Hello and welcome back to another edition of the Indiana
Women's Basketball Podcast on the Crimson Cast Network.
As always, Amanda Foster and Kevin Vera here for you talking
about all things Indiana women's basketball.
We're back in Bloomington after a short little Thanksgiving
break, but we're going to talk to you about all things Indiana
basketball. Indiana had a great Thanksgiving
tournament and obviously we're going to get into it.
A very impressive road trip for the Hoosiers.
But First things first. I always got to ask how my
partner and crime is doing. Amanda, how are you?
Kevin I'm doing well. Pretty tired after a very busy
Thanksgiving break for me. Not necessarily a break.
And then coming back and getting right into more school work and
more. Basketball coming up.
But I was always just happy to be here and excited to be
talking about basketball with you again and in person this
time, not, not over. Stream Yard.
Yeah, exactly. Last our last week's episode was
over. Which it?
Worked. It worked out well, but it's a
lot more fun. It's a lot.
More fun doing it in person obviously, and we got all the
nice equipment and whatnot, but let me just say I am very happy
to be here. But it is freezing cold outside
it is like 19°. Everybody that I've talked to
today is complaining about it. I woke up this morning and it
was 57° in my apartment because we forgot to turn on the heat
throughout the night. But.
How do you forget to turn on the heat at the end of November?
It's not like yesterday it was cold too.
It's just not out of heat. It's just two dudes being dudes
in their college apartment. But yeah, that makes sense.
It's we'll get right into it. Indiana actually jumped up four
spots in the women's Basketball poll AP poll this week.
They went from 21 to 17 after their two wins over Tennessee
and Princeton. And obviously that was the
biggest moment of the non conference schedule for Indiana.
Aside from the Stanford game, the Princeton and the Tennessee
matchups over in the Fort Myers Invitational were the biggest
ones of the season. Amanda, you were there.
I was there. You were there enjoying, well, I
would say sunny Florida, but you told me it was actually a little
bit cloudy. It was a it went, it was between
like 65 and 70° every day, and it was cloudy every day.
So yeah, it was not, not like the ideal Florida vacation, but
it's OK. It's fine.
Yeah, I was busy enough. I didn't have a whole lot of
free time anyway. So it's.
I'll just have to go back to Florida at some point.
Maybe not Fort Myers. Fort Myers was fine, but there
are other places that I would rather go in Florida.
Next time, yeah, Well, the Hoosiers got two victories over
there. They got a 71 to 57 victory
against Tennessee in their first game, first game on Thanksgiving
Day, and then the second game was a 72 to 63 victory over the
Princeton Tigers. Both teams are, though both
Tennessee and Princeton are now are now ranked, and obviously
Indiana is ranked as well. But Amanda, I guess, I mean, you
were there. You saw those entire games.
I mean, we'll start with Tennessee.
What did you see that really highlighted the the Hoosiers in
that game? Yeah, I mean you you have to
start out with Yarding Garzone, because that was, that was her
game. It was her birthday, which was
really, really cool. And she scored a career high 23
points and was just completely, She was playing basketball like
the best that I think I've probably seen her play, or at
least alongside the best of whatever you can point to, where
you think that she was playing really, really well and a key.
For Tennessee and we talked about this was that they didn't
have Rakia Jackson. And so with that I think that
they were lacking a little bit of a a leader on the floor, but
it they were still a very, very good team.
And so I would still put it up as a very, very impressive win
against a really strong, really, really physical Tennessee team.
Did both games in Florida were the most physical games
Indiana's played, and they did a really good job of managing that
and not getting too upset about the the foul calls or the lack
of foul calls. And they were able to keep their
composure really well, which as a whole I was really impressed
with. And we talked about defense
going into this game and going into to this weekend or week
down in Florida. And the defense against
Tennessee is where I was sitting.
I was directly next to. The Indiana bench.
So I could hear everything that the bench was saying to the
players on the court, which was really cool.
