Welcome to this week's episode of the Crimson Cast Women's
Basketball Podcast. As always, Kevin Vera here
alongside my good friend Amanda Foster and we're going to talk
about all things women's basketball.
Of course, a big episode for you here today as Indiana is coming
off a tough loss against Stanford just a just a week ago.
And we'll we're going to preview these two upcoming matches
before they get into their big trip over there in Fort Myers.
But first, let me ask you, Amanda, how are you doing?
I'm doing well. It is the last week before
Thanksgiving break, which I think for everybody is a very
tough week. So everybody's super busy,
whether it's with sports or with school or projects or whatever
it is. So it's been a little bit
hectic, I'm not going to lie. But as always, I'm excited to be
in here talking about women's basketball.
And I'm excited for the women's basketball that we're going to
get over Thanksgiving and even in these next few days.
Yeah, I I'm doing OK. I'm a little sick, so I
apologize for those that are listening.
If my voice is a little, it's. Deeper than it normally is.
How awful I we were. I mean, we were just talking
before we went on air. How I got AI was reading
highlights today in studio in one of my classes and I was
just, I was chomping down little.
What do they call Ricola cough chops.
So I don't sound as horrible, but anyway, let's get right into
it. Like we mentioned, Indiana falls
to Stanford for the first loss of the season, a very difficult
one. They went over out West and they
lost 96 to excuse me. Yeah, 96 to 64 against the
Cardinals. It was arguably the biggest non
conference game of the year for the Hoosiers, but they just
simply got dominated. I mean there's no other way to
put it, Amanda. Indiana just struggled.
They didn't look like themselves.
They, I mean, they just got beat in every single way possible.
We'll get into more of the nitty gritty of that game.
But I mean, you you wrote about that game for us.
You watched that game. I didn't watch that game
entirely because I had to go over and cover the Army game.
I watched the first half, but we were texting back and forth of
what we were saying and neither of us had really anything good
to say. Right.
It's one of those games and it's you feel so bad when you say
things like this about about teams and about athletes, but it
was really just kind of embarrassing.
And like from a from a, you just have to look at it and say,
yeah, that was not very good. And I hate, I hate being that
kind of person. It just doesn't feel right to
me. But from an objective
standpoint, it was just not a good game for Indiana.
Like you said, nothing was really clicking.
They they weren't really doing what they wanted to.
And then Stanford was doing everything right and Indiana
couldn't make adjustments. They couldn't get the players
going that needed to get going. And they it wasn't that they
stopped trying. I felt like they did give effort
all the way up until the game ended, which is commendable
because they, you know, you have your bench players out there and
they're still trying, but it was just not up to par.
I think, yeah, it's it's embarrassing.
I mean, you use the word embarrassing and I think that's
the correct word to say it. Not because they didn't.
I mean, yeah, they didn't play well, but not because of the way
they played, just simply because the way they lost.
You know, because Stanford came out and just simply, I mean
dominate. I I hate to to sound like a
broken record and I hate to use that same word over and over
again. But is Stanford looked good on
every level that you can imagine?
When you beat A-Team by 32 points, there's nothing else to
say except that they dominated. So yeah, and I mean, I I was
going to try to figure this out. I forgot.
I mean you said it. It's a, it's a busy week.
I was going to try to figure out where this this ranks and the
most and biggest losses in terms of point differential Indiana's
had because it would. Have to be up there.
It's got to be up there. And especially recently just
because recently they've been so, so good.
But yeah, 32 point difference against the PAC 12 team is
tough. And and you know Cameron Brink,
obviously it started through her for the Cardinals.
A double double for her. Twenty points, 17 rebounds.
And the biggest story line of that game heading into that that
matchup was obviously Brink against Mackenzie Holmes.
And I texted you Amanda. I was like Mackenzie just
doesn't look good. Yeah you I I remember and that
was that was kind of early on too because it was kind of just
right from the get go Stanford with Cameron Brink and Kiki Irf
Iriafan. I think, yeah.
That's how you pronounce it. I ireasin.
Yeah, ireasin. That's what we're doing with it.
Well, I think I'm pretty sure that's right.
I'm so sorry if it's not. But they they're both, They're
like 6364. They were dominating and
Mackenzie Holmes couldn't figure out how to effectively get out
of the double team and even effectively kind of get the ball
out to her teammates. And she didn't score until the
second-half. Yeah, so that that kind of tells
you almost all of what you need to know.
