Hello everyone and welcome back as we're coming off a great weekend of basketball here in Bloomington on the Crimson Cast Women's Basketball Podcast as the Hoosiers advance to the Sweet 16 for the third time in five years and fourth time in program history. Indiana got started off with two wins here in Bloomington and now are going to Albany, NY for the next round. Amanda, it was a really crazy,
crazy week of basketball. Really fun, honestly covering it here in Bloomington. But yeah, how are you? I'm doing well. I'm not going to lie. I'm pretty tired after that crazy weekend of basketball because it felt like I just lived at Assembly Hall for about four days, which I think like most of us, most of us did. We were there for a long time, but it was super enjoyable. Super, super great basketball all around. Really fun to be a part of. It was my last time in Assembly
Hall as a student reporter. So Needless to say, Monday night I did not want to leave and hung around for longer than I normally do because that was my last time in there as a college student, which is I didn't think about it very much, which was probably a good thing because I was more focused on, you know, the the reporting aspect of everything.
But yeah, it was. It was a great time, it was a great weekend and I'm very excited for this next coming weekend where there's going to be even more good basketball. Yeah, I think you're, I think you're right. I mean, we were there four days in a row, right? Because you have availability on the first day, Friday, Friday and the game. On Saturday Availability Sunday. Game on Monday. And then Monday. Yeah. So, I guess. And interspersed a little bit of baseball in there for me on.
Friday so that. Friday was a crazy day. Friday was a long day, but no, it was great. I I live for this time of year. Honestly, I love, I love all that kind of stuff and all the running around is kind of fun sometimes so. Well, that's what we do as as student journalists, student media, the. Grind never stops. The grind never stops, but anyway, we'll kick things off with the first game of the March Madness tournament for Indiana. The Hoosiers won the opening
game in comfortable fashion. It was a close contest in the first half, but then the Hoosiers were able to scrape up everything in the second-half. Got to win 89 to 56 over Fairfield. It was a really fast-paced start to start this game. You know, at halftime it was 38 to 34. Indiana had a 34, not a 34 point lead, a four point lead at the break, but then just sort of a defensive halftime adjustment by Terry Moran and the coaching staff kind of led to the team dominating in the second-half.
Indiana outscored the Stags 51 to 22 in the two quarters. Obviously the biggest take away from that game. Amanda, you wrote about it. It was the Sarah Scalia game. She had one of her better performances. If not, you know, I don't want to say her best performance, right? Because I'm highlighting. Maybe the most important. Maybe the most important is a good way to put it. Definitely one of the best performances as a Hoosier. 27 points, 4 rebounds, two assist,
Lethal from behind the arc. She also reached her 100th 3 pointer of the season. Chloe Moore McNeil, Yarding Gear Zone and Mackenzie Holmes all each had thirteen points to help the Hoosiers earn the victory in the opening round. Fairfield's was 31 and one coming into the game. Now we're 31 and two and obviously their season of is over, but it's snacks snaps. A 29 game win streak for Fairfield, but really good game, Really good win to start off the tournament. It was it was fun.
It was fun right Leading again, bringing up the availability we mentioned just sort of the pace. That was the biggest thing that Indiana was talking about, how you know, Fairfield gets a lot of their production from outside and and that's kind of what we saw. Yeah. Well, when we saw in the last few minutes of the second quarter right before halftime came around, was when Indiana's defense really stepped up and and locked in. That first quarter was very back and forth.
It was very fast. Fairfield was controlling the pace and Indiana was really kind of just trying to keep up is what it looked like And then they kind of locked in towards the towards as halftime kind of crept up on them And then obviously you like you like you said carried through into the second-half. Sarah Scalia came alive in that third quarter and that meant everybody else came alive too.
And that was like you said, kind of what I wrote about is that she is able to fuel everybody and give everybody so much energy with the way that she plays. And Fairfield was talking a little smack in her ear a little bit and she got fired up by that and that. That was the game kind of from from there on out. And you mentioned her stats. And one thing that I wanted to touch on is that defense almost never shows up on the stat
sheet. But her defense, like even in that first half, she was up in people's faces. She was pesky. And that's one of the things that I really like about her game that has evolved since she's come to Indiana. Like, obviously we see all of her offensive production and everything like that, but her defense has become one of the biggest parts of her game. Or even if she's not scoring a whole lot.
