Welcome to another edition of 6-Banner Sunday, a joint production between The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall, and presented by our friends at Homefield Apparel, where we highlight the five most essential IU basketball stories of the past week, plus take a look at how the other IU sports programs are doing.
Football continued its conference season with a Halloween showdown against Minnesota. They won yet another ugly defensive battle where both offenses struggled mightily.
Also, the hoops squad played another exhibition contest and opens regular-season play this week. Finally, Assembly Hall is getting a new sponsor for its floor. As usual, we will conclude with a look at the weekly shows and the rest of the Hoosier sports scene, led by men’s soccer, which won out west at UCLA and will play for a Big Ten title Wednesday.
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Here is what is in this week’s edition:
IU Football Beats Minnesota In Another OT Thriller
Hoosier Basketball Edges Western Kentucky In Final Exhibition Contest
IU Hoops Plays Eastern Illinois and Bellarmine To Regular Open Season This Week
Indiana Announces Sponsorship Agreement For Assembly Hall Court
Weekly Shows
Hoosier Roundup-Men’s Soccer Beats UCLA, To Play For Big Ten Title Wed.
Banner #1: IU Football Beats Minnesota In Another OT Thriller
No. 4 IU played a tough game again in football and won another thriller. Once again, Indiana’s offense struggled mightily for large parts of the game as quarterback Josh Hoover continued to have inaccurate throws and issues processing the field, leading to him being benched in the second half. Also, IU’s defense played lights out as usual and bottled up Minnesota’s anemic offense to bail out the special teams as well.
This led to a low-scoring contest where every play could make all the difference in the world. Fortunately, for the Hoosiers, they made a couple more and won 23-16 in a game that went to OT for the second straight week, with ESPN’s College GameDay making an appearance.
Afterwards, IU coach Curt Cignetti spoke, Inside the Hall had a photo gallery, Zach Horwitz wrote Five Takeaways, and Ian Plaskoff put together a column about the victory.
Banner #2: Hoosier Basketball Edges Western Kentucky In Final Exhibition Contest
IU basketball fans got their third chance to see the squad last Sunday against opposing competition in their final exhibition contest. While the game was not in Bloomington, it was still in the state of Indiana as the Hoosiers played Western Kentucky in Evansville.
Once again, if this result was any indication, IU will be much improved. This was because depth led the day and allowed the Hoosiers to edge the Hilltoppers 79-74.
After the game, Hoosier coach Darian DeVries spoke, Ryan Corazza wrote a Minute After as well as observations from Indiana’s exhibition slate as a whole, and Alex Bozich provided five takeaways.
Banner #3: IU Hoops Plays Eastern Illinois and Bellarmine To Open Regular Season This Week
The Hoosiers will remain in the state of Indiana and finally play a game in Assembly Hall this week when they open the regular season against Eastern Illinois on Monday and Bellarmine on Thursday. DeVries had a presser previewing the season earlier this week.
The contests tip off at 7 pm on BIG+ against the Panthers and 6 pm on Peacock and NBC Sports Network against the Knights. IU is projected to finish around mid-pack in the Big Ten and likely return to the NCAA Tournament.
Banner #4: Indiana Announces Sponsorship Agreement For Assembly Hall Court
As costs in College sports increase, teams are increasingly looking for ways to add new revenue streams. One way to do this is to get sponsorships, and IU is taking advantage of this by partnering with Indiana pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly to add their logo to the Assembly Hall court. Also, Hoosier Athletics’ partnership with Smithville was renewed as their official telecommunications provider.
Presenting Sponsor: Homefield Apparel
Homefield’s annual Black Friday sale has already begun. Use the promo code BLACKFRIDAY at checkout to get 20% off your entire order.
The item of the week for this week is the new “Hurryin’ Hoosiers” snapback hat. Both
Jerod Morris and Tony Adragna have it, and can attest to its quality and fit.
Plus, how cool is it to have an item celebrating the great teams under Branch McCracken?
Banner #5: Weekly Shows
Podcast on the Brink returned this week. On it, Assembly Call’s Jerod Morris crossed over to discuss IU’s upcoming basketball season.
The Back Home Network has many shows. As a result, it was on air several times this week with programming.
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Banner #6: Men’s Soccer Beats UCLA, To Play For Big Ten Title Wed.
Men’s soccer beat UCLA and will play Michigan State for yet another Big Ten title on Wednesday.
Women’s basketball dominated Marian in an exhibition game as they are also expected to return to the NCAA Tourney following a one-year absence.
Volleyball upset ranked Michigan State but fell to Penn State and Michigan.
Field hockey lost to Maryland and was edged by Rutgers and will again play the Scarlet Knights in the Big Ten Tourney.
Women’s soccer’s rough season mercifully concluded after losses to Rutgers and Penn State.
Cross country competed at the Big Ten Championship.
Women’s golf concluded its fall season at the Landfall Tradition.
Wrestling competed at the Wrestle-Offs.
Thanks for your continued support of The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall. We’ll be back next weekend with a new roundup.
Now go enjoy yourself a 6-banner Sunday.
Aaron (Ari) Shifron
Assembly Call Contributor
The Assembly Call is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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