Indiana

Four questions to open Indiana Fever training camp: How will Caitlin Clark gel?

Published

2 years ago

April 27, 2024

Four questions to open Indiana Fever training camp: How will Caitlin Clark gel?

INDIANAPOLIS — One of the most anticipated seasons in Indiana Fever history will start Sunday, as 15 players step into Gainbridge Fieldhouse for their first day of training camp.

Indiana’s most coveted addition is Caitlin Clark, the No. 1 overall pick. She is the NCAA career scoring leader and a two-time national player of the year. The Fever also added Ohio State’s Celeste Taylor and Florida’s Leilani Correa in the draft, as well as Katie Lou Samuelson and Damiris Dantas on protected contracts in free agency.

Camp is about two weeks long with two preseason games: at the Dallas Wings on May 3, and at home May 10 against the Atlanta Dream. Fever brass will have until May 13 to cut the roster to 12.

Here are four questions heading into training camp:

More: Indiana Fever have three cuts to make throughout training camp. Who will make the roster?

How will Caitlin Clark gel with Aliyah Boston, Fever teammates?

Clark is joining a cast of Aliyah Boston, NaLyssa Smith, and Kelsey Mitchell — all of whom have established themselves in Indianapolis already.

Boston, the 2023 No. 1 pick, was the unanimous Rookie of the Year and an All-Star starter. Smith was the No. 2 pick in 2022 and made the WNBA All-Rookie team, and Mitchell was an All-Star for the first time last season.

On the court, Clark should gel perfectly with the Fever’s top trio. Her 3-point shooting ability will space the floor, and it will be a good complement to Mitchell, the only Fever player to attempt over 100 3-pointers last season. Clark and Boston have already started to work out together ahead of training camp, and their pick-and-roll, two-player game could be dangerous.

“To have both (Clark and Mitchell) on the court, with Aliyah Boston in the post, it’s a coach’s dream,” coach Christie Sides said. “We’ve got other players that are going to be around them, and we’re hoping to have five players on the court that can all shoot the 3, that makes it really dangerous for other teams.”

More: Meet the artist who made a portrait of Caitlin Clark with a basketball as her paintbrush

Will Caitlin Clark be able to shoot freely?

At Iowa, Clark could shoot whatever, whenever, and wherever she wanted — which was a good strategy for the Hawkeyes, as they relied on her for about 34% of their scoring. But will she have the same green light in Indiana? Sides addressed that on draft night, especially when it came to Clark’s iconic logo 3-pointers.

“I’ve been asked by several of our players, ‘The logo 3s, how many are we going to take?’” Sides said on draft night. “And I said, ‘Well, how many are we going to practice, and how many are you going to make in practice?’ That’s Caitlin’s range, and that’s what she has shown the world that she can do. We’re going to take the best shot available for our team, but my gosh, she broke the (scoring record) on … almost a 40-footer.”

With Boston, Smith, and Mitchell in the lineup, too, Clark will not have as much of a need to pull the scoring weight as much as she did at Iowa. She likely won’t need to score over 30 points per game.

Clark will have a lot going through her head, including working with her new teammates and getting used to a new coaching staff, facility and city. If she can find the time to practice those long-range 3-pointers, Sides isn’t ruling them out of the playbook.

How will Erica Wheeler fit in?

Wheeler came to Indiana on a two-year, $404,000 contract, and she was the highest-paid player in the WNBA in 2023 when the Fever added a $40,000 time-off bonus (which prevented her from playing overseas for more than 90 days in the offseason) to make her salary $242,000. But Wheeler didn’t end up being what the Fever were looking for to run their offense. She averaged five assists per game, and Indiana ranked 11th of 12 teams with just 18 assists per game.

More: A bonus made Indiana Fever’s Erica Wheeler highest-paid WNBA player, allows her time off

Clark, averaging 8.9 assists last year, should bolster that number. But how will the Fever’s highly-paid point guard fit into the rotation?

Wheeler will be Clark’s biggest competition for the starting point guard spot. Assuming Clark wins that battle, Wheeler will run with the second unit, becoming one of the best backup point guards in the league. Wheeler has shown she’s excited for Clark’s arrival, and she will be a good veteran presence for Clark to learn from.

How will Indiana’s other draft picks fare?

Second-round pick Celeste Taylor and third-round pick Leilani Correa are on an uphill climb to make the roster — as most late-round draft picks are. In 2023, only 15 of the WNBA’s 36 draft picks made opening-night rosters. But Taylor and Correa have something the Fever need: defense. Indiana ranked 10th in the league in defense last year.

Taylor was the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a finalist for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, and she was the anchor of a ferocious full-court press with Ohio State. That press muddled Big Ten offenses, including those of Iowa and Indiana, and Taylor averaged 2.5 steals per game.

Correa, the SEC Sixth Woman of the Year, also averaged 2.5 steals a game, mostly off the bench. She also averaged over 16 points.

