Aaron

Was about to say that. Loudest I have heard it outside Princeton game in NCAA Tourney last yr. While 5,789 isn't as big as some crowds lately, the fact people are 'disappointed' by that number shows how far program has come. Not to long ago 2,000 or so was average and anything over 3 or 4k was considered 'huge'. Even the smallest crowds now are bigger than the former 'huge' crowds from fairly recently.

Unless Duke and UNC are buying their alum ESPN+ subscriptions for $9.99 a month their alum have to fork over the same amount of money and way to watch theses sports as IU and Big Ten fans (it's just you are paying for ESPN+ instead of BTN+ which as you said ESPN+ has more content). Also the ACC deal pays schools way less than the Big Ten deal at the moment. Lastly, Fred Glass for all his faults (and he had many) had a 24 sports/1 team mentality. This is exactly why the non-revenue sports improved so greatly under him and are finally good. If a coach failed in any sport they were out and he paid attention to all of them. He didn't always make the right hires when doing it (although he nailed some) but any sport that didn't produce results had their coach canned all the way down to field hockey even. For example Mike Freitag almost ruined soccer. Glass got rid of him immediately. Felisha Legette-Jack is terrible coach at women's basketball. Gone very quickly when she stopped winning. Contrast that to Purdue who let Sharon Versyp sit there for 15 years and rot an elite program in a way most (and especially Glass) would not tolerate. Their is a reason IU's sports outside of football and men's basketball are at their best point in history and it is because Glass took them so seriously at the expense sometimes of football and men's basketball.

That is true that ESPN+ offers way more. It costs the same $9.99 though. Blame the Big Ten for going with Fox for BTN instead of ESPN like the other conferences did. You can certainly take issue with the Big Ten going with Fox Sports instead of ESPN but that is why they are part of BTN+ instead of ESPN+. Fox Sports has no streaming service for games (Fox Sports Live simulcasts games on cable and they have no stream specific platform for exclusively streamed games) hence why BTN+ was created. IU is stuck with the Big Ten TV deal being part of the Big Ten. They can either take the extra money the Big Ten offers them for being part of the conference which pays out way more than the other conferences, or go join a new conference for slightly less money to continue to be part of the ESPN platform.

Fife is not well liked by ANYONE in the coaching community and I know this for a fact. MSU fans wanted him gone very badly (I have several friends who are MSU fans and they were so happy we took him off their hands) as well. Fife did some less than stellar things as has been rumored and hence is no longer an assistant for the Hoosiers and he was not doing a good job at IU, especially with recruiting. The problems the team has this year have zero to do with Fife gone and it might very well be more turmoil if he was still here. Fans who think Fife not being here has caused any of the issues need to recalibrate and look at other problems (I am not sure what those are to be clear).

All Big Ten teams have some games on BTN+ on women's side. IU is actually tied with the other top teams for the fewest BTN+ games and they are all against the bottom feeders. IU is being treated no differently than Ohio State, Maryland, or any other top team in the conference despite our fans mentality that the Big Ten is out to screw and bury IU from TV. You can take issue with the model the Big Ten uses, but other conferences do the same for all sports but football and basketball. The Big East uses that awful FloTV that is even more expensive. The ACC, Pac 12, and Big 12 use ESPN+ which requires the exact same subscription as BTN+. They do use ACC, Pac 12, and Big 12 Extra for some games as part of your cable package to stream online but that is because they have far fewer games on their main network than BTN does. They still have a bunch on a streaming service no different than BTN+ with FLoTV and ESPN+. Also, South Carolina which was cited has several games on ESPN+ during conference play as well. IU is no different than any other top team or Big Ten team. Whether all women's games should be televised like the men are is a whole different issue worth discussing but IU has it no different than anyone under this current model.

