[6BS] IU's Season Is Over But NCAA Tourney Continues On
Big Ten Rolling To Success In March Madness
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.
IU’s basketball season is over, but the NCAA Tourney continues without them, as has happened most of the time in the last decade. With the Hoosiers’ year coming to a close, Inside the Hall had a series wrapping up each player’s campaign.
Additionally, despite the lack of success, Indiana is still one of the most popular college basketball programs, and a look at how its former players did. As usual, we will conclude with a look at the weekly shows and the rest of the Hoosier sports in action, which was led by softball continuing its strong start to 2026.
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Here is what is in this week’s edition:
NCAA Tourney Results
Inside the Hall’s That’s A Wrap Series
IU Amongst Ten Most Popular College Basketball Programs
How Former Indiana Players Did This Season
Weekly Shows
Hoosier Roundup-Softball Continues Strong Start To Season
Banner #1: NCAA Tourney Results
The Hoosiers’ season is over after once again failing to secure a spot in March Madness as expected. This was the third straight year and eighth time in 10 seasons IU has found itself in this position.
However, with or without Indiana, the NCAA Tournament continues. With NIL seemingly widening the gap between mid-major and power five teams, the competition has featured fewer upsets than usual.
However, with that said, there have still been some thrilling results. Despite the Hoosiers not being a part of it, the Big Ten sent nine teams to the dance, and two of the most exciting games happened early on Thursday involving them. The first was Ohio State losing a nailbiter to TCU, and the other was Wisconsin getting knocked off late in a thriller against High Point, which was the only true ‘Cinderella’ to win in the first round.
However, after these two disappointments, it has been all roses for the conference, with Illinois, Michigan, and Michigan State all winning two games to advance to the Sweet 16. Finally, Nebraska seemingly completed its identity swap with IU late on Saturday night to also advance to the second weekend in a terrific blow-for-blow matchup with Vanderbilt. With the Cornhuskers success, the transformation from history to them being a ‘basketball school’ now and Indiana a ‘football school’ seems complete for the moment.
Purdue, UCLA, and Iowa will look to join these four other league programs in the Sweet 16 with games today. In other notable results, Duke nearly became the rare victim of a loss as a one seed in the first round but survived Siena. Meanwhile, their arch-rival, North Carolina, had a complete meltdown against VCU with inexcusable late turnovers. In another blueblood thriller, Kentucky hit a half-court prayer to force overtime and eventually knock off Santa Clara.
The only mid-major squad still with a chance at the Sweet 16 is Utah State, which has a very tall task against top-seeded Arizona today. Lastly, to emphasize the mostly ‘chalk’ results of this year’s tourney so far, budget-rich Texas is the only double-digit seed to advance to the second weekend at this point.
Banner #2: Inside the Hall’s That’s A Wrap Series
With the season now over for IU, Inside the Hall did a series breaking down each of the team’s rotation players in detail. They looked at Trent Sisley, Jasai Miles, Nick Dorn, Tayton Conerway, Reed Bailey, Conor Enright, Sam Alexis, Tucker DeVries, and Lamar Wilkerson.
Banner #3: IU Amongst Ten Most Popular College Basketball Programs
Despite the struggles, the popularity of IU’s basketball program has seemingly not faded. Using multiple factors, Nielsen ranked the Hoosiers the eighth most popular team in college basketball. Michigan was fourth, Illinois seventh, and Ohio State ninth, as the other Big Ten programs to crack the top-10, with Duke taking the top spot.
Banner #4: How Former Indiana Players Did This Season
11 former Hoosiers competed on other college basketball teams this year. These players were Kaleb Banks (DePaul), Kanaan Carlyle (Florida Atlantic), Gabe Cupps (Ohio State), Logan Duncomb (Winthrop), CJ Gunn (DePaul), Dallas James (Morgan State), Mackenzie Mgbako (Texas A&M), Jakai Newton (Georgia State), Malik Reneau (Miami [FL]) Myles Rice (Maryland), and Bryson Tucker (Washington).
Carlyle, Duncomb, Gunn, and Reneau were by far the most successful, averaging double figures. Team-wise, Cupps, Mgbako, and Reneau made it to March Madness, with Reneau the only one remaining as his Hurricanes look to upset Purdue today.
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
Inside the Hall’s Podcast on the Brink returned this week. On it, Crimson Cast’s Scott Caulfield crossed over from the Back Home Network to discuss IU missing the NCAA Tourney again.
The Back Home Network itself has many shows. As a result, it was on air many times this week with programming.
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Banner #6: Hoosier Roundup-Softball Continues Strong Start To Season
Softball continued its hot start to the season. After losing to Rutgers, they swept the rest of their results this week, knocking off IU Indy and taking two from Maryland to open that series. At 24-6, their RPI sits around 60, which is well within range for a fourth straight NCAA Tourney appearance.
Baseball had its best week of the spring to date (outside of some unfortunate injury news), knocking off SEC power Vanderbilt on the road and taking two from Minnesota to open that series. Their RPI improved into the top 70 after sitting well outside the top 100 last week. However, sitting at just 10-12, a second straight year of missing the NCAA Tourney seems most likely barring a huge turnaround in the second half of the season. Also, the Big Ten announced a new format for the sport’s conference tourney in late May.
Water Polo beat Pomona-Pitzer and San Jose State but lost to UC San Diego and Cal.
Women’s tennis beat Minnesota but lost to Northwestern.
Men’s tennis beat Washington but lost to Ohio State.
Swimming and Diving saw the women finish seventh nationally at the NCAA Championships.
Wrestling finished 21st at the NCAA Championships.
Women’s golf finished fourth at the Valspar Augusta Invitational.
Men’s golf finished tied for 12th at the Schenkel Invitational.
Rowing concluded its opening weekend at the Oak Ridge Cardinal Invitational.
Finally, football will show off its national championship trophy with a tour around Indiana. As a result of the sports success, Scott Dolson was honored as the athletic director of the year by NACDA, and coach Curt Cignetti will drive the pace car at the Indy 500.
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.