They were also yelling out a bunch of defensive plays that I
didn't know what they meant. So they were just a bunch of
words flying around. I was like, oh, they've said
that a lot. I keep I don't know what that
means but they've said it a lot. So they that's one of their go
to plays. And so there's a lot of they
were obviously there was a lot of yelling about getting
rebounds and boxing out and you could see that transfer over to
the players on the court and the intensity at which they played
defensively against both Tennessee and Princeton.
Was a new level that we haven't seen before and that that's the
level that they need to be playing at and the level that
they need to be working on to get even better.
Yeah, I mean that was the biggest question going into this
week was defensively. Terry expressed herself very
blatantly. She was very honest with us in
the in the media press conference and she said hey
look, this team is is doing fine I guess offensively but
defensively, you know the struggles are there.
But that The funny thing about that is let me, let me pull up
the game you go. She said that right after the
Lipscomb game, which was a 77 to 43 victory and she said similar
stuff against that in the Murray State which was you know 112 to
79 victory. You know, that's to me, that's
just Coach knowing that her team can be better.
But it's it's just funny to me in a way, just simply because
they, I mean they go out and they blow out two opponents and
she said those things, but that's a little bit off topic.
But yeah, the biggest conversation heading into this
week was just simply how well they were going to pair up
defensively against these teams. And he talked about it.
Not having Ricky or Jackson obviously helped the Hoosiers a
little bit, but everybody looked looked well.
I mean Yarden, like you mentioned, had a very good game.
It was her best game of the season.
We we were waiting for Yarden to sort of have one of these types
of performances. She was playing well at every
point of the season so far, but we were just waiting to see that
type of performance that we saw sort of in the second-half of
last year, you know, sort of coming to be.
She also in that game went five for six from three, and that's
something that we were also talking about, about somebody
else stepping up from beyond the arc.
And there you go. I mean, she's she's there, she's
set. She's ready to go.
Yeah, that. That's one.
I think I told you in last week's episode that I wanted to
see Indiana sort of shoot the ball more from the outside, and
they did that against Tennessee. But that's where they really got
their, their, their game. In the Princeton game, Indiana
won that one, just like we mentioned, 72 to 63.
Princeton, a very good team. We knew it was going to be a
good game. Amanda, last year they were.
I mean, the past couple of years, they've two years, yeah,
they've been a tournament team team and people were kind of
talking about them about sort of being one of those.
They received votes last week in the previous team and you know
that was going to be a tough matchup because Indiana was
essentially going up against two ranked teams and it proved to be
correct. Yeah, Princeton is now ranked.
They're 25th, and then Tennessee dropped one in the poll to 20th.
But yeah, that that makes it even bigger.
Yeah, exactly. And and look, it was, it was a
very, I think in my opinion, that was the more impressive
game out of the two because they were just simply in control the
entire time. It was pretty much just Sarah
Scalia going off. She had 28 points, the most in
her Indiana career. And like we just said Indiana
shot extremely well from three in that game.
They shot exactly 50%. And yeah, it was just a pretty
good game from from the Indiana side and and credits Princeton,
Princeton, they played a lot better in the second-half.
The first half Indiana kind of got out really fast and sort of
dominated the pace. But in the second-half Princeton
paired up well, but Indiana just got too much of of a lead in the
first half and Princeton just didn't have enough time to catch
up. But other big news in that one
Mackenzie home schooled scored 2000 points, 2000 career point,
not 2000 points. That would be a.
Lot of points. She got her 2000 career point.
She's at 2004 points now in her Indiana career.
But I mean, yeah, what did you see in the Princeton game?
First of all, I have to say I was so impressed by Princeton
and I'm very, very glad that they're ranked.
And this is something that Terry Moore and talked a lot about in
the post game press conference was that Princeton should be
ranked and they will be ranked at some point and here they are
next week being ranked. They're a very, very talented
team. Ellie Mitchell is so good.
She is so good at rebounding. She's physical.
She's matching up with Mackenzie Holmes and anybody else that she
went up against and Indiana did a really good job of containing
her. They kept Princeton's leading
scorers to probably I haven't, I haven't looked but like one of
some of the lowest points that they've scored in the last few
games, like Madison St. Rose.
She only scored 11 points and then back when they played
Oklahoma a couple games, like the game before that, she put up
a whole lot more than 11 points and so that was really
impressive. Again, just the defensive effort
that Indiana put in and something that I noticed.
