Indiana
Todd’s Take: Indiana Got What It Wanted With Easy Win, But These Games Are Bad For Fans
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – On Wednesday, I wrote about why Indiana plays games against FCS competition and why it’s beneficial to the bottom line for the FCS schools.
For Indiana? It’s the path of least resistance to reach bowl eligibility to play a FCS team. Not every FCS team is created equally, but you don’t schedule this game to lose it when it’s agreed to. In the case of Western Illinois, a team that had lost 25 games in a row going into Friday’s game? The path of least resistance is akin to a six-lane interstate.
For the Hoosiers, it’s a chance to play a lot of players without much worry about that pesky competitive part of the game getting in the way.
For Western Illinois? Yes, it’s a chance to test yourself against a team far better than what you’ll see in the Ohio Valley-Big South Conference. But the biggest thing for Western Illinois is the $450,000 check they take with them back to Macomb, Ill.
Those are the practical reasons for these games from the point of view of the teams, a transactional exercise that also fills a Big Ten Network window.
So what do the fans get out of it? For Indiana fans, they got the satisfaction of a dominant victory. And they don’t come any easier than the 77-3 rout the Hoosiers administered to the Leathernecks on Friday.
And that’s about it. Entertainment value? Minimal once you realize how poor the opponent is and how easy it was to pile those points up. Stakes? Almost non-existent.
Let’s be honest. These games stink. You know it when you see it on the schedule years in advance. You know it when game-week approaches and you get to know the tale of the tape. You know it when you walk towards the stadium, pondering in your mind how early the competitive phase of the game will cease.
This one was much worse than most. You can say, without hyperbole, that Western Illinois was the worst opponent Indiana has ever faced. The 77 points scored are an Indiana school record, breaking the 76-point record that had stood since 1901. The Hoosiers just missed their all-time victory margin (also 76) and set their all-time record for total yardage at 701.
It’s great that Indiana took care of business in the dominant manner it did, you’d worry if it didn’t, but it’s empty calories in the long view. The Hoosiers won’t see a team this bad for the rest of the season and maybe ever.
Meanwhile, the fans get the short end of the stick. There’s very little in it for them to sustain interest, much less justify the cost for the ticket.
The game was over before the first quarter ended with Indiana ahead 28-0. At one point, Indiana had a 21-0 edge in first downs. They did have a 415-to-98 edge in total offense at halftime. Indiana set an all-time total offense record at 701, so I suppose Indiana fans who were there can say they witnessed it, but what satisfaction comes from it when the opponent is so weak?
(I don’t want to go down an asterisk wormhole, but the previous record was 692 set against Purdue in 2013. That’s against a peer school. It’s almost as if the record book should differentiate between Big Ten games and nonconference games.)
All of the above is what made Curt Cignetti’s comments on the crowd a tad ill-timed last week. To be fair to Cignetti, when he made the remark about fans leaving early, he wasn’t doing it (necessarily) to drum up a sellout for Western Illinois. It was purely an honest reaction in the moment.
Playing Western Illinois also isn’t Cignetti’s fault. He didn’t schedule the game. He spoke to that after the game.
“The schedule is what it is. We’ll enjoy this one and think about the next one tomorrow or Sunday,” Cignetti said.
However, since the Western Illinois contest was next after he said something about the crowd? Naturally, it was going to be viewed as a bit of an acid test, especially after Cignetti addressed the topic again on his radio show.
Games between FCS and FBS games should never be viewed as any kind of acid test for anything. Indiana gets its win for bowl eligibility and Western Illinois gets its guarantee. That’s all that came of it.
Based on what Cignetti said about the fans, I can imagine some argued in their own heads whether they should heed his plea from the previous game and stick it out to the end?
I can also imagine, and could see with my own eyes, that it wasn’t a very long internal debate. Indiana fans did what almost any other fanbase would do – they found something more interesting to occupy their time. For the second straight week, fans bolted for the exits at halftime.
I can’t blame them one bit. What little skin was in this game to begin with had long dissipated.
At some point, a game can’t just be a game for the sake of it. Fan support can’t just exist in a vacuum. There has to be something at stake, something to hold interest. Why should fans of any school stick around just for the sake of doing it? Whatever passion the game could have produced was exhausted in the first quarter.
As Cignetti has said, college football is entertainment. The entertainment phase of this game was over long before the sun set on Memorial Stadium. After that? It was just an exercise in piling up statistics.
I much preferred it when power conference teams played one or maybe two tune-ups per season and then played a peer in their other nonconference game.
Indiana has moved away from that model, most recently by dropping Louisville, and perhaps history has taught them it’s necessary to beat up on tomato cans to get a bowl bid at the end of the rainbow.
