This week in Indiana basketball

I’m on a bit of a run contributing to this blog, so I thought I’d keep it going. My wife and I are recently empty nesters and have been occupying our free time with college basketball. When the kids were home, their activities sort of dominated the schedule. When our youngest left, it didn’t feel like we were much less busy during the warmer months. But during the winter months, everything is just more closed up and activities are harder to come by.

We met down in Bloomington and have always been Indiana fans. But we went years not following the teams very closely. However, that took a big turn when our oldest joined the Marching Hundred and then the Big Red Basketball Band and then the Crabb Band and, well, we get to see him on TV quite a bit if we watch the games. That evolved into us watching both home games and road games; men’s and women’s. And, if you’ve been following IU basketball this year, you know that the men and the women are having themselves a Tale of Two Seasons. After last year’s second in the Big Ten showing, the men are in the basement, losing to teams like Nebraska, Penn State, Rutgers, and just about everyone else who isn’t Ohio State. Meanwhile, the women are following up last year’s Big Ten championship with another strong season.

When I grumble about what’s going on in the men’s game, my wife teases me that I sound like someone who has hope and that I should stop that. This past week, they got down big to Nebraska at home, trailing by 20 or so in the first half. They clawed their way to within 3 points in the second and then the wheels fell off again. On the road against Penn State, things were pretty tight for most of the first half and most of the game, really, but they couldn’t get over the hump and let the Nittany Lions open up a gap they couldn’t close. They couldn’t hit three pointers all game, but during the first half at least they were hitting free throws.

 

Until they hit a three in garbage time in the waning seconds of the game, they were 1-14 for a 7% average. And in the second half, they missed I think six consecutive free throws. Their final free throw percentage was 56%. The threes they took were mostly good looks, they just can’t hit water falling out of a boat. Whatever else is going on, their confidence is shattered. I know there are plenty of people calling for Woodson’s head. This season has been a train wreck, but: a) this is year three after firing the previous coach who didn’t last all that long; and b) his first couple of years were (imho) pretty good. On a personal level, my biggest disappointment is that my son might never get to see a deep run in the tournament as a member of the pep band.

Meanwhile, the women’s team is so much fun to watch. They graduated a fantastic player in Grace Berger, and the train keeps rolling. Mackenzie Holmes became the IU women’s all-time leading scorer and winningest player. But it’s a pick your poison situation – if you pack the paint to contain her, a hard rain of threes is going to fall with Sara, Chloe, Yarden, and Sydney all able to hit from the perimeter. This week, they laid an egg against Illinois. I couldn’t watch that one because tip off was at 2 pm on a Monday (and what the hell was that about.) IU lost by 20 and, from the ESPN gamecast, it looked like Illinois was making lay ups at will.

But, if that out-of-character loss is what it took to put fire in their belly to host #4 Iowa, then all things considered, I guess I’ll take the trade-off. That game was an all-timer at Assembly Hall. The hype around Caitlin Clark has been pretty obnoxious. She’s very good, but there are other good players in the league too. I don’t love the media’s need to pick a couple of stars and hype them to the exclusion of everyone else. When she came to Assembly Hall on Thursday, she missed *18* shots. Eighteen is a lot of misses. She got 24 points, but had to take a shit ton of shots to do it. She only made 30% of her shots. That’s a lot of empty possessions for Iowa. Meanwhile, Mackenzie’s 24 points came with her making 69% of her shots and Sara’s 25 points came with her hitting at a 50% clip. So, the 86-69 win was a lot of fun to watch. Assembly Hall was packed and rocking. Probably as loud as it’s been since last year when the men beat #1 Purdue. Teri Moren is doing a fantastic job.

To summarize, it’s nice of all of these kids in their late teens and early twenties to put in an astounding amount of hard work so that I have something to do during the dark winter nights of January and February.