Like we saw this in the Oklahoma game, which we're going to talk about, or at least I I noticed it is that even when she wasn't scoring, she was still like a part of everything because she was up there getting in people's faces up at like the top, on the perimeter. And so she, she brings so much
to this team. And I've talked about it a lot, but I I really, really enjoy writing about her because she's one of those people that you don't really notice unless you're looking sometimes where she's like she's on the court. But if you really pay attention to how she plays her game and you her facial expressions and how she interacts with her teammates and everything like that, she's she's really, really
interesting. And for me has become one of the my favorite people on this team to to cover honestly. Yeah, I mean I I don't remember at one point of the weekend I I brought this up to you. I I'd assume it was after the Fairfield game or during, but I mean if we go back to the first episode, right, we said that Sarah had to be the the most improved player on this team and and that's exactly what she has been for this, for this team this season.
And I mean I think you said really well right there and not just her shooting ability but like her overall game, right. And and you know one of the things that we see that is just the emotion, right. She comes over, transfers over here and you know, is just a quiet player on the floor, right? Not very, not very vocal, not very emotional. Nobody really knew anything about her except that she played basketball and shot 3 pointers.
Yeah. And I mean we've seen it these what like the past two months just kind of that emotion starting to to pour out from her, you know in the, in the. Middle of the game. The first time that I noticed it was when they were down in Florida. And 'cause I was, I wrote, I wrote about it, I think when they were playing Tennessee. And then from then on it's like skyrocketed from that point. That was around Thanksgiving.
That was the end of November and and it has come out and like the game against Iowa at home and and some really big time moments. That that's the thing and and you know you can say that a lot about this team this season as we as we talking to Oklahoma. I'll touch on that later. But just the big moments Sarah had, the team in general hasn't really shield away from it in general, but Sarah specifically, right. Sarah was the player to go for
Indiana in that game, right. You know eventually they pulled away and and you know like everything, right, you you make adjustments in the second-half was was pretty easy I would say for Indiana. But yeah a lot of a lot of that had to do with Sarah Scalia. You know a couple numbers. Fairfield shot 31% from the field, 32% essentially 31.8 from the field. They threw up 33 three pointers, which is a. Lot of three-point shooting. There was a lot. Indiana threw up 26 of their
own, which is a lot on its own. And. Yeah, just trading shots. It kind of felt like as the game was going that Fairfield was, you know, because Indiana was kind of starting to pull away. You would they were kind of thinking, OK, if we get a little bit of shots going from the outside, let's just try to outscore them from the outside and some. Desperation shots by the end of it, for sure. Yeah, And it makes sense with the type of team that that they hold, right?
But, you know, it was a really good season for them, really good win for Indiana and a really fun game. That kind of set the tone, set the pace for the upcoming game, which was the second game obviously for Indiana as they took on the fifth seed, Oklahoma Sooners, they won that 175 to 68. It was, I mean, the definition
of a nail biter. A comeback victory in the fourth quarter for Indiana. A really emotional game like we already touched on. But Indiana with the victory clinches another Sweet 16 appearance. It was 3029 at halftime. Oklahoma was leading by one. And it it was weird because it was 2, two different halves, essentially a lot, you know, not much offense in the first half. The second quarter, yeah, the second quarter was not good for either team. Either team struggled mightily
in those in that second quarter. The pace was incredible. To start off the start off the game, it was, you know, unbelievable. And, you know, shots weren't necessarily falling. Another thing is the physicality in that second quarter, we kind of started to see a lot. We saw a good amount in the third quarter as well. Yeah. Well, in the the first half, compared to the second-half, the the way that the game was being called, the first half allowed for a lot more physicality.
I think whereas down the stretch in the third and fourth quarters, the whistles might have been blowing a little bit more. Yeah, that was I was I was going to bring that up. There was a bit more free flow in the first half and then similar to. The Fairfield game. Yeah, yeah.
But I think there was a certain point where in the in the second-half of Oklahoma, Indiana, it was kind of like, all right, like, you know, there was, there was a good amount of free throws being free throws, fouls being called that wasn't necessarily being called in the first half and there was a few people pointing that out online. But you know, regardless, yeah, the the story of the game, if we're looking at it in general, was Mackenzie Holmes in that fourth quarter.