Is if you have very little production from Mackenzie
Holmes. She finished with eight points
and two rebounds and I don't remember when she got those
rebounds, but that's like the the fact that she didn't score
in the second-half really stands out to me as just if you need to
describe the game, that's something that you can point to
in it of itself because it was that did not help Indiana at
all. But you know, obviously, but
that definitely changed up. You know how they were hoping to
to play in the game? Yeah.
No, I mean, Terry, we'll get into more better a little bit
after the presser because I thought the presser was a very
good and indicative of what Indiana was feeling like.
You know what I mean? That's, I mean, I know it's a
little cliche to say because obviously that's what post game
pressers are for, get the thoughts of the coaches and the
players right after the game. But if you watch that presser
you you see immediately just the the disappointment in both
Sydney Parish and Coach Morin's face because coach Terry Morin
said it at at some point during the presser.
They are a much better team than what they showed.
Yeah, and that's obviously true. You know what I mean?
They were one of the best teams last year.
They're one of the best teams heading into into the season
this year and but I mean there's just no other way to go around
it. They just got dominated on on
every level. And Mackenzie to go back home.
Mackenzie Mackenzie looked like the game was speed up for her.
You know there was the thing about Stanford that they do
really well is they they have two big physical post presents.
Indiana only has one. We talked about it in the last
week. In last week's episode is when
Mackenzie wasn't on the floor. We were curious to see who was
going to go in. In this case it was going to be
Lily Meister. She played.
She played 8 minutes, you know what I mean?
But she was kind of the one that's going to that was filling
in for Mackenzie. And you know when you have two
players like Stanford does and Kiki and and then Cameron Brink
and you and you pair them up against Mackenzie, it's it's
difficult just by that. And then when Mackenzie's off
the floor, it gets even more difficult.
They speed up the game. They use their advantage, which
is 2 post players, 2 post players that run their offense.
I mean they were the two leading scorers for them.
Kiki had 20 points, Cameron at 20 points.
I mean, that's 40 points right there.
That's. Almost both.
Double digit rebounds. Yeah, exactly.
They they both had double digit rebounds.
They both had double, double S, could get out of, had 11,
Cameron at 17. But they speed up the game.
They used Indiana's advance and we actually talked about it.
We knew exactly how it was going to go down in terms of what
Stanford's plan was going to be. And then Stanford went out,
executed it, and then Indiana just simply couldn't, couldn't
catch up. They never LED.
They never LED at any point in the game and they trailed for
the entire 40 minutes, all four quarters.
Indiana was down. And I mean, you know, it's one
thing to, you know, be down I guess eight points and then come
back. You know, you say fine, that's
feasible even, you know, last night I, you know, this is a
different example, but Kansas, Kentucky and over in the
championship concept, Kansas, Kansas was down 17 points at one
point. But you know, you can get
yourself back into a game in those type of situations, but
when you're trailing for an entire basketball game, I mean
that's that's a lot to ask for. Well, and it's hard to get back
into those games when you can't make baskets.
Yeah. And they they.
There you go. Yeah, that's also to.
Put in like very bluntly, that is a big you know it's not going
to help you win a game and the the thing that Stanford did so
well, they came out so strong and you, like you said, they
played so quickly. And they were also making shots
that I think Indiana was not expecting them to make.
The way that Terry Moran talked in the post game press
conference because she said like they came out and they they
basically punched Indiana from the beginning.
And the fact that they kept making they made six of their
11/3 pointers in the 1st 10 minutes of the game and Cameron
Brink was shooting 3 pointers and nobody thought Cameron.
Brink was going to shoot 3 pointers, but she was and she
was making them and Indiana could not make 3 pointers.
They went five for 32 and Indiana's not a team.
We were talking about this. Who is really?
Not necessarily. I don't know if equipped is the
right word, but they're not a team that shoots 30 + 3 pointers
because they usually don't have to because you have a player
like Mackenzie Holmes. But the fact that Stanford was
just doing things, obviously Indiana prepped for a long time
and they they had an idea of what to expect and I think they
prepped pretty well. I think Stanford exceeded those
expectations and was just getting they were hitting all
the shots that they were. They were taking basically in
Indiana didn't have a way to counter that.