I understand it and decry it all at once. Fans want quality matchups, so I can’t blame them one bit for ignoring mismatches like this even if it does make the path to a bowl that much easier.
The teams concoct reasons or create the economic conditions to make these games matter.
Fans know better. They’ll jump on-board when there’s something in it for them. A huge win over a Big Ten team would feel fantastic.
A 74-point win over a very bad FCS team? Outside of the acknowledgement of the domination of an inferior opponent? It doesn’t feel like much at all.
Indiana
50+ Indiana counties under travel advisories after snow storm. See map
Safety and preparation are the keys to staying safe this winter
Officials talk about winter preparedness, safety, tips. Safety and preparation are the keys. Here are some tips.
At least 50 Indiana counties are under a travel advisory, and 20 counties were issued a travel watch for Dec. 14, following an overnight snow storm.
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) travel advisory map has each county shaded in red for a travel warning, orange for a travel watch, yellow for a travel advisory and gray for a county without an elevated status report on it’s current travel conditions.
Here’s how you can check your county to see where it lands on the map.
Travel advisory
According to DHS, a travel advisory is the lowest level of a related advisory.
“Routine travel or activities may be restricted in areas because of a hazardous situation, and individuals should use caution or avoid those areas,” the department says on its website.
Watch advisory
According to DHS, a watch advisory is issued when conditions are threatening to a county’s safety.
“Only essential travel, such as to and from work or in emergency situations, is recommended, and emergency action plans should be implemented by businesses, schools, government agencies and other organizations,” the department’s website states.
Warning advisory
According to DHS, a warning advisory is the highest level of a related advisory, where people may be told not to travel at all.
“Travel may be restricted to emergency management workers only,” the department’s website states.
Here’s the winter weather info you need
🚨 Indiana Weather Alerts: Warnings, Watches and Advisories.
⚡ Indiana power outage map: How to check your status.
💻 Internet outages: How to track them.
🚫 What you should and shouldn’t do when the power is out.
🐶 Your neighbor left their pet outside. Who you should call.
Indianapolis weather radar
Jade Jackson is a public safety reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON.
Indiana
What Darian DeVries, Tucker DeVries Said After Indiana Basketball’s Loss at Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Indiana basketball coach Darian DeVries and senior forward Tucker DeVries met with reporters after the Hoosiers’ 72-60 loss to Kentucky on Saturday night at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
Here’s what the DeVries duo said during their near-seven-minute press conference.
Q: I guess, Darian, it’s sort of another night where it feels like it just kind of gets difficult to really break down an opponent off the dribble, kind of get that inside-out sort of paint touch to three looks you want, just like what, I guess, are you guys, what’s not happening there, what’s just kind of sort of failing at the source offensively when that’s not working?
DD: Yeah, I thought the first half, you know, we got some pretty good action, pretty good movement, I thought the second half, Kentucky certainly turned up the pressure and was able to get into us and we didn’t respond well enough and we turned the ball over too much and live ball turnovers against them are really hard because now they’re out in transition playing in space, so the turnovers and the offensive rebounding, I mean, that flipped the game around that second half.
Q: On Kentucky’s long run, what was the problem there?
Yeah, I thought the turnovers, it was a combination of things, I thought, you know, we left our feet a few times, I thought we just, you know, got on our heels a little bit and didn’t play as disciplined as we needed to, you know, as that, you know, the crowd got cranked up and things, that’s the time where you got to really dig in a little bit more, your screen’s got to be better, you got to play off of two feet more, and then the offensive rebounds, you know, they just went and got them and, you know, we didn’t do a good enough job of creating space and getting bodies and going and securing the ball.
Q: What do you think you need to improve on, the team needs to improve on against ball pressure at the point of attack?
DD: Yeah, the number one thing when you get at ball pressure is everything from an execution standpoint and a movement standpoint, it’s just got to be done with more force, you can’t continue just to get pushed out and everybody stands, so you have to find ways to give yourself up with a back hook, give yourself up with a screen, set up those screens with more force, you know, and get some movement to, you know, even as, you know, they had gotten ahead and we started to break it off a little bit, once we got movement again, we were able to get those clean looks or better looks, so it’s something we got to get better at, there’s no question.
Q: Tucker, your individual line tonight was really great, I mean, your effort was fantastic, 15 points, 7 rebounds, a lot of the three point shots tonight didn’t go down like they normally do for the Hoosiers, what do you think that is, was it just not seeing the basket as well, was it the defense, was it not in the offense where you were getting clean looks?