Holmes won that fourth quarter for Indiana. Pretty much just put the team on their shoulders and closed out the victory for a little bit of a late run. And you know, that was it was one of the more fun games this year, one of my favorite games. I've gotten the cover so far. As a student, I bet you agree you know, wholeheartedly. But yeah, yeah, I mean, what did you a lot to unpack in this one, but so. Much. There's no, you're you're absolutely right.
There's so much to unpack. I feel like I could talk about this game for a very, very long time. I was nervous just sitting there not knowing what was going to happen on either end. Oklahoma is a really, really, really good. Basketball team. So fun to watch. So, so good. And they controlled the first half. They were, they were hitting shots.
I mean they controlled it really up until that fourth quarter to be perfectly honest with like hitting three pointers, playing in the post, being physical literally everywhere. They were just playing better than Indiana to a certain extent. Indiana looked lost and that was
we don't see that too much. Terry Moran was very emotional on the sidelines and and on the bench, which you know when you obviously it's a very big game and everybody cares a lot about it And so that was not necessarily unexpected with the
way that Indiana was playing. There were there were a lot of emotions and there was one point that I'll I'll admit that I wondered if because usually Indiana plays very emotionally and it works in their favor and I wondered for a little bit if they were playing with too much emotion which is which is hard because it was obviously a very big game because it's the last game in Assembly Hall for the seniors.
You don't want to be stuck in the same position that you were in last year with the Miami game. So there was like everything a lot of it a lot of stuff were was on their minds but they were able to I think kind of refocus in that fourth quarter. And Mackenzie Holmes the the thing with Mackenzie Holmes like she was not having a great game excuse me in the first in the 1st 3/4 just shots were rolling
off the rim. She wasn't necessarily getting great touches because of Oklahoma's defense, which was very, very good. Sarah Scalia was kind of taken out of it from an offensive standpoint for most of the game in yard. And because of the defense on the perimeter, which I wasn't necessarily expecting, I thought that they would be able to get a little bit more going for Sarah. And they kind of did towards the end in terms of like she got fouls and she went to the free throw line.
But that was about it. But Mackenzie, she there was looking back on it and obviously this is different if they would have lost. But looking back, there was no way she was going to let them lose that game realistically. Like she was going to do everything in her power to win it and she did and she was part of there was a 10 O run in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter that was basically just
her. And I think at that point, you and I were talking about this coming out in the third quarter. Both teams looked really tired. And then I think Oklahoma picked it up and got their energy back and then they dropped off again and towards the end of the fourth quarter.
And then Indiana picked it up because by the end of it, like Mackenzie was getting the ball in the post and going up for like any old layup and didn't really have a whole lot of competition down there in those last few minutes. And then they were drawing fouls and they were making their free throws. And then, you know, by the end of 7568 is not in the, in the last 30 seconds it was not you kind of, you could feel where it was going because that's just kind of how that kind of game goes.
But man, there, Oh my gosh, like the crowd, the energy, it was loud. It was really, really loud in there. It was the the fact that the seniors could win their last game. Mackenzie led the whole team up into the student section, just like she did two years ago when Indiana beat Princeton to go to the Sweet 16. That it was a whole kind of full circle moment, if you will, and also just really nice to see that they were able to do that for their seniors.
And Grace Burger was there and and they talked about it. They're like having Grace there. When they lost last year in her last game, I'd like part of it. Like they kind of did it for her too. So I think it was just, it was very emotional. It was a great, great, amazing basketball game. Very stressful. But it was. It was a really, really good one. Yeah, to go.
But well I want to touch on the emotion here in a little bit because that's kind of what I wrote about sort of Indiana finally, not finally, but kind of getting that discussed of last year off their back, right they they Terry opened up a little bit to my question actually I was, I was really happy the answer that I got from Terry about just what this game meant considering their loss last year.
But briefly, I mean just the fourth quarter again to about Mackenzie Holmes, it was really incredible. I mean she 12 of her 29 points came in that quarter and. On five O 6 shooting. Five O 6 shooting? Yeah, correct. And I mean, she was active the entire day. I mean, she took 23 field goals. But Mackenzie just kind of lit up. I mean, you mentioned the 10 O run there to finish out the game. Indiana also outscored them 15 to 4 in the final 2 1/2 minutes. 241 if we want to be exact.
