Aaron

I would like to point out if Men get NIT games and are higher seed, they will have to travel if Women can hold onto their hosting spot for NCAA Tournament. Women have the priority and ironically will probably draw a slightly better crowd than men in this circumstance,. Games overlap and you cannot have both.

Gulbe and Cardano-HIllary not hitting shots and Holmes still not 100%. Recipe for closer than needed game.

Think the big crowd had more to with the weather than the beer. Every other home opener its been freezing and gross out before today. First ever nice weather on opening day hence the record crowd.

IU still a host barely! May be able to get away with winning just Thursday but will be close if so. Win Friday and you lock it in.

I change my mind. After seeing Iowa today, think the Maryland, OSU path is actually better. Still rough but want nothing to do with Iowa right now.

Well everything is breaking against IU. Looks like we are headed to IU-Maryland Friday of Big Ten Tourney which I see zero chance the Hoosiers win. I actually think they have a decent chance in a rematch with Michigan or Iowa but against Maryland no way. If they can somehow get past Maryland I actually think they will win the whole tournament as OSU is their Saturday matchup and that is ideally what you want among top 4. In a championship matchup between Michigan and Iowa winner team definitely has a chance. The problem though is if you don't get past Friday you will need to win a second round game in NCAA Tourney on road. A Michigan win would give team Iowa, Michigan than OSU or Maryland in the final which would be far more preferable. Team has been dealt a horrible hand between Holmes, COVID, and the way the Big Ten handled the rescheduling of games. Now the Big Ten Tournament bracket looks like it will be latest thing to break against IU. Just not their year for luck.

I blame new pitching coach Dustin Glant 100%. Pitching has been IU's strong spot in past, but this year you have two borderline starting pitchers in Mudungo and Perkins and no one who can pitch on Sunday for long before getting tired. That is 100% on development as in past short relievers (including last years whole rotation) were developed into good starting pitchers who could stretch out. This year whether it be Stahl, Sharp, or anyone else Glant seems incapable of developing them to stretch out into starters despite having all the stuff. Parker was excellent at this. Mercer has his own issues but 100% right now Glant looks like a horrible hire as a pitching coach based on the massive regression of the pitchers. Even Mundungo who was good in spot starts last year has gotten worse. Like Allen who may be taken down by Hiller, right now it looks like Mercer could be taken down by Glant. Two atrocious hires that have really hurt both programs.

Mudungo was better but still for your lead starter was not good enough and that put them to far in a hole. Bottom line.

This team has to show they can beat good teams which they have not done since Mac's injury. Their is no question in my mind they will win big Thursday of Big Ten Tourney and First Round of NCAA Tournament as they have done against bad teams all year. The question is can they beat good teams Fri-Sun of Big Ten Tourney and Round of 32 and on of NCAA Tourney. To win next week on Friday IU needs NCH to be much better. Everyone else was decent or good tonight and Mac looked stronger yet again. If the other four can repeat that performance and NCH is even a little better team has much better chance to win. IU will face on Friday: 1. If Mich wins its Iowa regardless 2. If Iowa wins and OSU losses they face OSU 3. If Iowa wins and OSU wins they face Maryland

No Owusu for Maryland tonight which is huge.

Winner all but clinches home games in NCAA Tournament. Terps are like IU in that they have five balanced players who can all score 20 on a given night, but no superstars. Also, like IU they play only about a seven-person rotation. Huge game!

Guess we pump the brakes on Rutgers. If IU wins next two and Rutgers loses to Wisconsin that game in Bloomington may be a play-in game for NCAA Tourney. Rutgers is the ultimate Jekyll and Hide team. They can literally beat or lose to anyone. Both us and them are fighting for NCAA lives.

No one has an answer for Iowa's offense. IU's defense is just fine and when they play Maryland the score will be back to what we are used to with this team in 60's or 70's. Would fully expect that in every other game played the rest of the year against anyone not named Iowa. The Hawkeyes are a unique animal offensively both in the Big Ten and nationally and to beat them you have to outscore them in 80's or 90's. No one stops them and they don't play any defense hence the high scores. Even with a healthy Mac last year, IU won the games by getting into the 80's and outscoring them. Hoosiers were just on the other end of close high scoring games. To beat them you have to hit shots against their porous defense for all 40 minutes like last season and not just 25-30 minutes like this season or you will lose.

Fair enough.

Depends if they have beaten Maryland. If so I would agree and then you still have your top four seed for NCAA's even if you go out Friday after double bye. However, if Maryland wins then you may need to make a run to Saturday to hold onto a hosting spot in NCAA Tournament and win two games (with first being a gimme) to host. In that case an early Big Ten Tournament exit would not be good. Would much rather have one extra day less rest and be playing NCAA games at home than go out early and travel for first couple rounds of NCAA Tournament.