I mean you brought up the execution and I think I mean
like you mentioned, I mean Indiana went out and they had a
plan. I, you know in in my eyes, the
way Indiana was going to win this game is with three-point
shooting. Because I mean if you if you
play a team like Stanford and you focus on, I mean Mackenzie
was getting doubled at the beginning of the game, which
brings obviously you have to crash into defenders in the post
whenever that happens, meaning somebody somewhere is going to
be open probably on the outside, I think that's how Indiana was
going to win this game. But when Indiana wasn't able to
get that rhythm sorted out in the first opening minutes,
everything just kind of fell, fell down and.
Sorry, go ahead. No.
And then you we saw it. It just ended up in and then
checking up threes and hoping they were going to fall and like
because the the idea of it is a great one because you have
capable 3 point shooters, but when they're not able.
They get set up and they're not in the right spot and it's just
not the right rhythm and right flow.
It's you're you're toast. And and here's the thing.
I mean, Indiana is more than capable of making threes.
But they just weren't making them.
I mean. Which, and it's just one of
those games. Yeah, it's just one of those
games, I think. Unfortunately, I think, yeah.
I think it's one of those games where it's Indiana played
against the team that was more comfortable at this point of the
season. We I can, we talked about it in
last week's episode, you know, and it's just, yeah, it it was
just one of those games where nothing was working for you.
It was just one of those games where the opponent was just
simply better. You know what I mean?
I'm not going to go out and say that Stanford's a Final Four
team or they're one of the. I mean, yes, they're one of the
best teams in the country, but I'm not going to say they're
national champions just yet. But on that night, Stanford was
by far, yeah, the better team. Well, and I remember talking
about this and I don't know if it was on the podcast, but I was
definitely like saying this to people before the game that I
thought Stanford did have an advantage.
Even though Indiana was technically favored, they were
the higher ranked team and all of that.
I favored Stanford. I think I did say that on the
podcast and I thought going into it they should have been ranked
higher than 15th from the. Get go, yeah, yeah, like 100%.
And we saw that because they moved up what 9 spots in the
most recent AP poll now but like they should have been higher
than 15. I think in Stanford and Indiana
we're we're closer well and I going into it than a lot of than
the poll showed. So, and I mean, you can make the
argument, yes, I mean it's only the 1st 2:00-ish weeks of the
season, but you can make the argument they're the best team
in the PAC 12 now because Utah, Utah loss yesterday against
Baylor pretty. I mean it was, I believe like 10
points ish or so, maybe a little bit less.
But anyway, I mean, yeah, it's it's just Stanford was Dom.
I mean, also just to make her point even bigger about Stanford
just being super good, I mean they shot 50% from the field, 11
for 29 from threes. I mean, you can play the best
basketball game in your life, but if the opponent is making
one out of every two shots, you're not going to win.
Yeah, no and. Out rebounding you 50 to 27.
Yeah, it's it's just tough. I do want to point out on the
bright side because I we've got it in the notes here that
Mackenzie Holmes is now second in all time scoring.
Mackenzie moves up all time, 2nd and in the Indiana women's back.
That's that's the one. That was her first bucket of the
game. Because her first bucket, Yeah.
She was only two points off, yeah.
So, right, right from the jump in the second-half, yeah, she
moves up into second all time and now she's just behind Tyra
Bus, which probably is it is. It's going to be difficult to
catch up to her. Mackenzie's at 1925 points.
Tyra Bus is 2364 points. You know, I mean, yes, you have
an entire season ahead of you still, but you know, I mean
that's almost 400 points that you got to get.
That's a lot of that's. A lot of points.
I actually don't know how many points like Mackenzie has
gotten. I'm.
I'm about to look that up. I'm curious per season, but it's
going to be difficult nonetheless.
But anyway, just another reason why Mackenzie is cementing
herself in in this Indiana legacy but legacy.
But yeah, yeah, that was one of the things that one of the few
bright spots. What do you have for?
Us So last year she scored a total of 692 points.
So I guess it is possible. So it is possible, Yeah, I guess
if you. And then the year before that,
380-1480. And then 344.
Her freshman year. So.
So you said 600, three, 8400 and then 300 her freshman year.
Fish. Yeah.
Fish. OK.
I mean, yeah. So it's definitely possible.
She Yeah. So we'll see.