TUCKER DEVRIES: To be honest, making and missing shots, I thought tonight, honestly, wasn’t a problem, I know, certainly, I did not shoot it great, as a team we didn’t shoot that great either from three, but, you know, even with that being said, I think there were certainly areas that we needed to be a lot better at, as a group, and if we were able to, you know, especially in the second half, execute in those areas, I think that would have made up for some of those, you know, shooting habits and miscues, but, you know, making them missing shots sometimes is basketball, but I thought in the other areas, if we could just, you know, execute there a little bit.
Q: On that, if shots maybe weren’t the problem, what kind of was, do you think?
TUCKER: I mean, he hit on it pretty good, the turnovers and obviously the offensive rebounds they had, especially in the second half. I mean, I take full responsibility for both of those areas. Obviously, four turnovers is far too many. As a group, I think when they pick up the pressure, I think we just need to really focus on our execution a little bit more on every possession. But good thing is we get a good week here before we play again to really dial in on some of those areas that we’ve maybe lacked in the beginning.
Q: When Lamar picked up his fourth foul and missed nearly nine minutes, what went wrong offensively?
DD: Yeah, I don’t remember the exact sequences there, but, you know, not having Lamar out there is certainly a big part of our offense, and, you know, his foul trouble tonight certainly limited him with only the 21 minutes because he was, again, he’s, you know, a big focal piece of what we try to run our offense through, so, you know, I believe during that little stretch that he wasn’t out there, that’s when the turnovers started to happen and
we weren’t able to get into, you know, maybe some of our actions the way we needed to.
Q: Darian, you mentioned Kentucky’s offensive rebound and kind of flipping that game. Was that just their physicality, their effort out beating you guys or something else that you saw going on?
DD: Yeah, I thought their effort, their physicality in the second half was, you know, really good. I mean, they certainly cranked it up a notch in that second half and we needed to respond to it, but, you know, I thought their aggressiveness defensively, their aggressiveness in the offensive glass, you know, was ultimately the factor.
Q: Darian, you mentioned Lamar, but how much did the foul trouble for not just him, but other guys, affect you tonight?
DD: I mean, foul trouble is foul trouble. You have it every night, so you’ve got to figure out a way to deal with it and, you know, we just didn’t do a good enough job with that.
Q: Just to follow up on that, with this team, and you’ve talked about sort of where you are with the two bigs and things like that, like does foul trouble become sort of a compounding problem when it disrupts rotations? It felt tonight like maybe guys were just not either on the floor long enough to find the rhythm or maybe had to be on the floor too long because other guys were in foul trouble.
DD: Again, our guys, you know, their numbers are called, they’re ready to go. You know, certainly, you know, a guy like Lamar, you want him out there, but when he’s not out there, I feel very confident that the guys that are coming in are going to do their part and do their job and, you know, we certainly have a lot of faith in them, so, you know, unfortunately it just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to tonight.
Indiana
Dick Vitale, Charles Barkley team up to broadcast Indiana vs Kentucky
Kentucky basketball’s Mark Pope sees pride-worthy potential in squad
Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope says he’s done a poor job of getting the competitive spirit out of his team despite a 103-67 win over NC Central.
Basketball icons Dick Vitale and Charles Barkley headline the broadcasting crew for Indiana vs. Kentucky on Saturday, Dec. 13.
Vitale, a longtime ESPN analyst, and Barkley, a Basketball Hall of Famer-turned analyst, are teaming up to call two games this season, with the first coming between a pair of blue bloods in a nonconference matchup. Dave O’Brien will handle play-by-play duties.
Vitale and Barkley will broadcast together for the second time this season during TNT and CBS Sports’ First Four coverage of the men’s NCAA Tournament in March.
Watch Dick Vitale, Charles Barkley call Indiana vs. Kentucky live with Fubo (free trial)
The humorous duo will be appointment viewing for many college basketball fans, as both are known for their larger-their-life personalities. The team-up became possible after TNT lost its broadcasting rights for NBA games, moving TNT’s “Inside the NBA” to ESPN.
Vitale is returning to regular broadcasting in 2025 after battling multiple forms of cancer since 2021. He has called over 1,000 games for ESPN since joining the network in 1979.
Barkley, an 11-time NBA All-Star, averaged 22.1 points and 11.7 rebounds across his 16-year career. He was drafted No. 5 overall out of Auburn in the 1984 NBA Draft.
How to watch Indiana vs Kentucky today with Dick Vitale, Charles Barkley
Indiana-Kentucky will air live on ESPN, with streaming options available on the ESPN app or Fubo, which offers a free trial.
Indiana vs Kentucky time today
- Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
- Date: Saturday, Dec. 13
- Location: Rupp Arena (Lexington, Kentucky)
Indiana vs. Kentucky is set for a 7:30 p.m. ET tipoff on Saturday, Dec. 13, from Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.
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