Either pick could make the roster based on their defensive abilities; they just have the tall task of showing that in a new environment in a small time window.

Source link

Click to comment

Indiana

Freshmen from Indiana show potential in UConn-Butler game: ‘Heck of a player’

Published

2 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Freshmen from Indiana show potential in UConn-Butler game: ‘Heck of a player’

Former UConn forward, NBC Sports broadcaster Donny Marshall knows a thing or two about talented UConn guards.

The former Husky played for legendary coach Jim Calhoun and was teammates with the fifth pick in the 1996 NBA Draft, 10-time NBA All-Star Ray Allen. Watching UConn play against Butler on Tuesday night, Marshall said he sees a lot of Allen in reigning Indiana Mr. Basketball Braylon Mullins.

Mullins made the second start of his career against the Bulldogs. The former Greenfield-Central star missed UConn’s first six games of the regular season with an injury, but the 6-foot-6 guard is quickly coming into his own and showing why he’s a projected lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Against Butler, Mullins showed off his sweet jump shot, going 2 for 5 from 3-point range. He finished with 12 points, three rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal.

“He’s a scorer,” Butler coach Thad Matta said of Mullins. “He’s got a scorer’s mentality. He gets his shot off quick. They move him around and create some angles for him. Obviously, he’s a heck of a player.”

Mullins did most of his damage in the first half, scoring eight of his 12 points before halftime. The former five-star recruit was the highest-ranked player in UConn’s 2025 class. Butler’s top-ranked recruit, Azavier “Stink” Robinson isn’t the NBA prospect Mullins is, but he held his own after a shaky start to the game.

Robinson has been thrust into the starting lineup with starter Jalen Jackson out for the season with an ankle injury. Robinson looked out of sorts at times in the first half, going scoreless with two assists and a turnover. In the second half, Matta moved him off the ball, giving him catch-and-shoot looks, and opportunities to drive to the basket without worrying about running the offense.

The former Lawrence North star responded with one of the better halves of his career, scoring 10 points on 3 for 6 shooting, including 2 for 5 from 3 to go along with two rebounds, one assist, one steal and one turnover.

Facing a veteran team like UConn, nothing comes easy. UConn’s guards harass ball handlers and getting into an offensive set is not easy. This time last year, Robinson was still in high school and, on most nights, the most athletic player on the court. Playing a UConn team where the goal is a national championship, Robinson was forced to grow, and he did not back down from the challenge in the second half.

“He’s coming along,” Matta said of Robinson. “That’s the first Big East road game of his career against maybe the best team in the country. It tells you how tough he is. He’s resilient. He keeps going.”

Source link

Indiana

Indiana's Curt Cignetti becomes the first back-to-back winner of AP coach of the year

Published

14 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Indiana's Curt Cignetti becomes the first back-to-back winner of AP coach of the year

Curt Cignetti has been named The Associated Press coach of the year in college football for the second consecutive season. He is the first coach to win the award back-to-back since it was first presented in 1998. Cignetti has led Indiana to unprecedented success, with a 24-2 record over two seasons. The Hoosiers are 13-0 this year, Big Ten champions for the first time since 1967, and the top seed in the College Football Playoff. Cignetti received 47 first-place votes. Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea received two each, and Virginia’s Tony Elliott got one.

Source link

Indiana

Central Indiana schools announce closures, delays planned for Tuesday

Published

1 day ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Central Indiana schools announce closures, delays planned for Tuesday

INDIANAPOLIS — Some schools in central Indiana are planning to close or delay the start of their classes on Tuesday.

The closures and delays come in the wake of a difficult weekend of severe winter weather in the Hoosier State. On Saturday, a wintry system dumped more than six inches of snow in some portions of the state.

Points north of Indianapolis like Lafayette received between three and four inches of snow. Towns south of the Circle City like Seymour saw similar snowfall totals. As for Indianapolis itself, more than five inches of snow were recorded in some portions of the city.

After Saturday’s snow, frigid temperatures took hold in the area. A Cold Weather Advisory was issued for much of the state as wind chill values dipped well below zero.

The cold and snow triggered a bevy of school closings and delays for Monday. Schools began to announce delays and closures for Tuesday late Monday night as snow removal crews across the state continued to try to keep roadways clear.

Though some schools plan to close or delay the start of classes on Tuesday, temperature improvements are forecasted. High temperatures are anticipated to exceed the 32-degree freezing threshold and hit 36 degrees. The warming trend is expected to continue on both Wednesday and Thursday, with high temperatures forecasted to reach 40 and 50 degrees, respectively.

Precipitation is forecasted for Thursday, though temperatures are expected to remain warm enough for Indiana to get rain instead of snow.

FOX59/CBS4 is tracking the closures and delays schools plan to implement on Tuesday. Check out the latest available list of closings below:

Jump To: A–Z