Definitely possible but hopefully better. The phrase two-and-out (which is commonly used for postseason) would apply much better for the worst case scenario for this team. Not one-and-done.

Yes this is possible as I wrote above. Hope for better, but you used the term one-and-done, which is inaccurate for teams floor.

That and Mac's injury. If one or the other does not happen team has great chance at title. A very unfortunate double-whammy. Now get Mac healthy salvage a good run in Big Ten and NCAA Tournament.

Yeah they are not going to be one and done in Big Ten or NCAA Tournament. If they lose to Maryland, they will be in the 5-12 game of the Big Ten Tournament and if you have seen the bottom of the Big Ten there is zero chance they lose that game. They have beaten all the bottom teams in the Big Ten by at least 20 points even without Mac. That is at least one win. Now whether they can beat Iowa or Maryland Friday is a much bigger question. Now lets turn to the NCAA Tournament. In this scenario they would be on the fringe of hosting as a 4 seed and if not a 5 seed. Once again you would be playing a mid-,major and if you have seen IU play these teams that is a relatively easy win as either a 4 or 5 seed. The Women's Tournament does not see that many mid-major upsets in these 5-12, 4-13 games like on the Men's side. Now second round in a 4-5 game will probably matter if team has the home court. Even a quarterfinal Big Ten Tourney exit and a second round NCAA exit is vastly disappointing and not much better than your scenario, but if it is evaluated calmly and rationally this is the floor and not your one and done scenarios. Now with some rest between the Big Ten and NCAA Tournament games each weekend this teams ceiling is still a Big Ten Tournament Championship and Final Four if Mac can get healthy. She looked a lot better last night and made some of her signature post moves for layups but other times her knee wouldn't let her do it. We still need her to get even better, but if she can improve each game as she has she should close to 100% by NCAA Tourney for deep run. To me success is getting to Saturday of Big Ten Tournament and at least second weekend of NCAA Tournament and hosting games first two rounds. To do this you need to either beat Maryland or win Friday of Big Ten Tournament probably.

IU fell 5-4 in an extra inning back and forth game. Today they were far more competitive but still ultimately were swept in the series. Furthermore we still don’t know who can start and throw deep into games as Stahl only went four innings before tiring. The team has plenty of good arms and guys who can throw short relief well. However, until someone can step up and throw starter innings this team won’t win much even if the offense keeps coming on.

Not the best inning for Stahl but got out of it with just one run. Clemson just missed a 3-run HR with two outs and its 1-1 after 1.

Once again Stahl was excellent out of the pen last year in short relief. The big question though is can he be stretched out and throw 5-6 quality innings rather than 2-3 and running out of gas as the other good bullpen arms. This is the number one question team needs to answer and solve to be a decent team. I like our transfers Glasser, Doanes, and Ellis a lot and think the offense will be fine, but starting pitching is an issue that has to be solved. Glasser gets a HR for a 1-0 lead as Stahl makes mound.

Well the press conference today seemed to answer who will be back and who won't. Sounds like Gulbe has opted to move on and play overseas but Berger will return. This leaves IU in an interesting scenario with their two best players back next year but needing to fill three starting spots. I imagine the transfer portal can find a very attractive option much like Cardano-Hillary and Patberg were. The opportunity to play with two elite players like Berger and Holmes (who can absolutely score 20 points a game each rather than 15 like this year when their are not three other elite scorers on floor) and make a run in the NCAA Tournament will make it easy to find players there. This happened to IU in soccer this year where they lost Victor Bezerra as the scoring forward, but with the rest of the players on the field back they were able to go into the portal and get Xavier's top scorer to be part of a team ready to win. I Imagine something similar will happen in offseason with this basketball team where another good big and point guard can be found from another school as this will be an attractive destination.

Team still has yet to answer if they actually have any pitchers who can throw a few innings effectively. Once again Jack Perkins was good for a couple innings than fell apart. We have good arms mostly, but until team shows it can find pitchers who can throw 5-6 innings without wearing out this team will not go anywhere. Offense was better today and I expect that to continue to improve. However, until we can find pitchers who can eat innings we are in big trouble.

Fourth quarter showed how you can beat Iowa and that is hit open shots and beat them in track meet. Iowa doesn't defend worth a lick and if IU can hit open shots all game can easily out score them. That is blue print for Monday. Hit open shots early and stay in the game and you have chance. If they face off in Big Ten Tourney (which is very possible) a healthy Holmes can maybe slow down Czinano enough one-on-one that you can devote the rest of the defense elsewhere and slow Iowa down a bit so you don't have to be perfect on offense. Without a healthy Holmes though your defensive strategy is a wreck and will have to out score them.