Indiana
Indiana Women’s Basketball Ranked 25th In AP Top 25 Preseason Poll
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana’s women’s basketball team is included in the Associated Press preseason women’s basketball poll for the sixth consecutive season … but only just.
The Associated Press preseason poll was released on Tuesday. Indiana was ranked 25th in the poll, beating rival Iowa by nine points to make it into the Top 25.
Defending national champion South Carolina is the No. 1 team in the poll, receiving 27 out of a possible 30 first-place votes.
Indiana was the sixth-highest rated Big Ten school in the Top 25 as the Big Ten only trailed the Southeastern Conference (eight teams) in poll representation. No. 3 Southern California, No. 5 UCLA, No. 14 Ohio State, No. 18 Maryland and No. 23 Nebraska are the other Big Ten teams in the Top 25. Iowa, Illinois and Michigan State did not make the Top 25, but received at least one vote.
In addition to Big Ten opponents in the poll, the Hoosiers could also play No. 12 Baylor and No. 15 North Carolina in the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas in November.
In the six-year period where Indiana has been in the preseason Top 25, the previous lowest spot the Hoosiers occupied was the No. 24 spot in 2020. During Teri Moren’s coaching reign, the Hoosiers have been included in the preseason poll on seven occasions. Indiana was not in the preseason Top 25 prior to Moren’s tenure at all.
Indiana returns starters Yarden Garzon, Chloe Moore-McNeil and Sydney Parrish. Help from the transfer portal comes in the form of Penn State transfer guard Shay Ciezki and Tennessee post player Karoline Striplin. Lilly Meister is expected to play regularly after Mackenzie Holmes exhausted her eligibility.
The Hoosiers return nearly all of their bench contributors as Lexus Bargesser, Lenee Beaumont, Juli LaMendola and Henna Sandvik are back for more.
Indiana opens its regular season against Brown on Nov. 4.
Here’s the entire AP Top 25 poll. First-place votes are in paranthesees. The number total is points compiled via voting, not the total of voters. A total of 25 points are awarded for a first-place vote, one point for a 25th place vote with all values in-between:
1. South Carolina (27), 745 poll points.
2. Connecticut (2), 708.
3. USC (1), 697.
4. Texas, 641.
5. UCLA, 628.
6. Notre Dame, 614.
7. LSU, 549.
8. Iowa State, 521.
9. North Carolina State, 510.
10. Oklahoma, 441.
11. Duke, 439.
12. Baylor, 422.
13. Kansas State, 390.
14. Ohio State, 372.
15. North Carolina, 285.
16. West Virginia, 277.
17. Louisville, 250.
18. Maryland, 227.
19. Florida State, 191.
20. Ole Miss, 165.
21. Creighton, 152.
22. Kentucky, 108.
23. Nebraska, 106.
24. Alabama, 67.
25. Indiana, 46.
Receiving votes (numbers reflect point totals received for votes, not the number of votes): Iowa 37, TCU 30, Utah 24, Illinois 23, Stanford 17, Michigan State 16, Gonzaga 16, Vanderbilt 12, South Dakota State 7, Miami (Fla.) 4, Tennessee 3, Fairfield 3, Middle Tennessee State 3, Georgia Tech 2, Syracuse 1, Princeton 1.
Indiana basketball practice observations from June 25: Freshmen mixing in
IU has a game-changer, Thursday’s practice open to the media showed. IndyStar IU insider Zach Osterman explains what he saw.
BLOOMINGTON — Whatever he can.
That’s the answer. The question — one prompted by an urgency to add strength to his game — is what Vaughn Karvala, Indiana basketball’s athletic freshman wing, is doing to add weight. IU’s highest-ranked signee in the 2026 class, it’s not hard to envision a role for Karvala in Darian DeVries’ second season in Bloomington. The player himself knows that starts with meeting the physical demands of the college game.
Which starts with building onto to his 6-foot-7, 190-pound frame.
