Aaron

That is blowing straight out to Center Field FYI. Could see tons of home runs.

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.

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.

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

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.

Just as I predicted. A true home game with a top flight atmosphere that was almost all IU fans. That was a different experience for Clark and Iowa on road this year not having half the sold out crowd and what was essentially a neutral environment in someone else's gym. Credit to the Indiana fans for that and I think it threw the Hawkeyes off their game to face such a hostile environment. Also, Clark was far more gracious in defeat tonight in postgame presser I watched compared to last year so full credit for that. Part three very likely coming in Minneapolis on Saturday of Big Ten Tourney assuming neither slips up Friday. As expected, bracketology projects Indiana to host again and win basically cancelled out Illini loss in metrics. Really fun game and first time team looked like they could potentially make a deep March run.

Again his Letter Of Intent is signed. He can't just de-commit and waltz out as so many people believe. IU has to let him out of his LOI or he plays nowhere next year without sitting out. If Woodson is gone, no doubt he may leave and would get out of his letter if he wanted. That happens a ton when a coach changes so if you are suggesting Woodson might go than there is a legit possibility he does not come. If administration is the same I have never heard of a kid asking out solely because of a poor performance the season before. Mgbako was let out of Duke because the spot he thought would be open and was promised for playing time was not. Even that is rare though. McNeely asking out without a clear player taking his minutes solely because the Hoosiers had a bad year is completely unprecedented and never heard of it happening.

As I said above we need to get used to fact that colors no longer determine home and road. Like that in pretty much every sport now. Light colors no longer mean home and dark no longer mean road. It is random choice by night in pretty much every sport.

Sorry missed the humor as did Wat Shot with his comment it appears:(. My bad. I have seen to many silly posts that all these Iowa fans are somehow going to invade Assembly Hall this week. Also if one thinks darker colors feel like road uni's you are not watching enough other sports besides college basketball. Any other sport (including NBA) you often have dark uniforms regardless of venue. This idea that home teams where lighter colors has not been a thing for years in anything but college bball and that is changing too. We need to get used to the fact that the color of the uniform no longer indicates whether game is home or away but chosen at random.

Iowa is not going to have that many fans there. Yes Caitlyn Clark draws on the road, but at any team worth a damn this season it is 80-90% home fans. Don't expect different at IU. I don't like these uniforms either but Adidas kind of forced IU to do it and am much more concerned about results on court than what team is wearing. Iowa had maybe 10% of the fans in Assembly Hall last year with a similar team and the game was not even sold out. This one has been for weeks and to get into the stadium will cost premium prices on secondary. 'The worry about it being this huge invasion of Iowa fans is so beyond ridiculous. It reminds me of the AFC Championship between Colts and Patriots I went to almost 20 years ago where everyone was worried about this huge invasion of Patriots fans. It ended up being 90% Colts fans and the best atmosphere ever. Same with IU Kentucky with Wat Shot. Will be absolutely similar tomorrow and best atmosphere for any game in Assembly Hall since last season men or women with Hawkeyes facing a very hostile crowd. Also remember with new system the lower part of the arena is now assigned seating for season ticket holders and only a few hundred are available on secondary market (out of nearly 7,000). Any Iowa fan who bought tickets five weeks ago in GA before sellout will be relegated to row 32 and above (court level GA is being done differently with wristbands and not just available for anyone per an IU release today). I am fine with people taking issue with the uniforms or white out. However, this worry about it looking like an Iowa home game or not having an elite home court advantage is really really silly.