But well, 41 seconds is kind of a lot. Yeah, I mean, I'm near 3 minutes. Yeah, round round it up a little bit more. Yeah, so Indiana, just completely, when it mattered most, played their best basketball. That's in in the clutch. Moment. Yeah, that's one thing about this team that I think you and I were talking about for the most part.
Granted, you can point to to some of their losses like the Stanford and the Iowa and the Ohio State, but overall this team comes through when they have to and they will pull whatever they have to do to get a win, which has been impressive to watch because they like this was not a perfect game by any means, by any means. Here's the thing, They did not shoot well throughout the entire.
I mean 38% is low for this Indiana team, extremely low considering they've been you know, around the edge of 50% from the field the entire year. And I mean three for 16 from 319% is not great no matter who you are. Right. But we we've seen throughout the season, if they really want to win, they can for all accounts and purposes, like for the most part they can figure out how to make it work and that's what they did this time.
Yeah. I think one of the things that you really saw on in that game against Oklahoma was sort of the the how disciplined this team is and really how well the message that Terry tries to preach to this group is installed in their brains. That's kind of what we saw. And you know, because they very easily could have lost, I mean look, I mean to be honest I thought I didn't think they were
going to win at half. I I didn't, I didn't think they were going to be able to do it at half, you know, it was obviously just a one point deficit at the break. It felt like so much more, though. Yeah, it it felt like Oklahoma was. It was controlling things in the first. Half they were 100%. They were, I guess. But again, it goes back to just kind of the awful second quarter that both teams had. Neither team really had an advantage. Neither team was particularly
playing good basketball. It was just kind of a lot of misses. And it was, as the game got on, it was like, OK, well, who's going to take advantage of the moment and who's going to collapse under the pressure, Right? Oklahoma kind of did. See, I don't know if I would say they they collapsed. Maybe collapses, I think. Collapses is a little bit too strong, but they faltered where Indiana didn't.
Yeah, it it's it's just, you know, this is kind of what I've been touching on. I touched on a lot this past weekend. Asking Terry was just kind of the how, how do you go about the mental aspect of playing in March, right? Everybody wants to look at the
XS and those. But I, you know it when it comes down to winning in March, I mean, there's how many games of the tournament do we see come down to the last two possessions, last three possessions or or, you know, there's two minutes left and you got to make a play right? You know, I think the mental aspect of March is extremely valuable and and I kept asking Terry about that. That's what I really wanted to know.
And funny enough it worked out in my favor that you know, everything I've been asking about the entire weekend kind of culminated culminated in into into what game you're laughing because I mispronounced that culminated culminated into into this game. But yeah, it's look, I mean it was it was a game with a lot of emotion but just the mental aspect of it, of Indiana's, what really stuck out to me. It's kind of that's. I mean, that's what I wrote
about. Yeah, when going off with that, it was whoever wanted it more and Indiana wanted it more. So they willed themselves to a win and it Mackenzie didn't want to leave, shouldn't didn't want to have a loss, and so she didn't let her team lose. Yeah. And and to get back to the sort of this kind of closing the chapter of of last year's loss. Yeah, I mean, that's out the window now. Yeah, of course, of course,
right. And I mean, look, even even at the beginning of the season, it was out the window, right, A little bit I would say just because like, I mean I I don't think it's ever healthy for you know, teams to look back on, on on any of the losses. No, but they talked about it in Media Day. They did talk about it in media day, but you know, it was really, really never a point of conversation throughout the season.
But you know, it was, it was something that, you know, Indiana had to had to overcome, right. They had to overcome. And I'm trying. I'm pulling up my article right now. To find the exact quote of of Terry so so ask answering my question. Terry goes, I try not to go down the rabbit hole yesterday with you guys in terms of did it still bother us on how things went last year. Obviously talking about the loss to Miami but it did bother us.
It really has if they gave some, if this gave them some extra motivation that were very well could have. You know, I selfishly wanted Mackenzie, Sarah and Ariel to win their last game in the Hall, but to be able to do it on the trip to the Sweet 16 makes it even sweeter. Look, I mean she, you know, she gave me a good answer, but I think those few words kind of tell you a lot, a lot more than
you needed to know. I mean this team or last year's team was extremely upset with themselves on on how they lost. You know last year they were obviously the ones he last year best season in program history. You know it. It was. It was. And it wasn't a good game. And Miami, yeah, you know, Indiana, Indiana didn't play. You know, it just wasn't. And and you know, this kind of closes it, right.
