Aaron

Don't be. Purdue is improved, but still struggle against top competition like IU. You have to be careful because they are your rival, but Boilers play an entire rotation of guards except for one player so if there is any game you can afford to not have Holmes from a match-up standpoint this is it. Purdue is not close to as talented as the Huskers. If you can beat the Nebraska without Holmes, you should definitely beat Purdue and Michigan State who are not as good. Iowa in 10 days is a different animal and IU very unlikely to get victory there without her back, as that is a tough game anyways, but next two rest Mac unless she is 100% and no excuse not to get victory either way.

Team had to hit jump shots without Holmes and they are so far. I worry this pace is to fast for their liking and may wear out given lack of depth, but doing all they can with hand they have been dealt.

I assume its day-to-day, but I would say this changes IU from a slight favorite to a slight underdog tonight. Very much the equivalent of Trayce missing a game on men's side.

Could be. I am worried to, but they finally have two higher ranked recruits coming in this year with Lily Meister and Alexis Barger who are both Top-75 four-star players. Recent recruits and transfers have almost all been three-star and lower. Also, high on the girl from Israel. The transfers have been of both races at the end of the bench. Moren is not everyone's cup of tea and demands a lot, but the players who like her, really like her. We also need to see what she does in the transfer portal in the offseason, as that is an avenue to get terrific players as Nebraska's best player Jaz Shelley is now (who IU plays tonight). What do Mackenzie Holmes, Ali Patberg and Grace Berger have in common? Five-star recruits. Holmes is actually back next yr as a true junior and Gulbe, Cardano-Hillary and Berger all have options to come back. The rankings do matter despite what people tell you even though they are not perfect. Moren has a very strong defensive system and I wonder when she actually has to replace people and plug in players if it will work. It remains to be seen but it could. This team's depth is awful, but has the best starting line-up in the Big Ten and no bench. You know who else had this problem? The 2012-2013 IU men's team with Zeller and Oladipo with no bench outside Sheehey, but best starting line-up in the conference. The two teams have a lot of similarities in almost every way. Holmes and Zeller are both star centers in the post, Cardano-Hillary and Hulls are both underdog guards who are good shooters, Berger and Oladipo match as terrific all-around players and really good defenders, Watford and Gulbe are both hybrid big's who can step out and shoot a three, Patberg and Ferrell are less of a comparison, but it's the best available, and 2016 Yogi and Patberg work well as the veteran team leader, Browne as IU's top sub likes to take charges and provide energy and annoy other opponents like Sheehey, Moore-McNeil like Abel is the only other decent player off the bench and can every once in a while give you a good game. The rest of the players are not worth a lick on either team. The point is you would like to have more depth, but both the 2012-2013 IU men's team and 2021-2022 women's team can both win the conference, get a one seed in tourney and make a long run with what they do have. Moving forward there is a a lot of uncertainty but it could also work out. There is no guarantee they will be 'really bad'. This years baseball team is in same boat with a bunch of new players. There is uneasiness and a lot of unknowns, but until you see them play there is very much optimism it could definetely work out. Also, if Moren tanks after this yr, she will still be far and away the best coach IU has ever had by a large margin. This will be her fourth NCAA Tournament Appearance in her career (and would of been a fifth if not for COVID). Prior to her tenure there were four tournament appearances in all of history and with her it will be basically five in her eight yr tenure. The most likely possibility with the IU women here, is what happened with baseball where the College World Series with Tracy Smith was never repeated, but you settle in as a solid Big Ten team that makes tournament most years instead of the bottom feeder you were prior to this big run.

Totally a guess but this probably had something to do with the concussion she got recently.

Attendance numbers confirm this. All the previous non-student games were announced at 12,000+ while last night was announced at 14,000+. 20-111-2012 and 2012-2013 not withstanding when every game against everyone was packed to the rafters and the non-student games sold out or came very close, 14,000 or so has been pretty typical for the weeknight holiday Big Ten games with no students (weekend Big Ten games without students have been slightly higher).

For sure. Although it does help that the women's team at Wisconsin has been by far the worst in the Big Ten for a long time.

I wonder what displaced it on FS1

I can tell you NBA and NFL have leadership and will and have adapted to the new guidance. College, unless NCAA or conferences make uniform standards will continue to vary by what each team decides to do. Some like Calipari and UK will follow the CDC and only test symptomatic players, but others will come to their own conclusion and test everyone everyday or every few days.