Yeah, we'll see how this season goes.
She's probably got an average what, like low 20s in order to
achieve that. Probably something like that.
You have to do the math. But I'm bad at math, but I'm bad
at. Math.
I'll admit it. But yeah, I mean that was one of
the few if not the only bright spot of the game for the
Hoosiers and and to sort of wrap things up on on the Stanford
game because I know, you know, as as the Indy Indiana fans that
are listening to us right now, they probably don't want to hear
this whole thing, everybody. Yeah, everybody knows it.
I want to talk about the postgame presser because that
was one of the most interesting pressers I've seen in a while
from Terry and and Sydney and and you know it, Terry, in her
opening statement, we were talking about it earlier today,
Amanda, she just said it was an old fashioned butt whooping.
That's that's what it was. You know what I mean?
Indiana got punched with A12, you know, a little jab, a little
cross and and they weren't able to recover.
But the the thing that really stuck out to me from from that
is Sydney mentioned that after the team went into the locker
room after the game and Terry said, hey, maybe this is a
blessing in disguise. And I and I quote a blessing in
disguise because I think we hinted at it in the podcast that
if Indiana loses this game, they're just simply going to use
this game to get better. Because that's what these type
of games do to you. You know what I mean?
These type of games when you face a high level opponent and
especially when you sort of you know get you know, trampled on,
you know it's it's you take a step back and it humbles you a
little bit. Right.
And and what, forget basketball for a second.
What is life? I mean oh boy, no, no, I mean
you, you win some, you lose some and when you lose, you know you
get back on your feet and then you, you know, you come back out
and you come better, you come out on top better.
And and I think that's what this, this is all going to be.
I mean Indiana's not really going to suffer from this in, in
the long run, obviously not. I mean it might.
I mean it's probably going to have implications in terms of
seeding once we get to that point in mid in mid March.
But you know, even then people are gonna understand this was
their first or, I'm sorry, their second game of the season.
Right. And there's so many
opportunities to bounce back. Yeah, like you said, and I
think, I think my dad said this when I was talking to him about
it. Now that you don't have the
pressure of being undefeated, Yeah, so like if.
You get halfway through the season and you're still
undefeated. Like, that's a lot of pressure.
I mean, you don't have that anymore because you lost like,
you know, So it takes. It's a reality check.
For everybody to know, because like everybody says, and Sidney
was talking about this in the post game press conference,
everybody says and everybody has this idea that you always have
to play your best because the teams that you play are going to
want to beat you. But you have to be shown that to
really, truly understand that. And when you have a relatively
young team with the freshman and even the sophomores who didn't
play in a whole lot of maybe like the most important minutes
of these big games from last year, like they have to realize.
Really what it takes and so I think that is one of the
positives is that now they know what it feels like for better or
for worse. But like at this point, that
early in this early in the season, that's.
I think that's fine in the long run.
Yeah. And and again it's it's a
learning curve for everybody. I mean this team, let's keep in
mind this team is a top ten team heading into the season.
This team is an all American. This team has very good pieces.
But there's this team has not played together right that that
much. They just simply haven't So and
and that was my biggest worry heading into Stanford was OK,
Indiana has all the talent in the world and yes they can very
easily win this game. But the one thing that Stanford
has in front of them is just simply the years of experience
that they have as a group. Well, they're also a relatively
young, young group as well. But Indiana especially, just the
amount of pieces they have that it came into this year and sort
of the new roles that the veterans got to play into,
that's something we're seeing for the very first time.
So I think that's when you look at it, that's just at a sort of
broad perspective. I think that's why, Indiana.
Lost. Yeah.
No, that's fair.
Yeah. So, yeah, like we mentioned,
Indiana suffers the first loss of the season.
A tough one against Stanford, but you know they'll keep on
moving. They got their they got two
games this upcoming weekend. This next upcoming upcoming game
is November 17th this Friday against Murray State.
A little bit more about the Racers.
The Racers went 15 and 16 last year.
They had a good season. In 2122, they went 22 and 10
that year, made the NIT tournament, eventually lost in
that one, but had a little bit of a down year.
This is their second game against a Power 5 opponent and
they already played Arkansas just a few just a few days ago
and lost that game against the Razorbacks.
But a key player for Murray State is Caitlin Young.
She was voted to be a mid major player of the year candidate.
