Indiana
No. 2 Indiana tries to complete a 2nd straight perfect home season when Wisconsin visits
Quarterback Fernando Mendoza has experienced nothing but success in his one season at No. 2 Indiana. Receiver Omar Cooper Jr. has been through just about everything in his four years with the Hoosiers.
Now the tandem that created one of college football’s biggest plays this season hopes to deliver another memorable moment in what could be their final home game together Saturday against struggling Wisconsin.
This will not be just another senior day at Indiana (10-0, 7-0). For the second straight year, the Hoosiers enter their final two home games with a perfect record, on the cusp of clinching a playoff spot and the possibility of reaching their first Big Ten title game.
But second-year coach Curt Cignetti doesn’t believe the narrative will become a distraction from how the Hoosiers have reached this point.
“I doubt any of them are thinking about the end right now because everybody understands sort of where we’re at and what’s possible,” Cignetti said this week. “I think we’re on a little bit of a mission here, and that’s really been the focus. I think that’s how the kids are thinking, too.”
Mendoza emerged as one of the top players in the transfer portal last year and wound up choosing the Hoosiers in part to reunite with his younger brother, Alberto. The older brother has been even better than advertised by leading the league with 31 total TDs while emerging as a Heisman Trophy favorite and possibly the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.
Cooper, meanwhile, endured 4-8 and 3-9 seasons and won only three Big Ten games in his first two years at Indiana but has since become a key figure in a remarkable two-year turnaround.
The Hoosiers are trying to extend their school record 14-game winning streak at home and protect the program’s highest ranking against the Badgers (3-6, 1-5). And Cooper’s incredible go-ahead TD catch in the final minute not only gave Indiana its first win at Penn State, it helped them — finally — shed the label of America’s losingest football program. Northwestern now has 716 losses all-time, one more than the Hoosiers.
Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell knows what his team is up against after snapping an 11-game losing streak against Power Four opponents last week.
“I don’t even know if you asked a coach from within (the program) like if they could pinpoint exactly what it is,” Fickell said when asked about the Hoosiers turnaround. “There’s a lot of things that have gone into it. Great coaching is one of them, great quarterback is another. But whatever they’ve done a really, really good job of in the last few years.”
Quarterback questions
The biggest question for Wisconsin is who will play quarterback Saturday.
Billy Edwards Jr. was the opening-day starter but sprained his knee in that first game and has only played, briefly, in one game since. Danny O’Neil and Hunter Simmons started a combined total of seven games, but when O’Neil was carted off the field with a leg injury last week, Fickell went with first-year quarterback Carter Smith who went 3 of 12 with 8 yards and scored on a 2-yard run in a 13-10 win over then No. 23 Washington.
Who will start Saturday?
“You always have a plan,” he said when asked what he’d do if the Badgers lose any more quarterbacks to injuries. “We’ve still got to figure out who’s one and two before we start to think about who’s the fourth going into a game like this.”
CFP talk
Given the schedule, the CFP selection might want to consult with the Badgers before making its final pairings.
Saturday’s game will be Wisconsin’s sixth this season against a team ranked in the CFP’s Top 25. The Badgers already have faced No. 1 Ohio State, No. 4 Alabama, No. 8 Oregon, No. 18 Michigan and No. 21 Iowa.
But Fickell’s players aren’t blaming the brutal schedule for their losses.
“I love every bit of it,” outside linebacker Mason Reiger said. “I’d rather play the best five teams in the country than play none of them. It’s a challenge, sure. It’s not easy to play these good teams, but at some point in college football you want to play the best teams because to be the best, you’ve got to go against the best.”
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AP Sports Writer Steve Megargee in Milwaukee also contributed to this report.
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This story contains descriptions of distressing circumstances involving children.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – A mother and her boyfriend were accused of causing the death of a 4-year-old-boy found dead in a basement closet on Monday.
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department arrested Angel Lovely, 37, and Nicholas Bergdoll, 36, on preliminary charges of neglect of a dependent causing death. The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office by Friday had not filed formal charges.
A sibling found the 4-year-old dead on Monday, according to investigators. Lovely and Bergdoll were in the home at the time but told police they were asleep when he died.
Born premature with cerebral palsy, the 4-year old couldn’t walk, was nonverbal, and ate through a feeding tube. Lovely claimed she would rarely put the child in the closet, only “when he won’t stop screaming” or when she “needed a break.”
But when investigators interviewed Lovely’s three other children, they said that the boy “stays in the closet all day,” and that “mom locks him in the closet” and “does not pay attention to him.”
An exact cause of death hasn’t been determined, but the child was found with blood in his mouth. Lovely said he’d been aspirating.
One of Lovely’s children told investigators they heard the 4-year-old gagging but didn’t say anything because it wasn’t unusual.
A neighbor living on Monticello Drive, Michelle Johnson, told News 8, “It’s horrible. It breaks my heart.”
Johnson had seen the other children outside the home but never knew there was a boy in a wheelchair living there. She said if she suspected they were being neglected, she would have called police or the Indiana Department of Child Services.
“We’re supposed to be a village and raise kids together,” Johnson said. “That’s really heartbreaking.”
Bergdoll told police, according to the investigators’ report, that he didn’t agree with putting the child in the closet: “I am not going to tell her how to f****** raise her kids.”
“I’m sickened,” IMPD Public Information Officer Tommy Thompson told News 8 in an interview.
“Think about putting yourself in that situation. Every day, do you want to be in a closet? Locked up, no light?”
Court records show the Department of Child Services had removed the boy from Lovely’s care because of medical neglect, but she regained custody last year against DCS recommendations.
Thompson, the neighbor, hopes the tragedy can be an opportunity for others to speak up when they see a child who can’t speak up for themselves. “Maybe you’ve got to make that tough phone call. Reach out. The city has resources.”
Johnson wishes she would have known what was happening so she could have said something. “Children don’t have a voice and we’re supposed to be their voice.”
Help is available for victims of domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault. Below is a list of suggested resources, both national and local:
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.
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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