Aaron

It won't matter pitching wise which is big thing. Illinois has no good pitchers. The issue is our bullpen and how we play it and we need to throw decent guys against their offense. Hopefully like three innings each of Mudungo, Bothwell and Tucker will be sufficient and will make everyone available each weekend in between as planned. We have terrific pitching depth. Just unfortunate to have to use it against Illinois and their offense. Biggest thing is we may need it to not lose Big Ten by 1/2 game to Nebraska after their win today. Better to play it before 4 game weekend then after and those were the choices. Not a great situation but this is probably best we can do and just hope we win high scoring game (I have zero doubt we won't put up 5-10 runs on their bullpen given they don't even pitch well on weekends, but key is not giving up more than we score).

This could or worse thing to happen to us depending on how schedule plays out with Nebraska's win today. There is a decent chance we will need that win to wrap up Big Ten Title if we split the two Nebraska games. What scares me is this is the type of game Illinois is at the greatest equalizer against us. They cannot pitch worth a lick which is why we beat them twice, but they have the offense to beat anyone. Our best starters are far better than theirs for a weekend series, but a one off where both teams are using bullpen guys should even it up. We will put a ton of runs on them is this makeup almost certainly, but the key is them not getting to back of our bullpen and losing like 10-8 or something.

Even with family attendance has not been bad. Also, only Purdue and Ohio St allowing fans in right now and everyone else doing family and friends in Big Ten, so we are far from only ones not opened to public yet.

Almost, its 8-4 with 5 points left when the Tennis competition is taken into account correcctly. Need 1/2 point more to tie and a point to win.

Men's Tennis was not postponed. IU won 4-0 so add a half point: https://iuhoosiers.com/news/2021/3/13/mens-tennis-hoosiers-blank-boilermakers-4-0.aspx (teams play again later this year). Also Women's Tennis is only half point for PU as they play again next weekend (but IU will probably lose so it will go back to whole point. Here are the results for this year per PU, its 8-4 not 7.5-4.5 when you fix the Tennis issue: https://purduesports.com/sports/2018/9/27/2018-19-governors-cupresults.aspx

Wrong IPFW game. This one was Crean's final yr at Fort Wayne. The one we lost was at home the year after under Archie.

Coach Moren is not everyone's cup off tea. She is a Coach Knight light in personality and an absolutely brilliant basketball mind. The ones who love her really do, but she rubs some the wrong way and is hot headed which leads to a lot of transfers (Knight had a ton for this reason). Ultimately, though the ones who stick around are better for it and think she is the greatest, just like the players who like Knight think he is. Every once in a while a Penn or a Yeaney will transfer, but for the most part the good players stay around and it is well worth it to them as evidence by Patberg committing to a seventh yr. Don't worry about the transfers. The entire bench might transfer and outside of Browne and maybe Price you literally lose nothing. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Moren get some good transfers herself from the portal which she has used very successfully.

Great season! As I was afraid of depth caught up with us. When starters play 35+ min because you have zero bench, eventually you get tired legs as happened last 5 min. We need Berger to be able to develop her three point shot. She is killer from mid-range, but if she could only become just as strong from a few feet further back, she could develop a truly deadly inside-outside combo with Holmes. Expectations have now changed, but don't be surprised if we become similar to Iowa as a top half Big Ten team that gets to the tourney ever year and occasionally makes a Sweet 16 or Elite 8. Even if we run this back next year, there is no guarantee we get this far as tourney takes a lot of luck. This program feels like it is solid to be similar to IU baseball as an upper tier Big Ten team that makes tourney every year. From there anything can happen. Don't expect us to be making regular Final Four runs, but to be like Iowa and for Teri Moren to become as successful as Lisa Bluder would be amazing. Thanks for a fantastic season and its the most enjoyable I have had for an IU team of any kind since 2014 baseball (I expect soccer to have the elite seasons they do so I place them in a different category).

As was mentioned earlier no IU team in Basketball since 2002 has been this far. I knew we could be in trouble when Holmes fouled out, but thank god we held on. For Cardano-Hillary as a 50% FT shooter to step up and nail both those FT's was something and was most important play of game. Arizona is next and they certainly are not as good as NC State and very much on level with an Iowa/Michigan type team so should be a thriller that hopefully IU can win. After that, I fear Baylor or especially UConn is a bridge to far, but even getting to Final Four would be something (for the record I thought NC State was possible and only one seed we had chance against). Go Hoosiers!

Nope she has a 10 million dollar claws in her contract that prevents her from going to PU (OSU is welcome to put same clause in contract for Holtman if they wanted). PU just hired Katie Gearlds a former alum and player as their new coach anyways today who was very successful, but only coached at NAIA level. Can you imagine if IU did that (and yes PU women are the equivalent of IU men as a once proud program now struggling)? Everyone needs to calm down and see what happens. No harm in reaching out to people and trying. I see no problem in what is happening until we see who is named.

Thats a great move by Purdue I think. Versyp has run her course and they are basically doing the same thing they did with Keady to Painter that has worked so well when Keady started to fall off.