“The biggest thing for me is just putting on weight,” Karvala told reporters after practice Thursday. “That’s my biggest thing, getting stronger, trying to play with these guys that are three, four years older than me. I have to get stronger, I have to get faster, everything.”
A three-year letter winner at Oregon (Wisconsin) High School, Karvala spent his senior season at Bella Vista Prep in Arizona, bolstering a profile that saw him ranked No. 62 nationally per the 247Sports Composite.
Karvala averaged 26.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in his final season with Oregon, shooting close to 42% from behind the 3-point line. He averaged another 14.7 points per game with Team Herro on the EYBL circuit.
He handed DeVries a major recruiting win last fall, when Karvala picked the Hoosiers over Xavier and Cal. Now, both at the rim and behind the arc, Karvala looks like a player who can contribute meaningfully in his first year in college.
“I know my athleticism catches the eye, but I can still shoot it,” Karvala said. “But another thing is just working on rebounding, trying to get extra possessions for us.”
Whether on the glass or elsewhere, embracing the physical challenge of college basketball has been an emphasis for Karvala since he arrived in Bloomington earlier this summer.
That manifests itself offensively, when he tries to push the ball downhill and leverage that athleticism to attack the rim. It shows up defensively, where Karvala said he’s comfortable guarding the two, the three and, matchup depending, the four.
It even plays out on the glass, battling bigs up to including 7-2 teammate Samet Yigitoglu, who Karvala described with a smile as “the biggest guy I’ve ever seen.”
“Physicality, 100%,” Karvala said, when asked where he’s challenging himself. “Just playing with all these guys that have 20, 30, 40 pounds on me.”
Which starts with the physical demand of more weight. Karvala said he’ll eat chicken, steak or “whatever we have in the locker room” that can help him in that effort. His focus, he said, is simply to “eat a lot, and work out every day.”
As that weight and strength begin to build, Karvala knows the next step — to mentally prepare for the rough-and-tumble nature of life on the floor in the Big Ten — is just as important. Preparing his body comes first. Challenging himself to toughen up once it’s required follows quickly after.
“Just getting fully there, mentally,” he said. “You’re going to have to push your body to get through this.”
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KOSCIUSKO COUNTY, Ind. (WSBT) — It’s fair season and a new law uncorks adult beverage sales!
The new Indiana law will go into effect July 1st, making it legal to sell alcohol at county fairs.
The Kosciusko County Fair is set to kick off in just a few weeks and Indiana is officially allowing alcohol to be sold.
The law is bringing back something that’s not necessarily new to this fair.
Here’s what you need to know
The new law will go into effect on July 1st. It officially allows county fairs to apply for fee-free permits to sell alcohol.
Officials with the Kosciusko County Fair say they are participating this year. They are implementing the same guidelines they used when they sold alcohol just at grandstand events.
The difference now is, you can walk around the grounds with your drink. But strict guidelines will be in place for purchasing a drink.
“Actually, we’ve never had any issues. Because we card everybody, so we take that seriously. We also got the ID guides so we can identify the different types of IDs,” said Sheal Dirck, Treasurer of Kosciusko County Fair.
The Kosciusko County Fair already have guidelines in place, so this was an easy transition for the fair.
They will be the only vendors selling alcohol, which will make it easier to control distribution.
The sales will also bring in more revenue.
“Hopefully it allows to keep our ticket prices where they are because right now, insurance, utilities and everything else is going sky high and it’s hard to make ends meet,” said Dirck.
However, some fairs cannot participate because of the July 1st start date, like the Pulaski County Fair, which is going on right now. Pulaski County officials said it is on the agenda for next year. Whereas other fairs are choosing to sit this year out.
“We wanted not spend some time to, to see what that really means for us. It was not a decision we wanted to rush into. But we are happy for the option of it,” said Shelly Steury, GM of Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds.
Leaders at the St. Joseph County and Elkhart County Fairs said neither of them are selling alcohol.
The Kosciusko County Fair is the only fair that will sell alcohol in our area this year.
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