Obviously. Sarah Salia went 10 for 17 and
five for 9 from 3 point range and she was like yarding.
Garzone was the night before just completely focused and and
hitting every single shot. But she also was second on the
team with 7 rebounds. And that was something
throughout the entire trip to Florida, so many more players
were going up for rebounds. It wasn't just Mackenzie Holmes.
It wasn't just whoever, you know.
Everybody was making a much more concentrated effort in my mind
to to box out and to fight for those rebounds and to to play a
little bit more aggressively, which I think is one of the main
reasons that they were able to win is because everybody.
Took on that mindset that Terry Moran was talking about in terms
of just needing to have a little bit more tenacity in whatever
you're doing on the floor. But the main thing that stood
out for me was was Sarah Scalia and the three-point shooting in
that game. Because she was just and the
Princeton players and coach talked about it.
They just couldn't stop her because she would get around
them and then they knew that she was going to score and she was
just, she read the game so well and they couldn't adjust to what
she was doing well. Credit to to Sarah with how
she's started this season. You know, the the conversation
in terms of just strictly Sarah Scalia at the beginning of the
year was OK, Well, her second-half wasn't necessarily
great. Last year, her second-half
wasn't necessarily great. It was her first year as a
Hoosier and and there was a lot of expectations with her coming,
switching from a Big Ten team to another Big 10 team And then
things, I mean simply just didn't work out her way in the
second-half last year. That was the conversation was
OK, well, what type of Sarah Scally is Indiana going to get
starting this season. And look, I mean credit to her
credit to her. She has played it exactly the
way that if I was a coach, I would want her to play.
She's shot the ball with confidence even when she hasn't
been making them. She hasn't been hesitating on
shooting the three whenever she's wanted to.
Indiana has probably kind of given her somewhat of a green
light to say just say, hey, if you want to shoot it, shoot it.
I think to me she's been probably the most impressive
player this season just because she's really starting to grow,
grow into her role. She's really starting to embrace
what she's supposed to be doing on this team and it's clearly
shown to be a a really good asset for the Hoosiers enemy.
We saw that against Princeton. Yeah, well and looking at the
stats right now, she leads the team in points per game.
She's got 18.7 in the Mackenzie Holmes.
Because 17.8. So you know they're pretty close
but those are the top two players for Indiana right now on
at least the offensive side. But this is I think exactly how
you want Sarah Scalia. Because Sarah Scalia to be
playing and I for a long time have been wanting to write a
story about her and I was so glad that I got to write about
her over on a in Florida because it was just it was a it was a
fantastic performance and she's. Her She and Mackenzie Holmes
were the reason that Indiana won that game, and it was largely
the threat that Sarah posed everywhere on the floor.
And then either Mackenzie Holmes would find her, she would find
Mackenzie, and then that was just like a A duo the entire
time. Yeah, well, the both of them
combined for 48 points out of Indiana's 72.
And one thing that I noticed sort of looking back on this
game yesterday, only the starters scored against
Princeton. They were the only ones that put
up points. Some of the bench players got
into the game, but it was really just Indiana going in and and
being effective with their starting five.
But quickly going back to Sarah, I think Indiana is really going
to have to rely a lot on Sarah moving forward in the moving
forward in the season because this is so you lose Grace
Burger, right? You lose Grace Burger and so now
you kind of don't have a person or you don't know who's gonna be
able to put up that shot and make that shot in those tough
moments. When you say, hey, I mean in
basketball there's times you just need to give the ball to
your to the person and be like, hey, go get us a shot.
And right now, if things continue to play out the way
that they're playing out right now, I think Sarah was going to
be that that person for for Indiana this season.
I completely agree. And the way that she approaches
the game, she's so businesslike and she's so focused on
strategies, whether it's her strategies or what the other
teams are going to do against her that I think she's very,
very well equipped to take on that role.
Yeah. And look, it's it's sort of nice
to see at this point of the season, right before you go into
Big 10, play well two games before you go into Big 10, play
close enough. But because it gives you
confidence, You know what I mean?
