Indiana

Indiana baseball celebrates NCAA tournament bid after 48 hours on the bubble

Published

2 years ago

May 28, 2024

Indiana baseball celebrates NCAA tournament bid after 48 hours on the bubble

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana baseball coach Jeff Mercer went through a range of emotions during the 48 hours leading up to the NCAA’s tournament selection show on Monday afternoon.

The roller coaster ended with overwhelming relief when the Hoosiers found out at the top of the hour-long broadcast they earned an at-large bid and a No. 3 seed in the Knoxville Regional alongside Tennessee, Southern Miss and Northern Kentucky.

Indiana (32-24-1) will open the tourney with a game against Southern Miss at 1 p.m. on Friday.

“You feel a sense of joy,” Mercer said, with a smile.

More: Indiana baseball earns NCAA tournament bid, will play in Knoxville Regional

Indiana baseball puts exit interviews on hold

That joy was in stark contrast to the mood in Indiana’s visiting clubhouse after dropping a pair of games to Nebraska in the Big Ten tournament semifinals on Saturday.

After the night cap, Mercer delivered what he thought was a season-ending speech to his players that included shoutouts to the team’s upperclassmen.

“I felt over the last several weeks if we won a (regular season) series at Nebraska, swept Michigan or if we got to the championship of the Big Ten tournament, that would nail it down,” Mercer said, during a Zoom press conference on Monday. “We kept coming up one game short of getting where we could be 100% confident.”

It wasn’t until Mercer dug a little deeper into the numbers — IU finished the season with a No. 56 ranked RPI and No. 39 strength of schedule — that he started to feel a bit better about the team’s chances.

The results from the various conference championship games on Sunday fueled IU’s postseason hopes as well.

“I think there were only two stolen bids and there could have been four or five really easily,” Mercer said. “Once those things broke our way, I thought we had a real chance to be in.”

Mercer still ended up preparing for both scenarios. He was ready to hold exit interviews with his players on Monday if they didn’t earn a tournament bid, but he had a practice plan ready to go as well.

Those exit interviews will have to wait for another day.

Knoxville Regional is a tough assignment for Indiana baseball

Indiana baseball’s first test will be a red hot Southern Miss team. The Golden Eagles have won six straight and 14 of their last 15 games. The win streak includes Sunday’s 14-11 comeback victory over Georgia Southern in the Sun Belt conference championship game.

It was the team’s second consecutive tournament title. The latest came in dramatic fashion with Southern Miss erasing an 11-9 deficit in the ninth inning.

While Mercer’s assistants handle much of the prep work for the regional, he watched Southern Miss on Sunday since Georgia Southern was a team that could have stolen an at-large bid.

“They don’t strike out, they don’t walk a ton, probably a lot like Rutgers,” Mercer said. “High batting average, singles and doubles, a lot of early contact and swings.”

Designated hitter Slade Wilks does give Southern Miss some pop in the middle of the order. Wilks led the team with 14 home runs this season and has the fifth most in program history for his career (46).

He hit .329 this season, had 35 extra-base hits and 65 RBIs. He enters the NCAA tournament riding a 32-game hit streak.

The other early topic of conversation amongst the staff was Southern Miss pitcher Billy Oldham, who could be the team’s starter on Friday. Oldham earned first team All-Sun Belt honors this season with a 7-2 record with a 3.97 ERA and 96 strikeouts. He only gave up more than three earned runs in three of his 15 starts.

“Throws 88-92 with a good changeup and breaking ball,” Mercer said.

Indiana will also start scouting Tennessee, the tourney’s No. 1 overall seed, and Northern Kentucky as well.

Northern Kentucky will be the easier scout since the team’s played earlier this season — IU won the 11-5 on March 6 — and Mercer is close friends with many members of the team’s coaching staff.

Tennessee is hosting the regional after winning the SEC tournament. The Volunteers beat defending national champion LSU for its second title in three seasons.

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Indiana

Police arrest suspect in Westfield homicide

Published

8 hours ago

March 27, 2026

Press Room

Police arrest suspect in Westfield homicide

WESTFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — Police have arrested someone in connection to a homicide earlier this month in the Hamilton County city.

In a Friday night social media post, the Westfield Police Department announced the arrest but gave no details, including who was arrested or what preliminary charges the person may face.

“Due to the active nature of this case, limited details are available for release at this time,” the post said.

