[6BS] Hoosiers Beat Ohio State On Senior Day To Potentially Clinch NCAA Tourney Spot
Women Win Twice To All But Clinch Their NCAA Spot
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.
While it was not a perfect week results-wise on the court, enough may have been done to put both IU basketball teams into March Madness in the same spring for the third time in four seasons and the eighth time ever. However, it is a tenuous position, unlike the last time when this occurred exactly two years ago with both now appearing to be on the right side of the bubble.
Getting to this point resulted from the men’s senior night victory over Ohio State after losing to Oregon earlier in the week. Meanwhile, the women sewed up their postseason spot by beating Purdue and Oregon before giving no. 2 USC all they could handle.
Besides this 6-Banner will have weekly shows. It will as usual conclude with a look at other Hoosier Sports led by softball continuing its strong start to the year.
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Here is what is in this week’s edition:
Hoosiers Defeat Ohio State On Senior Day To Likely Clinch NCAA Spot
Women Beat Purdue And Oregon To Sew Up Their March Madness Spot Before Taking USC To Wire
IU Falls To Oregon To End West Coast Swing
Postseason Outlooks
Weekly Shows
Hoosier Roundup-Swimming And Diving Wins Yet Another Big Ten Title
IU men’s basketball will play six games this season on Peacock and the women will play five contests on Peacock, making the streaming service a must-have for IU basketball fans. Sign up for Peacock using Inside the Hall’s link to help support the site and also enjoy Big Ten hoops all season long! In total, over 70 men's and women's games featuring Big Ten teams will air on Peacock this season (The link is an Inside the Hall affiliate link, so a commission will be paid to ITH if you click and subscribe to Peacock. Alex and the ITH team appreciate your support!)
Banner #1: Hoosiers Defeat Ohio State On Senior Day To Likely Clinch NCAA Spot
A bubble battle on senior day between two squads fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives was really ugly for most of the afternoon. With a ton of missed shots, the Buckeyes were slightly better and had a 56-51 advantage with five minutes left.
Enter fifth-year senior Trey Galloway. While it has been an up-an-down career slowed by injury, his hustle and heart can never be questioned and as a kid from the state of Indiana, he knows what it means to don a Hoosier uniform.
Galloway on his special afternoon, hit the two biggest shots of the season and his career for IU from way downtown. The first cut the deficit down to two points at 56-54 while the second sealed the contest as the shot clock was expiring for a 61-56 advantage with 1:24 to play. From there his team sealed it up with free throws for a 66-60 victory.
Galloway tied Malik Reneau with a game-high 16 points on a day when just 35% of their side’s shots went through the net. However, a solid 23-31 from the charity stripe was enough to finish at 10-10 in the conference.
Afterward, IU coach Mike Woodson spoke, Inside the Hall had a photo gallery, Ryan Corazza wrote a Minute After, Alex Bozich put together Five Takeaways, while Foley penned a column about the Galloway stepping up on senior day.
Banner #2: Women Beat Purdue And Oregon To Sew Up Their March Madness Spot Before Taking USC To Wire
On the other side of Assembly Hall, the IU women firmed up their NCAA resume. The Hoosiers blasted their struggling arch-rival Purdue for the 13th straight time to ruin their opponent’s senior day 77-57. This sent the Hoosiers to the Big Ten Tournament as the nine seed with a 10-8 conference record.
Here, Indiana was dominant against an Oregon side headed to the postseason as well 78-62. The team did run out of steam against top-seeded and no. 2 nationally USC on Friday but gave them all they could handle in an 84-79 defeat.
Also, when the regular season ended the conference gave out its yearly awards for the top players. IU had three players honored led by junior Yarden Garzon being named second team-all league.
Banner #3: IU Falls To Oregon To End West Coast Swing
The most negative result of the week came as Indiana wrapped up their two-game west coast swing. IU struggled for much of the night in Eugene against Oregon. Indiana managed to take a 64-63 lead late on a Galloway three-pointer but the Ducks took over from there scoring the contest’s last 10 points for a 73-64 victory.
These two will go at it again to open the Big Ten Tournament at 12 pm Eastern time Thursday on BTN. However, this time it will be a pseudo home-court advantage for the Hoosiers with the contest being in Indianapolis.
Afterward, Corazza wrote a Minute After and Film Session, Bozich put together Five Takeaways, while Kevin Vera penned a column about the team faltering late.
Banner #4: Postseason Outlooks
With the draw just one week away, both Indiana squads appear on the right side of the bubble for a spot in March Madness. While it has been an up-and-down season for both, each one appears to have done just enough to make it into the field at 19-12 overall.
The women have all but secured a place and will wait to hear their name called next Sunday night. However, for the first time since 2019, they will be traveling to an opponent’s gym as a likely nine or 10 seed rather than hosting as they have the past three seasons. There is a possibility of being placed in Notre Dame’s bracket with a short trip inside the state up to South Bend. However, any other draw would pit them to go relatively far away. Either way though, their sixth straight trip to postseason play appears to be a certainty.
The men are in the slightly more tenuous position of the two. However, almost every projection has them with a spot in the bracket, even before the victory over Ohio State. Whether they will have to play in a first-four game in Dayton remains to be seen. However, inclusion in the NCAA Tournament appears likely with a victory over Oregon on Thursday almost certainly removing any remaining doubt. If they make it into the main field, the closest sites to home are Cleveland, Lexington, or Milwaukee. However, whether they are placed in one of these spots or farther away, rallying to be in position to make the dance is remarkable given they were well outside of it several weeks ago.
Regardless though, a new coach will roam the sidelines next season with the retirement of Woodson. Inside the Hall once again looked at and profiled potential candidates for the job.
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
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 was recorded this week. The episode featured college basketball reporter Rocco Miller to discuss IU’s NCAA Tourney prospects.
The Back Home Network was also on-air multiple times in the last few days. Assembly Call Postgame, Crimson Cast, Doing The Work, Dribble Drive, and Xs and Joes all had shows.
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Banner #6: Hoosier Roundup-Softball Continues To Roll
Softball continued its strong start to the season beating Bowling Green and IU Indy with the matchup against the Jaguars including a no-hitter. They also beat Western Michigan and the Falcons again but fell to elite Clemson.
Baseball continued their up and down start to the season defeating Mount St. Mary’s, but also falling to Northern Kentucky, as well as splitting the first two games of their opening conference series against Penn State. Also, three former Hoosiers were named to the MLB Spring Breakout Rosters.
Soccer has 13 former Hoosiers who will compete in pro leagues this spring.
Volleyball announced its spring exhibition schedule.
Water polo fell to USC.
Men’s tennis fell to UCLA.
Several female swimmers qualified for the NCAA Championships after competing at the last chance meet.
Thanks for your continued support for 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.