You kind of want to start figuring these things out.
At this point of the season, Yes, still a young season.
I mean, it's been just 6-7 games for the majority of programs
across the nation. But, I mean, you kind of got to
start figuring out where your team, one needs to improve and
also what role, what types of role players you have on your
team. Like who's going to go out, like
I just mentioned, who's going to go out and get you those tough
shots? Who's going to be your defensive
presence, whatever it may be. But Indiana's kind of sort of
the start. They're starting to figure that
out with Sarah and and look, I've been very impressed with
Sarah. Obviously, you know, this team
is backed up by by Mackenzie, but I think Indiana or I'm
sorry, Sarah's role is becoming more and more important for this
Indiana team. Yeah, well, and you can't just
rely on Mackenzie Holmes to do everything and get you buckets
every single time. That's not how that works.
That's not how basketball is. And so to have somebody else
step up and and fill that role in a different way, obviously
you're not going to have Sarah driving in the post.
But that you know that the fact that she doesn't do that just
adds more depth to Indiana's team.
If she and Mackenzie can both consistently score up to close
to 20 points per game like that that's kind of immeasurable.
And the and the impact that they can have, well just quickly
before we switch topics, it's, I mean you say Sarah is not going
to go into the post. Well, she she might.
Because she did, exactly. I was going to say she's been
able to find herself getting a lot of.
It wasn't just against the Prince Again, She's been able to
get boards consistently throughout the season, and from
what I've been able to watch, she's not really.
She's been alone every time she's begotten those rebounds.
But just simply because she's kind of positions herself in the
area she's I mean she's has a how do I how do I put this in
the words she's put. She has a very good eye for
tracking the ball when it comes off the rim.
And yeah and she's been able to just happen to be at the right
place right time and she's been able to get those rebounds.
But anyway Indiana gets the win over Tennessee and Princeton
they leave Fort Myers undefeated 2 and O and that was you know of
much needed cup pair of wins. Yeah you really after Stanford
you really needed to leave Florida feeling good about
yourself and it was in one of the social media clips that that
the Instagram or Twitter posted out for them and Terry said that
you guys are back, you guys are back.
You guys are fully back and and that's good to see if you're an
Indiana fan and and I mean that's what you take away from
this weekend. You played two very good teams.
It was a very competitive Invitational in Indiana, you
know came out with the two wins. But the big topic for this
episode, because it's a very, very big week over here for the
women's program this Thursday, Indiana is going up and playing.
They're probably the one of the most anticipated matchups of the
season. You know, it has involves a lot
of people across the program. A lot of people have been
talking about this game since last year and it's the
homecoming debut for one of the best Hoosiers of all time.
Mackenzie Holmes is heading back to her home state and they're
going to take on the University of Maine, the Black Bears for a
non conference matchup on Thursday, November 30th.
And look, I mean this game isn't about a spread or isn't about, I
guess, sort of who's better at basketball.
It's simply just highlighting and taking a second to step back
and saying pretty much thank you to one of the best players to
ever play for Indiana. And it's really something
special. We talked about this a couple
weeks ago that you don't see programs do this across the
country. Were they schedule games just
simply to say thank you to such a play?
A player that really has has taken this program to new levels
and that's what they're doing for Mackenzie in this game.
Yeah, and you know, Maine is a relatively competitive team.
It's not a total throwaway game. But you're absolutely right.
This is this is a game for Mackenzie Holmes.
And that says so much about what she's done for the program, what
the what the coaches think of her, how much they respect her,
how much they appreciate everything that she's done.
And it's, I mean, you can't, you can barely even put it to words.
She can barely put it in even words.
So I don't know how we're going to be able to kind of
encapsulate what this means for Mackenzie, for all of her
friends and her family and her coaches and everybody that are
going to be able to go watch her and some, a lot of them watch
her for the very first time. Because when you think about it,
like not everybody can make the trip.
Obviously from Gorham, ME to Indiana, a lot of these people
have only ever been able to see her play on TV And so you know,
they're playing in Portland, so technically.
I think it'll be a a neutral site game.
Gorham's 30 minutes from Portland.
