The Indiana Hoosiers take pride in their basketball. They don’t have a rich and lengthy history in college football. They have won the Big Ten championship exactly twice in more than 120 years of competitive football. That long run of futility at least makes it easier to identify the program’s greatest moment.
The 1945 Indiana team went unbeaten and tied once, finishing fourth in the final Associated Press Poll. However, the college football landscape created by World War II had something to do with that Indiana season, which was and is a historical outlier. Another reason that 1945 season isn’t discussed or remembered as widely as it could or should be is that 1945 was the last year in which the Rose Bowl did not have a Big Ten-Pac-12 (or as the conferences were known back then, the Western Conference and the Pacific Coast Conference) tie-in. USC played Alabama in the 1946 Rose Bowl following the 1945 season. Indiana was bitterly unlucky to not have the tie-in that season.
As it was, Indiana did not make the Rose Bowl. The Hoosiers still hadn’t played in the Granddaddy. Then came the 1967 season, in which the Hoosiers came out of nowhere and captured the Big Ten title. Their win over Purdue in the Old Oaken Bucket rivalry game clinched their Rose Bowl berth under coach John Pont. That was and is the greatest Big Ten football moment in Indiana Hoosier history. IU then played its first and only Rose Bowl against USC. The Trojans won the national title by beating the Hoosiers in the Arroyo Seco in the 1968 Rose Bowl.
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The Indiana Pacers are hoping to retain their 2026 first-round pick, which is protected 1-4 and 10-30. If the selection lands between 5 and 9, it conveys to the Los Angeles Clippers as part of the Ivica Zubac–Bennedict Mathurin trade.
At the top of the 2026 NBA Draft class, three names are consistently labeled as generational talents: AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer and Darryn Peterson.
Indiana would welcome any of the three. The bigger question is whether that feeling would be mutual.
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On a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons was joined by draft analysts Tate Frazier and J. Kyle Mann. During the discussion, Mann shared an interesting note about Peterson.
“I’ve gotten the impression from talking to people close to Darryn,” Mann said, “that Darryn is more likely to say, I’m interested in being the full on brain of this team. I don’t really want to play with another superstar, I want to be the center of the universe.”
J. Kyle Mann on The Bill Simmons Podcast
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If that perception holds weight, it creates an intriguing dynamic.
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The Pacers were one game away from an NBA championship last season and already feature two established stars in Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam. Indiana is not a franchise searching for a singular identity, it already has one.
To be clear, Mann’s comments reflect conversations and impressions, not a public statement from Peterson himself. Still, the fit is worth examining. Indiana’s backcourt rotation already includes Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and T.J. McConnell. If Peterson were the pick, the Pacers would find ways to get him on the floor. He is that talented. But Indiana could not offer him an immediate “face of the franchise” role the way a Brooklyn, Sacramento or Washington might.
Mann also offered insight into how Dybantsa may view a situation like Indiana’s.
“AJ, people that know them both have told me that AJ is probably more likely to fit in with an Indiana,” Mann said. “Which is interesting because AJ likes to have the ball. Is he willing to be quick off of the ball with Haliburton? I just think that’s an interesting wrinkle in this.”
J. Kyle Mann on The Bill Simmons Podcast
The contrast is fascinating.
Hearing that Dybantsa would fit in more than Peterson is intriguing. Play style wise, I would lean more towards Peterson’s fitting how Indiana likes to play, especially with how Dybantsa has been utilized at BYU.
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Jan 24, 2026; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Kansas Jayhawks guard Darryn Peterson (22) looks to pass against BYU Cougars forward AJ Dybantsa (3) during the first half at Mizzou Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
If we’re talking locker room fit, I think Dybantsa would embody what a Pacer is all about. Comes from a small market. Wants to win and doesn’t need the big city to do it in. He’s confident but won’t let his ego interfere with the success of the team. Just a levelheaded kid with a desire to be great, and would have one of the best playmaking point guards alongside him to help maximize his talent.
These two are the most polarizing and often mentioned names amongst NBA draft circles when looking at the top two in the class. If the comments made by Mann come to be true, the Pacers would be better off drafting the uber talented 6-9 forward, Dybantsa, than drafting a 6-6 elite shooting guard who would rather be “the guy” than a guy.
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HOBART, Ind. (WLS) — A wrong-way crash left one woman dead and two others seriously injured in Northwest Indiana earlier this week, police said.
The mother of the 20-year-old who was killed spoke exclusively with ABC7 Chicago as she is demanding justice.
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Just before 2 a.m. Saturday, the Hobart Fire Department responded to the horrific crash on Interstate 65 involving two vehicles, north of 61st Avenue near Merrillville, Indiana.
Rylee Hanson, 20, was killed in what investigators says was a head-on collision with a wrong-way vehicle in the northbound lanes.
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“I had Rylee when I was 20 and she made me who I am,” mother Karen Hanson said. “She made me want to be a better person and she made me strive, to reach goals, so I could set examples for kids… She was half of my life. I don’t know how to be me without her.”
Her family says Rylee was a ray of light who graduated from Kankakee Valley High School in Demotte, Indiana where she earned her EMT certification from Ivy Tech Community College. She was headed to criminology studies at Indiana University.
Her parents are appalled nobody has been charged in the crash.
“We want to see change with how drinking is handled,” Karen Hanson said. “There’s gotta be a better way for how people drink or get served or more punishment for impaired drivers out on the road where they’re not getting so many chances.”
Troopers said they believed that the driver of the car going the wrong way was impaired at the time.
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“We are going to make her as proud as she made us,” Karen Hanson said. “Because she did… there are no words to tell you about the pain. It is indescribable.”
The investigation is still ongoing. Anyone with footage of the crash, or of the vehicles prior to the crash, has been asked to contact Indiana State Police.