They are sort of near the bottom of the Missouri Valley
Conference. They are picked 8th right now in
their pre season pull. It's just their second year and
in that conference they were in the OVC beforehand.
But yeah, I mean, what are your thoughts heading into that game,
Amanda? I'm going to be honest.
This is a bounce back game and this is a game that Indiana
needs to win handily, and I think they have.
They're very capable of doing that, but that is that is what
this game is. This is an opportunity for them
to get checked back in. Of course it's a guess against a
lesser opponent than Stanford, obviously, but it doesn't
matter. And it like at this point, it
doesn't matter who you would be playing it if whatever team it
is it, you need to approach it as seriously as you would any
other game. Because you don't want any of
the the negative feeling or the negative mojo if you will from
Stanford to carry over. I'm also curious to see because
I was looking at the the stats from Murray State and they're
they're a decent 3 point shooting team and the the three
pointers are something that has stuck in my mind since the
Sanford game because I'm just curious what Indiana how they're
going to adjust to that because they we've we talked about this
they have very capable 3 point shooters.
So I want to see how they, how they approach that now because
obviously you're going to have Mackenzie Holmes who is not
going to be as challenged as she was, so she'll be able to pick
up some of the slack. But I would really like to see a
concentrated effort to get like City Parish, Garden Grozone and
Sarah Scalia, a lot of attempts from three and have them make
them because that we talked about it.
That is such an important part of this team's game, and I think
this is a really good time for them to work on that and figure
out kind of how to fix what went wrong against Stanford because
they did have open shots, they just weren't making them.
Yeah, I mean, sorry, you said it perfectly.
This is a bounce back game. I mean, Indiana is gonna, you
know, when you're playing an opponent like this, I think the
one thing that you want to see is just sorry.
The one thing you want to see is just the.
Sort of the emotional and mental bounce back more than anything.
Yeah, the game is one thing, but it's more about the mentality.
Yeah, I mean, you have all the talent in the world.
I don't want to say not practice and just go out there and hoop,
but I mean, you have the talent enough to take things a little
bit less less, be a little bit more loose out there, you know
what I mean? You're not, you know, going out
there and playing a top 15 team in the country, but.
Yeah, I mean, I think really it just the thing I'm going to be
observing Friday night is I'm going to be watching the bench.
I'm going to be looking at sort of just like as weird as this
may sound, like the posture and sort of the facial expressions
of everybody on the team on the bench, on the court.
Because, you know, it's not easy.
You know, it's not easy to, you know, be.
You know, be the defending Big 10 champions and be one of the
best teams in the country and then go out and lose by, you
know, 30 plus points in a game that you expected to go a lot
better. You know what I mean?
You know? So yeah, I I think that's the
biggest thing that I want to see from Indiana is just sort of the
the way they carry themselves before the game, during the
game, after the game, how what are the spirits feeling like
because? We're going to talk about this
later. Let's not get too ahead of
ourselves. But yes, they have 222 games
before that are relatively easy before Tennessee.
And I mean, Tennessee is also a top team in the country and so
and and they have big post players.
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I mean, look, it'll be
a bounce back game for them. I think they'll be more than
just fine, but just sort of the way the attitude this team is
going to have. For this game is what I'm going
to notice because you know it it takes a lot to go up there and
and on a, you know, in front of your home court on a national
stage and and come back after a crushing loss like that.
And you got to look at it the right way, right.
You know what I mean? You got to look at it with with
all, with everything in mind like, hey, this like, I mean
Terry said it a blessing in disguise a learning curve if we
should say. But yeah, I mean.
It should be pretty easy. Is there anything else you want
to throw out there about that game?
No. Kind of just like you said, it's
it's all about perspective. And there's no way that the, in
my mind that the mentality hasn't shifted a little bit for
this team after that loss. But I also think that they are
fully equipped with the leaders that they have on the team and
on the coaching staff that they they're going to be locked in.
And I'm not really concerned about their mentality because
they have everybody either knows what it's like to lose or can
hear what it's like. They all they all work together.
They all know each other. They can alltel each other and
work and figure out how to come into it with the right mindset.
And so I think it's just it they're, I think they're going
to be, they're going to be just fine.
