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.