You're kind of, you kind of, you kind of are finally able to, you know, just take a step back and be like, all right, you know, we, you know, we close that chapter. We close, close it. And and I mean, again, Grace was there, right, Which is a cool little touch.
And you know, Mackenzie, I think one of the biggest moments of the day, Again, shout out to the social media team over at Indiana whether when they're breaking down the huddle after the victory and you just hear in the background, the camera was pointed up at Terry. It's on Twitter, It's on Instagram if you guys want to go find it. But the camera was kind of down, pointed up at Terry. And you just hear Mackenzie say, can we run through the student
section? Terry takes like 1/2 a second pause and smiles and says of course. And then the camera pans over and you know Mackenzie is is running off into the studio section celebrating, celebrating the win and and there was a lot of emotion, a lot of a lot of teams of joy from this team. And again, it it, it was just a very good ending to to, you know, the first round, first, first, second round. Yeah, no, it was, it was great.
It was. I was a little surprised that there wasn't more emotion when the game ended, honestly, because I noticed when Sydney, Sydney Parish made those two free throws towards the end and everybody came off the bench. There was a time out right after and Mackenzie went up to her and gave her a big hug and was like, I love you. She she had tears in her eyes in that moment and there was like a minute left. I was like, oh, here we go.
But then she was fine for the like, she came back in and it was like nothing like she wasn't she was just playing any old game and then obviously later on got got more emotional about it. But no, it was just, it was a really, really good way for everybody to close out this, this season at Assembly Hall.
I mean you finished undefeated at home and but it's like I said I think last week that even just getting out of the second round and winning at home and even making it to the Sweet 16, regardless of who you play, which we know who they play, that's a win. Because you like that is a moment that this game for the seniors is something that is like you can't ever take that away from them.
And so I think, like I said last week, that no matter what now you can look back and say like, OK, this was a good, it was a good tournament, it was a good run, Whatever happens, happens. But at least we wanted Assembly Hall and we did it in this way and we got to experience all of this all together. Yeah, I mean, and you got to remember, Indiana would have been undefeated at home last year if they won the Miami game,
right? And and that's something that Indiana has consistently prided itself on these past couple years. It's like we're not losing at home and Indiana did that all the way up until the Miami game last year. But yeah, I mean, it was a really good win, Really, really good win it. It was a super, super interesting night. Just seeing it all right. And and one thing I want to bring up that I thought was really interesting that that I talked to Sidney and and Chloe a little bit before.
This was after the Fairfield game, but we touched on it again after the Oklahoma game. Is everybody on the team feels like this year they're just a lot more connected than they were last year. And granted last year you had a lot of new faces on this team and you know it was a it was a new roster pretty much. But it it it's just the
connectiveness of this team. You see that now and and and I I thought it was really curious or interesting that they brought that up because you know it's not about comparing right? You know oh this team is connected more than this team,
right? And when in terms of years, but I don't know, I I I was just very interested when they brought that up to me. I've yeah, I always thought that this was one of the most connected teams from the from the get go based off of their their summer trip and how I remember talking to Sydney about it. Yeah, that's a good point. We can go back to the grease. And media day that they were all just very close and I think they immediately all clicked with each other.
So to hear them, to hear them talk about it, especially at this point, was was not surprising for me at all. Well, I I I asked Sydney about it and Sydney was talking about she just said like the way she was saying it with her expression and and her tone of her voice was like this year's group is more connected than I could ever imagine right? As somebody from the outside and you know that's that's right.
And it's just like, I mean, I don't know it it was just something the way she expressed herself to me about how connected this team is. Really. Obviously this team is connected, right. You know, they've been playing the an entire season together and they spend 99% of their time together. But it it I, I think that's when it hit me. I was like Dang, I was like this team really there, there there's, you know, very few teams that are connected in this
way, right? This team right now cares about scoring points as a collective. They're not caring about, you know, am I going to score 10 today? Am I going to do this today? Am I going to, you know, whatever it may be individual achievements. No. This team is is really just focus on one goal and and and trying to score as many points obviously to get the win. So yeah, no, this team has gone through a lot of crap this year. So there's been something.