You never know who is the ‘elite’ coach until you hire them and their previous resume says very little. IU’s three elite coaches at moment (Teri Moren, Todd Yeagley, Ray Looze) all had mediocre at best resumes when hired and have built or maintained top programs. Matt Painters resume was not great before Purdue nor were several other Big Ten coaches who are now thriving at their schools. I will never judge a hire based on a resume as every coach has potential to be elite regardless of their past. However, if your team is not starting to show promise by your second season it is unlikely to work out at that place.

For all the complaining about BTN+ the NW students broadcasting on it today were excellent I thought. Also, all the games against the top half of the league (except Illinois since they were expected to be at bottom and surprising everyone) are on regular TV. Its only the games against the bottom feeders that are on BTN+. There is certainly a case to be made for putting all the games on regular TV, but any good team they play in the league will be on BTN or another cable channel. After Feb 1, when they play all fellow contenders, will see every game on cable TV the rest of the regular season and all of postseason. Plenty of TV games coming up soon including three in the next couple weeks against the fellow elite squads.

You do realize unlike McRobbie, Whitten is a huge sports fan and does care about athletics? Whether she has the guts to can Dolson if he sinks the ship I have no idea, but unlike McRobbie she does care about IU sports and understands their role in a campus setting and really wants them to be good.

I have a bad feeling Dolson is going to go down as the worst athletic director since Michael McNeely. The big difference now from the McNeely era is the sports right below football and men's basketball are in a very good spot and that is 100% on Fred Glass. For all his other faults and he had plenty, Glass' management and hires in the sports below the big two have mostly put them in their best position in IU history at the moment. Otherwise Dolson might inadvertently destroy those also. I think Dolson is doing his best and he certainly is not trying to mess up the big two programs on purpose. Unfortunately his big decisions so far (Allen extension, Woodson hire) while defensible, have backfired big time and put them in the worst place since the early 2000's in the Davis/DiNardo era.

Multiple thoughts after last night: 1. Woodson did not inherit this culture but has been unable to fix it so far. At the moment Teri Moren, Todd Yeagley, and Ray Looze are only coaches at IU that have created winning cultures and as a result they can and do win through any injuries or adversities. Woodson so far has done nothing to change a downtrodden culture in the men's basketball program even though he did not create it. 2. If Woodson's MO is defense he needs to make sure that is always strong. If this is his fundamental belief the team cannot be regressing defensively at it if he want to be the coach here long term. Just ask Chris Ballard who has drafted relatively strong but his fundamental belief is offensive line which has turned into a huge failure. I don't care how much other areas improve while Woodson is coach. If the D is not elite under him, this program will not succeed during his tenure and he will be out in a couple yrs if his fundamental belief (defense) collapses. 3. IU athletic department as a whole needs to stop feeding into the hype and promoting winning before it happens. Whether it be football in 2021 or basketball this year, IU athletics as a whole was more than willing to embrace the preseason hype. The department needs to back off and do a lot more under promising and over delivering. Just ask the Pacers this year. Right now Dolson and his staff are doing way to much feeding into the hype and it needs to stop. 4. Speaking of Dolson I have a nagging feeling he might go down as the worst hire since Michael McNeely was athletic director. He didn't hire Tom Allen but the extension was beyond a problem and Woodson could flop big time. At moment the two main sports (football and men's basketball) have not been in this bad of a shape since the Dinardo/Davis Era in early 2000's and Dolson created it. The sports his predecessors made strong are still strong, but he is tanking the two biggest ones with decisions which while not indefensible are certainly backfiring at the moment. 5. Sometimes things look darkest before the light comes on and sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is a train. I hope it is the former but very much fear it is the latter. If that is the case, the sports just a tier below football and basketball will continue to thrive but the two most important ones will struggle. That is very much happening at Nebraska currently (albeit which ones are thriving is slightly different) and IU is unfortunately in that boat at the moment it looks like.

Well we are at 5 weeks today so if that is true her first game back should be either Illinois or Michigan in January. Illinois would be one day short of 8 weeks. Michigan would be 5.5 weeks.

