Author: Seth Tow

While Curt Cignetti has seen progress from his Indiana football team in spring practice, he hasn’t always looked or sounded pleased with those developments. On Tuesday, after IU’s ninth practice this spring, he was particularly irritated with some of his players. The Hoosiers held their first scrimmage of the spring on Saturday, which Cignetti previously said he viewed more like another normal practice. And then the players had nearly two days off — most of Sunday, and then all of Monday for the festivities surrounding the solar eclipse. And when the team reconvened for Tuesday’s practice, Cignetti saw some alarmingly…

During Aiden Fisher’s high school football practices, coaches had to rein him in. The current IU linebacker was a two-way standout at Riverbend High in Fredericksburg, Va. Former head coach Nathan Yates said Fisher was always vocal on the field, calling out audibles and checks to his teammates. His mind worked faster than everyone else’s on the field — he was shouting things out before the rest of the defense knew what was going on. And Yates sometimes had to quiet Fisher down to make sure everyone else saw the same things. “We would almost have to tell him, like, ‘Hey,…

Indiana women’s basketball guard Sara Scalia took home a title. Scalia, with 19 points in the final round, won the Hanes Women’s 3-point Championship Thursday night at Grand Canyon’s Global Credit Union Arena. The fifth-year senior scored 21 points in the first round, the second-highest total in the round. Scalia put up 17 points in the second round, which put her in a three-way tie with Missouri’s Hayley Frank and Syracuse’s Dyaisha Fair, and the IU guard advanced with Frank on a tiebreaker of most total shots in in the round. After capturing the women’s title, Scalia faced off against…

As Indiana football’s spring practice rolls on, its quarterback picture will continue to be a focus. IU’s three main quarterbacks this spring appear to be redshirt senior Kurtis Rourke, redshirt sophomore Tayven Jackson, and true freshman Tyler Cherry. Rourke transferred in from Ohio this offseason, while Jackson played in six games last season after transferring from Tennessee. At the beginning of spring practice, Rourke worked with the starters, Jackson with the second-stringers, and Cherry with the third unit. Cignetti declined to expand on the rotation’s development after Tuesday’s practice — the team’s sixth practice of this spring — but he…

As Indiana women’s basketball moves into the offseason, things could change quickly. That’s always the case in college sports, in the age of NIL and the transfer portal. But for IU, some change has to be expected given the losses of foundational players like Mackenzie Holmes and Sara Scalia. The Hoosiers have plenty of key pieces returning, but could look to the transfer portal to fill some holes as well. Who’s back Classes listed are for next season’s roster Sydney Parrish, fifth-year guard — Had Parrish avoided the foot injury that cost her seven games during Big Ten play, she…

Jacob Mangum-Farrar is getting used to change. Indiana is the second school he’s played at, after transferring from Stanford ahead of last season. Mangum-Farrar is entering his seventh and final year in college football — he used a traditional redshirt during his true freshman year in 2018, and received a medical redshirt for either his redshirt freshman or sophomore season. This year will be his COVID season. This will be the third different coaching staff he’s played under in college. And he’s now taking on his second position. Mangum-Farrar turned in a solid season for the Hoosiers at inside linebacker…

Mackenzie Mgbako is back. The co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year is returning to Indiana men’s basketball for his sophomore year, as he announced on Instagram on Saturday. Mgbako endured some early struggles this season, but he enjoyed a strong finish strong to help earn the Freshman of the Year honor. The 6-foot-8, 217-pound forward averaged 12.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game, while shooting 39.5 percent from the field and 32.7 percent from 3-point range. Mgbako was IU’s biggest 3-point threat this season, with a team-high 153 attempts from beyond the arc. Trey Galloway was Indiana’s only…

One of the central storylines of Indiana women’s basketball’s season was its performance in big games. The Hoosiers suffered lopsided defeats in two of their biggest games of the regular season, road dates at Stanford and at Iowa. They performed better in some other big games later in the season, but those two performances lingered over Indiana’s season like an ominous cloud. Whether fair or unfair, and whether true or false, it created a perception that the Hoosiers didn’t show up in their biggest games. But Indiana spent its entire NCAA Tournament run conquering narratives. Its second-round win over Oklahoma…

Indiana women’s basketball looked like its season was going to end unceremoniously. The fourth-seeded Hoosiers trailed undefeated South Carolina, the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, by 22 points with 7:30 remaining in the third quarter in Friday’s Sweet 16 game. But IU continued fighting hard, turned the game around, and controlled things for most of the second half. The Hoosiers trailed by just two points with less than a minute to play in the game. But ultimately, Indiana left itself with too much to overcome. The Gamecocks escaped with a 79-75 win at MVP Arena in Albany, N.Y. Indiana…

Indiana women’s basketball is not just facing a tough challenge in the Sweet 16. The Hoosiers have as difficult a task as any in the sport. No. 4 seed IU takes on No. 1 overall seed South Carolina on Friday in Albany, N.Y. at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN. The Gamecocks have lost just one game over the last two full calendar years, against Iowa in last year’s Final Four. They defeated No. 8 seed North Carolina by 47 points in the second round. So the odds are against Indiana, both figuratively and literally. The Hoosiers are 15.5-point underdogs against…