Perfectly like they they have. Struggled. They well, yeah. But I would say they've gone through more this year than they did last year of course, because you think about it too. This team is the team that had to regroup after that loss. It wasn't that team because that season was over. They've multiple people have gotten hurt. They've had some really difficult losses early in the season. They've been questioned by the media, by fans, by national people of you know where they are.
They really that tough. Are they really that good? Mackenzie talked about it post game after Oklahoma that they were. They proved some people wrong and coming together and and winning these games and even being a four seed. So they've they've dealt with a lot and that brings people together obviously when there's adversity and I think that's what set this group apart from from past years is that there's there's been a lot that they've had to deal with and work through as a group.
Yeah. Well anyway Indiana gets the first two wins, gets a win over Fairfield and gets a win over Oklahoma and and now we, we talk about the game that you probably listen to or click this podcast for. You know, Indiana takes on. It's it's you. Want to sound a little bit more? Exciting, I know I it's it scares me to say, but Indiana. Indiana takes on the best team in women's college basketball, the number one overall seed in the entire tournament, the South Carolina Gamecocks.
The Gamecocks led by Don Staley are a perfect 34 and O34 win streak coming into this game and are looking for another championship to add under their belt. They've they've got two in this in the past couple years, 2017 and 2022. It's going to be a tough matchup. Honestly, there's no other way to put it but S South Carolina is the best team and has been the best team in the country the entire season. There's not many flaws to this team.
Indiana's going to play have to play near perfect to come out with the victory. Just a few crazy stats that I was sort of looking at heading into this one. Obviously I just mentioned the Gamecocks have only won lost one game the past two seasons. That was last year in the Final Four against Iowa. Catch this, this, this was it was baffling to me. Since the 2122 season, they are 106 and three. If you take away the COVID year and include their season from 19 and 20, they are 139 and four.
That is think about that for a second. Think about that for a second. And the reason I say take out the COVID year because they I was like I don't have the number right here, I should have put it, but they were like 26 and and like 5 or 26 and five, yeah, 26 and five, I got it right there on the button. I've got it pulled up. So, but you know, that was the COVID year every everything was weird. So I mean 20. Six and five is like very. Respectable, great.
Yeah. I mean that's still, that's still a great record, but I mean that's. What, 9 losses in the last five years or something? Yeah, that's. Crazy. That's That's insane. Talk about consistent winning within a program. I mean I don't know. You know we we've obviously seen it historically with with UConn. But I think this is another like this is, this is a different level, this is a different level of dominance that we've seen from Carolina. South Carolina.
I keep saying Carolina, but South Carolina over the past couple seasons. But so the Gamecocks, obviously the number one seed in the tournament, won their first two tournament games by a combined score of 97 points, won their first game by 52 points, and then won their second game against North Carolina by 47 points. How do you pronounce that? That's cool that they that. Presbyterian. Presbyterian OK, thank you. They beat them by 50. I didn't want to say I was.
I was reading my notes and I was like, oh goodness. But the interesting thing about I was reading up on this after the North Carolina victory that they had against the Tar Heels. Don Staley referred to that and I quote as their best performance in a long time. Well, so when your bench scores 51 points. That's the thing. There. You go, there you go. I was about to say, look I it's it's going to be an interesting
match. Up right is how well will Indiana be able to do what they do best is feed into the post and then Kick It Out. But really, I mean the the size, the athleticism, the talent on on South Carolina is vast. It it's you're talking about. Encompassing. You're talking about. Yeah. You're talking about a program that has very little flaws right now, a program that is arguably playing their best basketball right now of the season, which is what you want to do this time
of year, right. If you're if you're fighting for a national championship, you know in in Amanda, you obviously know how how I feel about this because like you said we just spent all weekend together and you know we've been around the games. But I I just think it's going to be very hard for Indiana to to pull out the victory in this. I mean, yeah, there's no, there's no sugar coating it. That South Carolina is majorly favored for good reason.
