enough. Down 3-0 after 3.5 innings and lucky it is not much worse. Wind is blowing straight out and IU totally befuddled by this PFW pitcher. I admittedly know nothing about the guy they are facing but the fact that he is a midweek starter for a struggling team means Hoosiers should not have this much trouble. Every other team Mastodons have faced have had zero trouble hitting them with far lesser lineups. Admittedly weekday pitching is hit or miss but PFW doing fine hitting Indiana guys. Not overly concerned about this piece though. The fact though that the Hoosiers' potent lineup can't touch this guy to me speaks to a lack of focus. Have six innings for the offense to do what it is capable of and should be doing or suffer easily worst loss in several seasons. Team has been so dialed in to start season but today just not with it. Hopefully they wake up soon and survive. IU getting themselves in a rundown between first and second was ultimate example. Problem is runner at first survived the rundown but the runner at second forgot to take off so two players were on one bag. Definitely a focus issue today IU has only a few innings to correct. Right now this is painful to watch for an IU team that has done everything perfectly so far early on in 2024.

I actually like it but think it needs to be capped at 15-20 points. Winning by 40 should not be a bigger reward than winning by 30.

Need to win by 20 plus to keep NET in top 15 and should be able to do that. Even winning closer than expected game (think Rutgers to open league play) could bring metrics down 3-4 spots and at 13 can't afford that. After Tuesday, winning at all should keep NET steady and a few spots inside of 16 given they will be Quad One. However, a sub-200 Wildcat squad needs a big win with style points so metrics don't suffer similar to home game against them.

I give them full credit. I said they needed to prove they could beat a great team and they did. Will gladly eat my large plate of crow and makes me much more confident of a deep March run.

Best development today was Foley being able to give length with nearly 100 pitches and six innings. If he can do that all year and Risedorph can eventually, you finally have legitimate Friday and Saturday starters who can eat the innings you need in a given weekend and not tax the bullpen. That is my only concern for this season and hopefully that duo can keep this up and put it to bed.