Author: Mike Schumann

Just minutes after the 2024 college football season finally came to an end, the page was turned. In year two of the Curt Cignetti era, IU football is on the national radar following the program’s highest win total and an appearance in the College Football Playoff. While rosters are still in a state flux with another round of the transfer portal coming in the spring, it does now seem reasonable to at least start to project the national rankings ahead of the 2025 campaign. Can the Hoosiers make a return trip to the CFP? ESPN is putting them in the…

Since taking over in 2021, Indiana coach Mike Woodson hasn’t been one to tinker with his lineups and rotations much. But he made a major change on Friday at Ohio State, inserting fifth-year senior Anthony Leal into the starting five for just the third time in his career.  His last start came three years ago when Indiana played at Northwestern and five players on the team were suspended. Leal has become someone Woodson can trust to execute the gameplan and make the right basketball play.  He has the third-highest box score plus/minus on the team according to Bart Torvik’s data.…

It’s hard to believe, but we are now less than eight weeks from having a bracket. And that means it is time to start taking a weekly look at where Indiana stands in the projected field. Selection Sunday for 2025 March Madness is set for Sunday, March 16. That’s when the 68-team field for the men’s NCAA DI basketball tournament will be announced. IU is one of the more enigmatic teams in college basketball.  They followed a five-game winning streak with a pair of 25-point losses, only to go on the road and pick up their second Quad-1 win of…

There have been questions at times this season about IU basketball center Oumar Ballo’s weight, conditioning and motor. But on Friday night in Columbus, the 7-footer played 40 minutes and made one effort play after another. Each one could be considered a difference maker in IU’s 77-76 overtime win over Ohio State. Ballo scored 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor. He grabbed 15 rebounds and added four assists in the victory. Over the last six games, Ballo is averaging 18.7 points per game and 12.7 points per game. Let’s take a look at several of his hustle plays…

Indiana had four-straight sellouts to close the 2024 season.  But there were even more eyeballs watching the Hoosiers on television. IU football was the 18th-most seen program on television in calendar 2024. That’s according to the College Football Network, which compiled data from Nielsen totals. The Hoosiers were on a national broadcast 10 times, tied for 23rd most.  It isn’t clear what was considered a national broadcast.  IU played on the Big Ten Network six times, FOX twice, and NBC, Peacock, CBS and ESPN once each. CFN says IU had 34.5 million TV viewers in those 10 games, good for…

Don’t count these Hoosiers out yet. The first half was close throughout but led most of the way by Ohio State.  The Buckeyes led 35-29 going into the break, as neither offense was clicking.  But IU controlled the first 15 minutes of the second half, and took a 68-58 lead with 5:12 left.  OSU stormed back to force overtime.  A Luke Goode three with 1:07 left sealed it for the Hoosiers. Let’s take a deeper look at how Indiana won 77-76 in overtime with our latest edition of The Report Card. Indiana (14-5, 5-3) will next travel to Northwestern on…

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Indiana defeated Ohio State Friday evening at Value City Arena by a final score of 77-76 in overtime. Ohio State led 35-29 at halftime.  The Hoosiers were led in the game by Luke Goode with 23 points.  Oumar Ballo had 21. The three keys to the game, highlights and final stats are below. For Mike Woodson, Oumar Ballo and Luke Goode postgame, GO HERE. Indiana (14-5, 5-3) will travel to Northwestern on Wednesday. THREE KEYS TO THE GAME 1. Goode and Ballo step up.  The two players in the headlines following Indiana’s loss to Illinois had massive games…

Indiana will continue to be without leading scorer Malik Reneau on Friday evening in Columbus. Reneau was listed as out on the Big Ten availability report ahead of the 8 p.m. ET tip (FOX). Freshman reserve forward Bryson Tucker is also listed as out, along with sophomore guard Gabe Cupps. Redshirt freshman guard Jakai Newton is questionable. He played in Indiana’s game on Tuesday after being listed with the questionable designation. Ohio State’s Meechie Johnson and Devin Royal are both out as well.

When you go on the road in the Big Ten and win by 25 points, you’ve clearly done your homework and executed a solid gameplan. So what was Illinois’ approach to playing Indiana on Tuesday night that led to their historic win in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall? After watching Iowa scored 26 fast break points against IU, Illinois coach Brad Underwood said they came to Bloomington ready to push the pace on offense. “That’s one area where we felt like we could hurt them,” Underwood said following the game. While Illinois only scored six first half “fast break points” according…

IU coach Curt Cignetti has a long record of success with quarterbacks. A former QB himself at West Virginia, Cignetti coached multiple consecutive conference players of the year at James Madison, and his first quarterback at Indiana, Kurtis Rourke, had the number one regular season quarterback rating in the country. So what does Cignetti think of his likely 2025 starter Fernando Mendoza, who comes to Bloomington from Cal where he’ll join his brother Alberto in the IU quarterback room? Alberto committed to Cignetti when he was still the head coach at James Madison.  So there’s a family relationship that goes…