Yeah. One more thing before we go on
to the other game. I'm actually really excited to
watch Caitlin Young. We talked about her a little
bit. She's one of the better players
and she has the chance to be one of the best players in at the
mid major level and she's really setting herself to be at one of
the better players in Murray State history.
Just last year she was able to, you know, be a preseason first
team in the MVC. She led the team in scoring with
21 points per game. She was eventually named to the
first team. All MVC, most points that made
third most points in a single game ever in Murray State
history with 43 against Drake. That was back in January.
So yeah, I'm, I'm, I mean a very good quality player right there.
Excited to see her pair up against Mackenzie Holmes.
So to see how Indiana goes up against her especially you know
when you we we've been talking so much about forwards and post
players and whatnot. But yeah, that game will be on
Friday, 7:00 PM. Eastern here.
We'll both be there. Of course, of course.
But yeah, that's the first game of this week for Indiana.
The second game will be Sunday, November 19th at 2:00 PM, two PM
against Lipscomb. The Bison were 20 and 12 last
year, but one of the best seasons in program history after
a tough 2022 season. Sort of similar to Murray State
in that. In that perspective, they were
20 and 10 or I'm sorry, 10 and 20 that season.
But then. Eventually made the flip to 20
plus wins, Twenty wins that season.
It was their best season since 2003, 2004.
They eventually lost in the Ace on conference semi finals
against Liberty. They were picked second this
year just behind FGCUFGCU. We were talking about Amanda,
one of the better mid major teams.
They were ranked last year at one point and they have three
all conference preseason players.
Bella Vinson, Aaliyah Sorrentino, an Ole Miss transfer
and then Jayla Holcomb, three of their best players on the team.
And then a very important thing to throw out there.
They're bringing back everybody from last year's group, You know
what I mean? You don't see that nowadays at
any level of college basketball, men's or women's.
You don't see that really at all.
They added three freshmen to their team.
They're returning all all starters.
They're returning. I mean, yeah, I said it,
everybody from that team. So that's going to be a very
interesting game, just simply because.
You know that's the game before Tennessee.
We'll see how in Indiana will do pretty well against Murray
State. But this is definitely not a
game that you can just brush off, right?
Right. Well, and you said I, I'm really
excited to see Lipscomb because of The Who they have.
Everybody's coming back and what the chemistry presumably is like
within that team and how well they work together because
they're coming off such a good season.
I'm excited and it is. It's so unique for basketball to
have a team full of returning players like you said that you
you never see it. So that's something that I think
is going to be really fun and it's it's like you said, I feel
like it's somewhat similar to the Murray State game where and
not so much as a bounce by game obviously because it is not
going to be following the the loss to Stanford or anything
like that. But it's another one of those
games to just work on the little things and work on the basics
and the techniques of everything because you have to go into
Thanksgiving week and Tennessee and Princeton as confident as
you possibly can be. And so I think that's really
what both of these games are going to are going to do or
hopefully are going to do is just kind of instill that
confidence in all of Indiana that they they know what they're
doing and they can produce and be effective on the floor no
matter who they play or and who they match up with and who's on
the floor with them. So that's that's kind of the
biggest thing for me. I think it's just going to be
another confidence building game, yeah, but if if everything
goes as expected. Yeah, yeah, I mean I think
Indiana will obviously win that game, but it's, you know, that's
a game that like I said, you can't just brush off.
They averaged nearly 70 points a game last year, 69.4 points a
game. They were a fairly good 3 point
shooting team. 33 point 33.9% of the time, shot 7 threes a game.
You know, it's a very good rebounding team on almost off
average, 40 rebounds a game, almost 12 assisted a game for
that team. So yeah, it's just a team that's
on the rise especially. I mean, we talked about the
tough season they had two years ago, but then the overwhelming
mean, really good season they had last year.
And I mean, you're bringing back the talent that you have from
the year before. You're bringing back your
players that you're confident in playing, sort of like the
opposite of Indiana that Indiana just simply doesn't have.
A lot of chemistry right now just because they haven't played
together for that for a long period of time.
So yeah, that's gonna be a fun game to watch.
I actually won't be here. You'll be here cuz I'll be going
back home for Thanksgiving break.
But yeah, that's definitely gonna be a game that's gonna be
fun to watch. Yeah, and I think this just kind
of popped into my mind. But just it's schedule wise.
Indiana picked these two teams to play for a reason.