The University of Maine's campus is, I want to say, a little over
an hour to two hours away. It's going to be an Indiana home
crowd. It like, I know Lenny Holmes,
Mackenzie's dad, has sold over like 1000 tickets for the game.
Like my my mom and my aunt are driving up to go watch it like
you. This is going to be.
An Indiana game through and through.
Because that's just what it is. There's no other way.
There's it's impossible for it to be anything else.
Yeah. And and it's I've never seen and
I I bet there's probably instances across across the
country of this of like scheduling games for the purpose
of having some sort of significance for a certain
player. But I've never seen it to this
level. I I mean you know if there is
you know I somebody just let me know.
You know what I mean? I I would love.
I would. Love to know.
Yeah. But I I've never seen a program
just say just say thank you right in this type of way.
And and Mackenzie's talked about it.
We're recording this on Tuesday evening.
Tomorrow we're going to be able to talk to Mackenzie or the
media will be able to talk to Mackenzie.
So we're going to get to hear her opinions the day before the
game. But I I bet she's going to be
very emotional, very happy. Because yes, it's a basketball
game, but this is not about basketball.
This is just simply about Mackenzie.
And it's it's really going to be awesome to see.
I I can't wait to see what the crowd is going to react.
I'm also curious to see just how much, how many people are going
to be wearing Indiana red or how many people are going to be
wearing main blue. But it's.
You know I if I put myself in Mackenzie shoes like if I was
you know an all American type player at at my program and and
a couple years ago they go up and say hey do you want to play
a game back home where you grew up where I mean you you know it
very well Maine is not necessarily a a basketball state
not at all yeah not at all And and for somebody to put the game
on a spotlight and and the way she's been doing it these past
couple years the way she's been able to build up a program and
now so I mean look there's still a lot more of the season to go
but now to kind of have a nice little cherry on top is is I
mean it's just special. Yeah, it's I oh, my gosh, it's
so. I'm from Maine.
We, I don't know. People don't know that from an
outside. Anybody who's not from Maine
doesn't really know. There are some various very
serious kind of basketball areas.
Gorham is one of them. But you wouldn't know it.
Most people don't even know that Gorham exists.
So but their their girls basketball program at the high
school that McKenzie went to is one of the best in the state and
the the AAU team that she played for is one of the best in the
country and she has brought so many eyes to basketball in Maine
and shameless plug I just published a feature, you beat.
You beat McKenzie. Sorry.
I just published a feature about her earlier today for Inside the
Hall and I talked to her AAU coach.
And there he said that they kind of had to fight to be to be
recognized and to get their players the the attention that
they deserved before McKenzie. And there are a lot of very
talented women's basketball players that have come out of
Gorham and come out of Maine, but they all stayed in the
Northeast because that was where they were recruited and that was
where they chose to go. The fact that McKenzie has come
out to Indiana playing for a Big 10 school, making it to the
Sweet 16, the Elite 8, becoming an All American.
Has done wonders for just the kind of the reputation that
basketball has in Maine, and that's one of the the biggest
things. And her her coach, Don Briggs
got emotional when he was talking about it because he said
it. This is just the perfect way to
kind of it's like a full circle moment because she's going back
and she's playing on the court that she won high school state
championships on and that her whole family and her coaches and
all of her friends have been in those exact seats watching her
play. In high school, when she didn't
know where she was going to go, she didn't know what she was
going to do. Now she's coming back as an All
American, as one of the best players in the country playing
in front of those same exact people all over again for for
the last time for her senior year, which is it's incredible.
Yeah it's it's I mean it's just special and and Mackenzie very
happy for her first thing first. I mean this is exactly, you know
what you want for a player that. I mean, look I we've said it
multiple times this episode. We've said it multiple times
this year. But it it I think if you don't
pay attention to to Indiana basketball, I don't think you
realize how much players like Mackenzie, like Ali Papper, like
Chris Burger have really skyrocketed this program to to
what it has become. I mean people know Indiana
women's basketball now, but that really wasn't the case 10 years
ago. But because of these players,
you know Indiana is one of the best programs in the country,
one of the most watched teams in the country.