As WISHTV.com previously reported, James “Matt” Lushin, 47, was found dead shortly after 7:25 p.m. March 12 with trauma at his home in the 3900 block of Westfield Road, also known as State Road 32.

Social media posts from the scene showed police tape and emergency vehicles at a red brick house between Shady Nook Road and Gray Road.

Lushin’s obituary said the Kokomo native was a key partner with the real estate investment company, FLF Property. The obituary also said, “Matt was also a respected and accomplished member of the international poker community. He traveled the world competing in tournaments and built an impressive and successful career.”

Police have previously said the death was believed to be isolated, posing no ongoing threat.

Officials have not released a specific cause or manner of death.

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Retro Indy: Five years ago Covid confined March Madness to Indiana

Published

20 hours ago

March 27, 2026

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Retro Indy: Five years ago Covid confined March Madness to Indiana

Just three days before Selection Sunday in March of 2020, the NCAA announced that March Madness, like so many other events that spring, would be cancelled due to the new virus upending life. The decision marked the first time in tournament history that the final weeks of the college basketball season would not be played, squashing Atlanta’s plans to host the Final Four.

When the following year rolled around, the NCAA decided that March Madness would not succumb to the virus once more.

With a vaccine only on the horizon and hundreds of Americans still dying each day, the organization announced in November of 2020 that while the tournament would go on, it would certainly not be business as usual. All 67 games, NCAA officials said, would be held in one location. Central Indiana was the first choice as Indianapolis had been on tap to host the Final Four April 3-5.

The plan, said NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt in a November 2020 IndyStar article was to present “a safe, responsible and fantastic March Madness tournament unlike any other we’ve experienced.”

In January the NCAA made it official: All games would be played in and around Indianapolis in a modified version of a bubble.

Holding the tournament in one place just made sense, NCAA officials told IndyStar. Unlike in a typical year when a winning team would travel multiple times before the championship, this system would minimize travel, which could inadvertently expose players and coaches to the virus.

Two months later when the tournament kicked off on March 18, 55 of the 67 games were scheduled to be played in Indianapolis venues, such as Gainbridge (then Bankers Life) Fieldhouse, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indiana Farmers Coliseum and Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse. Purdue’s Mackey Arena and IU’s Assembly Hall also hosted games.

While the first Covid vaccine had arrived a few months earlier, few people outside of first responders and the most vulnerable had been immunized, so in an effort to avoid large crowds, the Indianapolis sites all capped tickets at 25% capacity. That meant only 17,500 people could attend games at the largest venue, Lucas Oil Stadium. The college arenas allowed far smaller audiences, with IU limiting attendance to 500 people.

A week before the tournament began Marion County Public Health Department officials and Mayor Joe Hogsett asked attendees to make smart public health choices, such as social distancing and obeying the face masks mandate. Referees donned masks as much as possible as did coaches and players on the bench.

The NCAA regularly tested athletes, administering 28,311 tests Covid tests during the tournament, 15 of which came back positive.

Post-mortems after the tournament asked whether the NCAA had made the right call. Two high profile deaths occurred in the aftermath of the tournament — one a University of Alabama superfan who had traveled to Indy for the games and the other a St. Elmo bartender. But proving a direct link between their deaths and the tournament would prove impossible, and some public health experts said the NCAA had done everything it could to protect athletes and fans short of canceling the event.

A study conducted by IU, Regenstrief researchers and others that appeared in August 2021 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that while mask wearing had theoretically been compulsory, about a quarter of attendees at the games were either not wearing masks or doing so inappropriately. Still, in an IndyStar article about the study Indiana Sports Corps president Ryan Vaughn termed the event “a resounding success.”

The following year, with a vaccine widely available and far fewer daily deaths from the virus, the tournament returned to a typical schedule, concluding in New Orleans’ Ceasars Superdome. More than 69,00 fans attended the final games, according to the NCAA. Local authorities had lifted the mask requirement by this point.

“Last year was about survival. Just having championships in any way, single site, keep everybody safe and be successful,” Gavitt said in an NCAA news release in late April 2022. “I think this year was about advancing.”

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Federal legislation that Braun calls ‘crazy’ is aimed at Bears and Indiana – Indianapolis Business Journal

Published

1 day ago

March 26, 2026

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Federal legislation that Braun calls ‘crazy’ is aimed at Bears and Indiana – Indianapolis Business Journal

U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Greg Casar, D-Texas, say the bill would protect taxpayers from being extorted by team owners for huge subsidies. The legislation would likely face an uphill climb in the Republican-controlled Congress.

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