The the thing, the interesting thing about this matchup is that on paper, from a statistical standpoint and like a gameplay standpoint, if you you can't do this. But if you take out like the athleticism and the the chemistry and the connectedness and everything and you just look at like from a basketball standpoint. These are two of the top teams in the country in both perimeter and post play. Because Indiana, they're both in the top three and three-point percentage.
Indiana is shooting 39.6% S Carolina is shooting 39.75% according to the NCAA stats that I looked up earlier. Also, let me mention two of the best defensive teams in the country I. Was you beat me to it that in three-point shooting post play when you have Mackenzie Holmes and then you have Camila Cardoso and then like defensively, like these are two teams that are very. Good at what they do. They I, they match up well in a way because they're both so good.
And you know, like I don't really know. I don't know how to put it into words because they they match up well and then they don't. When you kind of think about it in terms of how aggressive South Carolina can be and how much more physical and a dominant they have proven themselves to be in a lot of aspects. But it's it's interesting because both of these teams have the capabilities of being very, very skilled and very like efficient in both their scoring
and their defense. And so I do agree that Indiana is going to have to play near perfect and South Carolina is going to have to struggle in one way or another. And South Carolina to me has no real viable flaws, which is like to be perfectly honest, like there's a reason that nobody's
figured out how to beat them. It's because they're really kind of, they're unbeatable because you have people who can play every which way and you can't just play bully in the post anymore because they can go shoot 3 pointers. Whereas that wasn't the case maybe a couple years ago when
people were beating them. They have talent in literally every aspect and then they have a bench who can outscore teams like fully 100% and that that to me, I think the bench is the best part about South Carolina's game this season right now, because you need a strong bench, especially in the tournament and they have it, whereas we've talked about Indiana's problems with their bench. So it's going to be, it's going
to be interesting. As of right now, South Carolina's favored by 16 1/2 points. I think that's pretty fair. I think that's pretty accurate. The initial line jumped was at 15 and it's jumped up a little bit. Yeah. And so we'll, we'll see. It's going to be, it's going to be something I'm really excited for it. I think it it's it's March, you never know what's going to happen. It's going to, I think, I think some people are expecting it to be a complete and total blowout.
I don't think that's going to happen. I think if it happens, it'll come in the last, like in the last quarter in the last little bit. I honestly don't see it like I see it being a game in the first half. See, I do fear that it's going to be a little bit of blowout and and here's the reason why I think Indiana's injuries is is really going to come and bite them here in this game. I mean it's. This is all or nothing. Fair. But I mean we Sydney had a had a good weekend.
She played really well, but there were times throughout the game where I was watching her and I was like, man, her like she's she's a step slower and it's not because she like she's it's just the injury that she had suffered earlier, right? Now that it's that's. True. And that's a that's a big deal. And you know, McKenzie, look, McKenzie literally looked looked fine.
McKenzie looked fine. Yeah but then you look at the you know if you take away the Sidney injury it goes back to the depth of this team and and that's kind of what I've been saying about this March this tournament that this team its major flaw is that they don't really have a bench to go to. And you know fair you're you're, you can play your starting 535 plus minutes in this game. You're probably going to see that from this Indiana group and.
I would be surprised. If we didn't you're also it goes back to the strength of of this Carolina South Carolina team in March and it's it's the bench right. It's just top to bottom they have people that can play the entire, the entire time. And another thing is just this team has for the past couple years Don Staley has been has done an incredible job of recruiting tall athletic players. South Carolina is the tallest team in the country right? I don't.
I don't know if, like, literally they're the tallest team in the country. But I say that knowing everybody on their team oversizes. Indiana and Indiana's got a team that has, like, decent size. But. Not short, you know, Mackenzie's a little bit of a smaller post player, but I mean then you have Yarden and Sydney who are right there and and Sarah's a good size for for A2, right? But that's the biggest things for me.
It is the athleticism and the size that South Carolina holds and just the depth that they have, right. And it's two things that Indiana doesn't have and and so for me, it's a little bit difficult. I'm, you know, obviously Indiana's a very talented team, a team that does a lot of things extremely well. But I think that South Carolina does what Indiana does as well, a lot better. Not saying that Indiana doesn't do it well, right, Obviously.
But. What does Carolina does everything better than every team. That's why they are what they are. But I think I want to touch on this. I think it is neat. It's kind of like a full circle moment. When Mackenzie Holmes was a freshman, Indiana played South Carolina in 2019 and beat beat them and that was when Aaliyah Boston was on the team.