A core of Luka Bezerra (who should step seamlessly into Wittenbrink's role), Goumballe, Sarver, Mihalic, McDonald, Waggonner, Maher, and Harms is not a terrible starting point. Also, Maher's younger brother is coming in and should start along side Joey with a Maher/Maher back line which should terrify anyone. One Maher is hard to play against so two will be even harder and the younger Maher is supposedly even better than Jack or Joey. That's 9 starters already. I can pretty much guarantee you this is ripe for another 4-3-3 formation with Sarver the striker up the middle and Bezerra and Mihalic on the wings. The rest of the midfield will be Goumballe, Waggoner, and McDonald. Defense will probably be both Maher's, Bebej, and Jansen Miller. That's a very good team still. Bench should still have Helmer, Redmon, Hummel, and whatever other transfers and freshman play right away or any player who develops who rarely plays now. That is still a team that is better than 90% of the country and should be top 25 easily. IU doesn't rebuild. They reload.

So risky PSU beat them and Mich was favored by 17. Toledo is a very solid mid-major but an upper half Big Ten team has no business winning by anything less than double digits. Michigan just failed to show up and were run off the floor for a while before their comeback was just short.

Most inexcusable loss for any Big Ten team this year. Toledo lost to this PSU team. UM was favored by 17.

100% agree and posted about it below your post. Its ridiculous.

They did until they fouled up three when still in one and one on other end. Just play defense and at worst you are in OT. You put huge pressure on your own FT shooters and bring losing into play. Just play good D as they did all night and at worst you are in OT with a chance to win. By fouling up three you lost in regulation and brought losing into play. OSU deserves all the credit for that shot but Rutgers dug their own grave fouling up three with way to much time left and deserved what they got. For a defensive minded coach like Pikiell to not trust his d in last ten seconds was ridiculous and got what was coming to him. I had no horse in that game but I CANNOT stand fouling up three and bringing losing in regulation into play.

She is ranked no. 52 nationally in ESPN's recruiting rankings. That's the same ranking Mackenzie Holmes had out of high school and makes LaMendola the highest ranked recruit since Holmes. Hopefully a great sign of things to come.

Decent Power 6 competition away from home? 2 games in two days and prepares team for postseason.

Court and setup is indeed very dumb but had zero to do with injury. She dove for a loose ball and knee buckled. Result would have been same on any court in world.

The court had zero to do with it. The setup is awful and amateur overall. However, where and how she fell would have been same on the best court in the world.

Berger went down in serious pain clutching her knee. Praying its not serious but afraid for worse:(.

MSU is IU with more talent under Mel Tucker. Like the Hoosiers, Tucker had one magical season with a bona fide star (Penix for IU in 2020 and Kenneth Walker for MSU in 2021) and got a totally unworthy extension off of it. Now both coaches flaws are being exposed and the teams are regretting it. Since I have a family member who is an MSU fan I have seen a lot of them and Tucker's ineptness with clock management and in game adjustments is exactly like Tom Allen. Since the Spartans have more good players, they might be able to work around a bad coach in charge more often than our Hoosiers. However, neither team is going to do much until they make a change.

The Big Ten is the ultimate haves vs have nots this year. The top seven are good (IU, Iowa, OSU, Maryland, Mich, Neb, PU) and the bottom seven are awful (MSU, PSU, NW, Minny, Ill, Wiscy, Rutgers). Don't think you see more than a handful of wins from the bottom seven teams over the top seven teams. Top seven are all top 35-40 teams (and everyone but PU in top 25 and top 5 seeds) and the bottom seven will all be sub 75 squads. No mediocrity in league this year. You will either be very good or awful.

There will be. That is announced separately as part of Tennessee's and SEC's TV schedule release which has not happened yet.

PSU is the annual top dog in the Big Ten and always top 10 nationally while Trine is DIII. That's the obvious reason. The team still has maybe its best defense and worst offense in program history.