And whether or not it's because they think they're going to give
them a challenge or because they think that they're they thought
they were going to need some sort of get right game.
Like these two teams still were selected to and they'd still
agreed to to come play Indiana. And so you said it.
Neither of them are just you can't brush them off.
You can't ignore how important they are in the grand scheme of
things. And especially when it comes to
women's basketball, I think people and in in college
basketball in general, people don't understand that the non
conference games that are scheduled are one, scheduled
with conversations a lot in advance, right.
And they and two they all have a reason behind them.
You know what I mean? There's, there's a reason why
the director of basketball operations at whatever school,
at whatever program, they're always caught talking back and
forth with programs. That's actually one of the
things I've I was able to learn last year.
I was on the call for Big 10 plus Indiana versus Bowling
Green, and there was a storyline in that game.
The director of basketball operations for for the women
here at Indiana is Liz Honiger. Liz, if you're listening to this
shout out to you, very great person.
She was really nice to me when we were able to talk, but she
was actually a Bowling Green alum, one of their best players
ever, actually, in the program's history.
But, you know, before the game we were talking about what it
just what goes into, you know, scheduling these type of games,
not conference, because obviously you're granted to play
Michigan State, Purdue, Iowa, whoever it may be once or twice
a year. But games like these, I mean,
what goes all into it? And essentially she was
explaining to me was, you know, you talk between front offices,
between athletic departments, but, you know, the people can
say no. I mean, people can say no, but
usually teams. Reach out to the other for a
specific reason. So and and look I'm not I'm not
going to sit here and lie. I don't know how the
conversations began between Murray State and Indiana or
between lip scum and Indiana. But essentially with my point of
talking about this is there's a reason behind you scheduling
these non conference games. So I mean, when you're
scheduling a team that is coming off their best program, one of
their best seasons in program history.
You're doing that for a reason. You understand that there's a
not an advantage that you're going to get something out of
this in this game. So I mean that's that's one way
to look at it and would like we mentioned very excited to watch
that game. You know, it's unfortunate not a
lot of people are going to be here in town just because.
I mean a lot of people are going to be leaving for for
Thanksgiving break, but out of the non conference games if you
take away the Stanford the. The Tennessee.
The Princeton. I think this Lipscomb game is
honestly near the top of the more intriguing games for
Indiana. Yeah, no, definitely.
I think intriguing is a really good way to put it because it
just it is, it's going to be, it's going to be an interesting
matchup I think and everything happens for a reason, so.
There we go. If you take one thing out of
this podcast episode is that everything happens for a reason.
But anyway, that does it for us this week at the Crimson Cast.
Women's Basketball Podcast. Just like we mentioned, Indiana
will finish out their season with the two games, one on
Friday and the other one on Saturday.
Sunday or Sunday. Yeah, correct Sunday.
But yeah, Indiana's trying to bounce back after that tough
Stanford loss. We'll talk next week about the
Tennessee match up over that Fort Myers.
Amanda, you're going to be there.
I will be there. I'm very excited.
Very. Excited Indiana will play.
Tennessee. Princeton.
Over there in the Fort Myers What's it actually called?
Fort Myers Invitational Tips. It's got some long name, I don't
remember. Yeah, it's one of, it's one of
those. I think that's what it's called,
Fort Myers, the Fort Myers tip off and then it's sponsored by
somebody that I don't remember who it is, but.
We're not sponsored by them, so don't say so.
True. We're sponsored by home field
though we are. Yeah, we're sponsored by home
field. So shout out to home field.
They're actually going to New York.
I saw that. Yeah, they're going to New York
next week for the men. All right, not next week, this
week, this weekend, this Sunday, Monday.
So they're going to be out there.
So shout out to home field, Always good to support the local
brands. But anyway, as always, follow us
on our personal Twitters at Amanda Foster at Kevin Vera and
then also read our stuff over there inside the hole, I think.
Yeah, I think that's a pretty good website over there.
I don't know. Yeah, it's it's pretty they they
got some good writers. They got some good writers, a
couple, a little handsome one I've heard from Saint Louis,
but. But anyway, so yeah, follow us
on Twitter. Read our stuff over there inside
the hall for all things Indiana basketball, both men and women.
But for Amanda Foster, I'm Kevin Vera.
Thank you so much for listening. And we'll catch you next week
for another episode.