I mean we just it it broke earlier to the earlier today
that the which one was the Tennessee or the Princeton.
The Tennessee game. Yeah, exactly correct.
Thank you. It was the Tennessee game on a
Fox on Thanksgiving Day that it was the most watched women's
basketball game on the network. It it, I believe it was 1.11
point 3 million people were tuned in to watch that game.
And look, I mean, that wasn't the case a couple years ago
that. I mean it just, it just simply
wasn't. But because Mackenzie Holmes has
done a lot for this program, you're able to get those
numbers. You know what I mean?
You're able to, you know, watch and look, I don't have the data,
I don't have the numbers in front of me.
But I pretty much guarantee you the majority of those people
watching were Indiana fans. And it's it's just, it's just
how it is. And so it just goes to show the
influence that Mackenzie's had, the the ability that she's had
to put this program on the map and just take it to the same
conversation of other elite women's programs across the
country. So, yeah, go ahead.
Sorry. I think no.
And it's also super cool because this is the first time that a
lot of her teammates are going to even get to see her her home
state and see because nobody, nobody really goes to Maine like
I, I, you know, unless you go for vacation, like people don't
just like up and say let's go to Maine for a a weekend because
it's it's kind of hard to get to.
You're in the middle of the woods most of the time.
Like, it's beautiful. But it's not like a prime
vacation spot, I think, for a lot of people.
And so she was talking about this down in Florida when
somebody asked that, like, Sarah Scalia apparently is super
excited to go to Maine. I'm not sure why, but she is.
And like a lot of her teammates, she's been talking about it
forever. And so it's going to be a very
special moment for all of them because in the process of the
people of Gorham and Maine becoming, you know, Mackenzie
Holmes fans watching Indiana, they become fans of Sidney
Parrish and Chloe More McNeil. And Sarah Scalia and Terry,
Terry Moran and everybody. So like you have, I, I would
say, a very similar level of fandom in Maine that you do in
Indiana for this team, just because of how attached
everybody is. And so I think the whole team is
going to be very pleasantly surprised first by Maine because
I I love Maine. I think everybody who goes there
enjoys it in some way, as long as the, you know, the weather's
not awful, which it might be because it is the end of
November. But regardless, I think they're
going to really enjoy it and they it's just going to be kind
of more of like a bonding moment for them to be able to look at
Mackenzie and be like wow, you have so much support that is
then coming on to us and it's just it's it's going to be
really, really special. Well it's it's the influence
part of this of this game. It's just you you can't really
put it in the words and you can't put it in the numbers.
But the influence that Mackenzie's probably that's
Mackenzie's had on the state of Maine, I mean, you just said it
like there are Indiana basketball fans in Maine.
Why? The only reason is because of
#54. And that's, I mean we've seen it
time and time again in sports. But these certain types of
situations, these little perfects like snowballs that
just continue to roll and roll and get bigger and then they
become this, you know what I mean?
It just goes to show the influence that Mackenzie's had
across the state back home. And I mean she's I.
It's also amazing for her family, all the people that
watched her grew up grow up. I mean, because you know, she's
a star now, you know what I mean in the world of college
basketball. But when you can go back and
reminisce on the days of, oh, I saw Mackenzie Holmes play in
her, you know, freshman game, sophomore game against, you
know, whatever, local high. School.
I played against her. I played, I played against her.
Yeah, exactly there. I I can't wait to see the
cameras or the social media clips or the photos that are
going to come out of people of the community having signs or
jerseys or or whatever it may be.
Yeah, exactly. Whatever it may be.
Just saying thank you, Mackenzie.
You're highlighting Mackenzie. That's going to be awesome.
But look, it's it's going to be an amazing game.
It's going to be look again, this is not a game about
basketball. This is this game is about
Mackenzie Holmes and about what Indiana's been able to create
alongside her and with obviously a lot of her help.
But yeah the all American is gonna go back home and she's
she's gonna it's I I hope she's the I hope she drops like 80
points I just I hope she I hope she drops 8030 and 40 but you
know I I I am really happy for her.
It's really gonna be awesome for the entire program.