Well Jeff Goodman just confirmed that indeed teams are in charge of their own covid protocols and there is no consistency with half testing everyone and half not. Once again NCAA is brilliant and burying head and sand. What a mess and wild west!

Almost certainly yes, but not 100%. 1. A win in week 17 over Raiders officially clinches no matter what for Colts. However, for a win over the Jags in week 18 to clinch a playoff spot with a loss to the Raiders, Indy would need: 1. The Ravens or Patriots to lose in week 17 or 18, 2. Raiders to lose in week 18 3. Ravens to win out and the Bengals lose out. If Raiders go 2-0, Ravens 2-0, Patriots 2-0 and Bengals at least 1-1, an Indy win over Jacksonville still leaves Colts on outside looking in.

What in the world does this have to do with what I said? I talked about how teams can easily abuse testing protocols and you are talking about the genetics of the virus. Those are not remotely related.

Until the NCAA does something to take over the testing, you are going to see the wild west of COVID cancellations with college. By letting the teams themselves police it, you will have some teams not test at all, some call off a game down their two best players testing positive but play if they have three guys at end of bench test postive, some may test all players everyday, some may test only symptomatic players once a week. Letting the teams handle this is a terrible idea but what is new with NCAA? Supposedly teams are supposed to play with seven available players, but there is absolutely no way to verify if teams are following this. For all we know the best player on Wiscy tested positive and they called off the game over that while IU played last night and did not test a single player. I am not saying this happened and it may very well not of, but letting the teams handle this is beyond stupid. Much rather have leagues handle the testing and police whether a game is played like in pros so their is no conflict of interest. Some of these college games probably could probably of been played if the NCAA or conference handled and policed the testing but by the teams doing it I am sure there is a ton of abuse of the system.

Much better effort than Western Michigan against a better team. SIU is still bad, but has actually had some decent results this year (beat a bad Illinois team and played strong against a good Tennesee team) and IU made them look really atrocious with suffocating D. Good pertformance.

SIU is probably our best cupcake as they beat Illinois. With that said Illinois is horrible and also lost to SIUE and Middle Tennessee. Need a better effort than Sunday or this will come down to wire. Any other equivalent performance from a game this season would be a reasonably comfortable win.

IU would not schedule a game though. They would schedule another cupcake. People were complaining about IU's schedule not being tough enough. Then the Big Ten steps in and mandates 3 harder games (2 conference games, Gavitt) and everyone still complains. Do people just like to complain no matter what that either the schedule is to hard or to easy? That is what it seems like.

Wow he is not even a good cheater. He has been horrible at Nebraska and they are no better three years in (and maybe worse) than when he started. They are so far the worst team in the Big Ten since he got there. He brought in better players this year but cannot develop them which sounds familiar. Miles was not great but he was competitive, while Hoiberg has been terrible. Husker's version of Crean to Archie. To compare Miles had a (barely) winning record against IU. Hoiberg is 0-5 against us when we have not exactly been great either. Says all you need to know.

In this case yes. I guarantee you if Gavitt went away than Nov game would be replaced with Cupcake which you don't want.

In theory you are right, but if the Big Ten chops of a couple games and you did not have the Gavitt Games, a lot of teams would just schedule three cupcakes. Rather have 20 Big Ten games and Gavitt than the alternative.

Better St Johns than a directional Michigan or Illinois school which is what you would have in its place without the Gavitt Games. Anyone in Big East is better than the alternative.

Why? It gives you a good non-conference game instead of a cupcake. I like it a lot.

Agreed. I said atmosphere will be great, students or no students like Ohio State game over break in 2012. It just seems to put IU in a bad position of having to decide whether to: A. Leave it student package and hope enough of them stay back to go that you are not embarrassed with gobs of empty seats B. Re-sell all the tickets in the student section. This is probably the better of the two ideas and will let longtime Hoosier fans who do not usually get to go attend a marquee game. It does seem a shame though to deprive students of a marquee game but I think you have to based on the poor planning with the date.

One small problem. The game is scheduled to place AFTER finals at IU over break. Either you have to leave it in the student package and hope enough students stay back or you re-sell the game to everyone (sell-out and atmosphere won't be a problem with or without students) and deprive the students the marquee game of the year. Love the game but needed to be scheduled a week or two earlier. This date was not well thought through.

You forgot possible Gavitt Game.

This team is legit. Not sure anyone but Maryland has a chance to touch them in conference.