Finally! Now we have accomplished something that no IU team has and makes this yr truly special. Everything from here is gravy and we are going 0 to 90 shifting from Mid-Majors to NC State. We might just have a team good enough to beat them but its a really tough ask. They are on the level of Maryland and better than anyone we beat this yr. but we hung in there with the Terps. Can we get over the hump against a team on that level? Absolutely and we are finally good enough but not counting on it. Still its nice to finally run into the elite teams in the country last couple yrs and not lose by 30.

For now that's correct, but I could easily see that changing if all other Big Ten Schools allow fans. In that case I am sure IU will twist arms to get some fans in. For now, only PU allowing fans and I saw Michigan is holding to friends and family only. I don't think we can say what IU should do until other schools (outside of Purdue) start making decisions on fans. Have not seen anything either way from the other 11 institutions. What is said today with something like this, could easily change tomorrow.

What a huge break. No excuse not to go to Sweet 16 for first time in program history now.

That's kind of been my thought whole time. Especially with Beard gushing about Assembly Hall and not commenting on other jobs.

Yup. That MSU lost cost us a seed line. VCU should be a win but after that Gonzaga is tough and NC State is even tougher. Would be thrilled with Sweet 16 though, but reality is we gave ourselves a much tougher path by losing to MSU. You could argue we still deserved a 3 seed but we made our bed by not showing against MSU. This is a lesson you need to play your best every game. Excited to get going and have IU basketball in March Madness.

Depth was an issue BEFORE the opts out. Nicole Cardano Hillary was not the player she has become until she replaced Penn in starting lineup. Cardano Hillary was an OK bench player before Penn opted out, but one contributing bench player does not equal a lot of depth and starting lineup overall is better with NCD than Penn and that lineup change is not made without the opt out. Danielle Patterson was a massive disappointment before she opted out and was not a quality depth player. Probably why she is no longer playing.

Agreed but even with Penn your depth was not terribly better. Nicole Cardano Hillary really did not thrive until moving into the starting lineup when Penn opted out and she has been better than Penn since then. When Penn was here you had a decent bench player with NCD, but starting lineup was weaker with Penn and even one good bench player is not great depth.

There is no one to substitute. That is the one issue with this team. They have arguably the best starting lineup in the Big Ten, but the bench might be the worst. The only halfway decent substitutes are Kiandra Browne who is a freshmen and is going to be a good player but is incredibly raw now, and Kiana Warthen who as a senior is what she is and can provide you a minute here or there for depth but lacks the talent to play constantly at this level. As bad as the starters were last night they give you the best chance to win and their is a reason they play 35-40 min a game.

Uh no. As a 3 or 4 seed you will play a bad mid-major and could play 5x worse than tonight and still win. We could certainly get knocked out in second round with the same effort, as MSU about on level of team we will play in second round. Fortunately, in two NCAA tournament appearances Moren has hit her ceiling with a 1st round win and a hard fight with a top seed before losing in second round. Following that logic we will get to at least Sweet 16. NCAA Tournament has never been a Moren problem. Only Big Ten Tourney a problem for her.

Like I said this loss is less costly than many Moren has produced in Big Ten Tourney, but at some point she needs to explain why her team is always unprepared for this. She has done so much right (including a couple NCAA tourney wins) but the Big Ten Tourney is an ugly issue on her resume Fortunately, she has hit expectations in NCAA Tourney so we should make at least Sweet 16 run. Guess Women did not want to take spotlight from baseball's big series this weekend;). Huge missed opportunity for some weekend exposure.

Someone needs to yell at Teri Moren. They have now had the double bye four times and this will be the third time they fall in the first game. We can talk about the men struggling, but a big part of that is the struggle in the program. Moren has had issues in Big Ten Tourney after great regular seasons and there is ZERO excuse for it and always losing to inferior teams. The collapse against Purdue cost us an NCAA Tournament a couple yrs ago. Fortunately, we earned our way to a top four seed in NCAA this yr, but this collapse is going to cost us a seed line probably to four seed and make Sweet 16 rather than Elite 8 the ceiling. I would be thrilled with Sweet 16 for first time ever but this is a huge missed opportunity and Moren needs to explain why her team always comes out flat in Big Ten Tourney. Its a massive issue.

That might be the worst I have seen the team play all year. You had control of the game at halftime and let them back in with maybe the worst quarter I have seen team play outside of Illinois game Inexcusable.

Would of flipped Berger and Patberg and put Patberg on First Team and Berger on Second since I think Patberg has had the better year. Otherwise exactly what I would of expected and well deserved. Congrats to the team!

Michigan State is ideal. They are a fringe tournament team but not talented enough to beat the best teams in conference. They are basically a poor man's Iowa as they have beaten everyone they are supposed to and can hang tough with the best teams, but ultimately don't have enough to get over the top. Spartans are just good enough to provide a slight resume boost, but bad enough to most likely not be able to compete with us for full 40 minutes. This is in contrast to Nebraska who is completely bipolar and has the talent to hang with every good team and beaten several, but not the discipline to beat the bad teams and as a result are nowhere near NCAA Tournament.