I I wonder how the post game presser is gonna go for for
both, you know, because equally this game is as important for
Mackenzie as it is probably for Terry.
Terry's probably knows that. I mean she absolutely knows the
significance of this game and and that relationship they that
they have between themselves is something that nobody is going
to understand besides them too. And so you know, I I I'd imagine
some some very joyful and happy tears are going to be shed at
the end of the game. But yeah it's it's really going
to be an awesome game that's going to be this Thursday
November 30th. You know, TuneIn to watch that
game, listen to Austin render, because yeah, the game is on
ESPN plus, I believe. Yeah, I'm checking right now
actually. Yeah.
So that game, you can watch it. You.
Yeah, it's only ESPN plus. You can watch it.
You can listen to it. I mean, just follow the women's
basketball social media accounts.
They're going to be, you know, plugging out a ton of pictures,
a ton of photos, and then. Tickets are still on sale.
Tickets are still on General. Admission, according to
Ticketmasters, $15. If you want to make a trip to
Portland, There we go. That's just.
Nothing. Yeah.
Yeah, $15.00 for that game, Yeah.
But we're, I know we're getting ready because that's going to be
a very special day. So we'll have a couple articles.
You, Amanda, you'll you're going to have a couple.
I'm going to have one or two, Possibly a.
Surprise 1 coming out before the game, on before the game on.
Really excited. So yeah, check and check that
stuff out. Just just stay on social media
and stay on stay online to see lots of.
Feel good stories coming out? Yeah, it's going to be an
awesome day. It's going to be a very eventful
day and a very significant day, obviously for Mackenzie, but
also for the program. So yeah, that's going to be
awesome. But Indiana actually will close
out the week with another game. That's that.
They'll play Thursday, but the final game of the week will be
against Stetson on Sunday. That game is going to be here in
Bloomington. That game is going to be at 2:00
PM Eastern Indiana will come back.
That'll be the first home game in a while.
That'll be the first game home game since Lipscomb and the
Hoosiers will be back. Stenson Stetson is one and six.
I was looking at you know, their stuff yesterday and and you know
it's it'll be a tough matchup for them to be quite honest.
You know they haven't gotten off to the great start this season.
Their loan when kind of came against Iona 10 days ago on the
18th, but they've only met one time that was back in 1999 and
Indiana got the 59 or I'm sorry 5991 to 43 victory.
I mean that game is just simply that game is before they take on
Rutgers for Big 10 play. So I guess if you're Terry, you
know you're that's the game before Big 10 or yeah, Big 10
play, you're going to come off a very emotional game in Maine.
I mean, what do you tell your team?
What do you tell them? Because I mean the next day or
not the next day, the next game that it's, I mean it gets real.
It's Big 10 play. Yeah, I think that is the you
have to keep in mind, I guess for me at least, not so much
what you're going into, but what you're coming down from.
I guess because you know you go you play Tennessee, you play
Princeton, you play Maine, those are three of the biggest non
conference games but the exception of Stanford, I think
those three are the next biggest ones for various reasons.
And so I think Stetson is a good kind of I don't want to say come
down game because that's that's kind of I don't I don't like the
the phrasing of that but it's it's like another regular game
and for the first time in a couple weeks and so it's going
to be. What everybody expects,
Indiana's going to win by a lot. They're probably going to get to
run their bench a lot. It's going to be a good way to
get. Not that they're going to need
more confidence, I think, going into Big 10 play, but you're
going to need a different kind of confidence because you know
they're going to be coming off of the high of of beating two
now ranked teams and going up to Maine and having a really good
fun, emotional time. But you have to remember that
you are still just playing basketball.
And at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter who you
play. It matters how you play and if
you get the win or not. And so I think Stetson and even
Rutgers will be good reminders of that, that to just not not
maybe focus so much on the greater meaning of the game and
just focus on the 40 minutes that you're playing on the
court. That would be my kind of
approach is to just be like, look, it's another basketball
game, doesn't matter who it is. It'll be a good way to to make
sure that everybody remembers that.
And I think that, I think that's pretty much it, honestly.
Yeah. I mean, you said it Well, I
mean, for me, I think the approach that I would take is,
hey, because I didn't realize this before today that that
game, they're going to have six days between the Rutgers game,
which is, you know, that's almost a week.
That's a good amount of time. And you know, no matter how many
practices they have, I mean there's nothing that compares
until compares to the actual game feel.
So I would use that Stetson or sense in game to sort of be
like, hey guys, look take these 40 minutes and just be as
polished as you can be. Do things, play like you want to
play, play like you're going to want to play against Rutgers.
You know what I mean? Because win or lose, there's
going to be a one in one of those two columns in your
conference record, you know what I mean?
And and looks the Rutgers game is, is December 9th, December
9th. Their next game is not until the
last day of the calendar year on the 31st of December, which is
going to be against the Illinois the next.
Conference game, The next conference game.
Thank you. That's going to clarify.
They don't have that much time off.
Yeah, exactly. They're going to, you know that
that's a significant chunk of time between you see one Big 10
opponent between the other. You know what I mean?
And. And Illinois is no joke.
Exactly. Yeah, Illinois is going to be a
very good team this year. But it it's just the the
importance, one thing I've really learned throughout these
last couple years as the importance of conference games.
Like obviously they're important.
Everybody knows that everybody that follows basketball is
important. But I think, I don't think
people really capture how important they truly are because
when you come into March, when you come into the tournament,
the Big 10 tournament, I mean those games are what really sets
you apart or really put you down, you know what I mean?
So even if you know you're playing just one game
essentially in the month of December, I mean you're playing
too but essentially just one and it's in the early first week and
a half of December. I mean look it it's it's very
important you got to you know you know you got to be ready and
I think that's that's in game is, is, is you just got to use
it as sort of a means of hey let's get ready for for what's
coming because we got a very important game coming up.
We have you know we're still in the non conference part of our
season but we have one more or I'm sorry three more games, you
know non conference and then we get into the full you know into
the full non or full big 10 play thing.
But anyway, so Indiana that I kind of yeah I was kind of
spilling there at the end of a little bit.
So Indiana plays Maine on Thursday.
Their following game will be that Stenson Stetson game on
Sunday, but that rounds out their week and as well that
rounds out our episode. The Hoosiers will go up against
Maine just like I mentioned, but that does it for our this
episode of Indiana Women's basketball.
A lot more stuff coming this week like I mentioned earlier.
So go read our stuff at Inside the Hall and follow us on
Twitter, social media, all that good stuff.
Always appreciate, you know the support.
Support student journalism as always.
But you know, it was a great week in Thanksgiving.
I mean, what? What's up?
I have to update the people on what I ate on Thanksgiving in
Florida. That's right.
To do that. And I didn't.
I was going to say I was going to text you.
I was like, tweet out a picture. I did not tweet out a picture.
I did. I sent you a picture and then my
whole family asked me what it was.
It was tacos. It was not Thanksgiving.
They were very, very good tacos. I will say I was really
impressed and I enjoyed them. It was also the first meal that
I I had eaten all day. But they were really good tacos.
It was not Thanksgiving food. So I was kind of disappointed.
I'll just maybe have a make up Thanksgiving at my house when I
go home. Mom, if you're listening,
please, please, please, please. Maybe at least like a little
bit. I don't know.
But yeah, it was tacos. They were good.
I had a good time. I'm not going to lie.
When you texted me that picture, I was kind of shocked.
I was like, really? I was like, nobody got the idea,
whoever. Like the event, the event
coordinators, I don't know who like what they're called or
whatever, but whoever sets up the Invitational, the
tournament, I can't believe somebody said, hey, maybe we
should just have a little Thanksgiving spread.
I mean it would have worked. I I can't imagine, could imagine
it would have been too difficult.
But anyway, But yeah, next year, next year, next year, Wherever
the Hoosiers are at during Thanksgiving break or during
Thanksgiving Day. But anyway, thank you very much
again for listening. Kevin Vera.
Amanda Foster, check out all our stuff on Inside Hall.
A lot of stuff coming to you for both men's, women's, anything
into Indiana basketball. So yeah, this has been another
episode for Crimson Cast, but we'll catch you next week for
another episode.