And I was looking back at an article that I wrote after the main game When I wrote about Mackenzie and her brother Cam and that game when she was a freshman and she scored, she played for 16 minutes, came off the bench, scored eight points and had six rebounds against Aaliyah Boston, who is obviously now WNBA Rookie of the Year. And that was the first time that Cam was like, Oh my God, my sister's really good and like, Oh my God, she's actually going to be very successful.
And so I think that when you think about a game like this, it's also, it's another very emotional one because it it's going to, in theory, a lot, going to be a last for people. It's going to be a big moment for a lot of people regardless because you've got a team in the Sweet 16.
And I think it's just one more part for Mackenzie and her family that it's just like an it's another full circle moment where you know you have a brother watching his sister play as a freshman, realizing how good she is. And then you have him watching her play four years later, knowing how good she is and knowing everything that that she's accomplished. And I just think that's cool.
And I think that it's something to keep in mind that no matter how the game goes and no matter how how things play out and pan out, that there's still a lot of good that will will kind of come out of this game in a way because it's going to. It gives a lot of people, you know, it'll bring up memories. It'll be maybe like a sort of sense of like closure in a way because, you know, you made it to the Sweet 16, you're playing the top team in the country and and there's a lot that'll that
goes into that. And it's it's a testament to how good that Indiana has been for the last few years that they've gotten to this point and are in conversations like this, I think. Yeah, I mean, you know, you not every season is is, you know, unless, you know, if you don't win the national championship, which is probably more than likely for 99% of the teams across the country, right. That doesn't mean your season's a failure not, Oh my God, no.
I mean this season especially. If you lose to a dynasty. Like South? Carolina. This, this season is is has been a really good season for Indiana. And look, it's it's, I don't want to keep talking in the sense that like you know, we're predicting that the season is over. Ahead of. Ourselves, Yeah. I don't want to get too ahead of ourselves, but it is really going to be. It's really going to be tough for Indiana to, to get the win, I mean.
There's a reason that everyone's saying that if they shock the world, because that's literally what it would. What would it what it would be? Well, not even that. It's just like, I think it's also you're catching South Carolina, not that they, I mean, they've really not played bad basketball at any point this season. But what I said earlier, and I believe the word of Don Staley, if you know, they're playing their best basketball right now, some of their best basketball, right.
And so that's going to be very hard to to go up against this Indiana team or excuse me, it's going to be hard for Indiana to go up against the South Carolina team to do it. So yeah, I mean potentially, you know, potentially Indiana season could be over this Friday. Again, you said it, it's March. You never know what could happen but. We'll have to wait and see. Yeah, we'll have to wait and see. But for me I I just, I just, I mean don't really don't really see where Indiana can squeeze
out of this one to be honest. Do you do you have any prediction like score prediction? Oh gosh, I really don't. I wouldn't be surprised if and this is I don't have like a a final score necessarily of like South Carolina to this and Indiana to this. I wouldn't be surprised if South Carolina gets in the 80s or the 90s and I feel like Indiana will probably sit in like the 60s or
70s to be perfectly honest. One of the things I think and this is obviously like in in theory if you can lose by less than 20 that like and I think they can, I think I think that's feasible, but I think it's going to be a relatively high scoring game at least from South Carolina because that's just how they operate. Yeah, I agree. I don't think I have a certain number. Indiana's going to score this and South Carolina's going to
score that. I do not think it is going to be a absolute blowout like we've seen in the first two South Carolina games, I don't think. So that's what I was saying earlier. Yeah. I don't think it you're going to get past 30, but I do think South Carolina will win this one pretty much in the 20th range 20, 2225 around that range. I it's yeah it's it's it's going to be you're you're going up against the best of the best you're going up against the best coach in the game right now.
A coach that you know is is getting to be legendary status if not already, right. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? She's I this. She's just solidifying herself even more at this point as one of the best. Yeah, so, anyway, the Hoosier anyway. We're gonna. We're still gonna. We're not like it's not a funeral. It's, it's it's basketball. Phenomenal season I'm looking
for. I'm really looking forward to our final episode, our final two episodes, whatever it may be, just as we talk about this season, the season as a whole, because again, you know it, it was a really, really good season for it is a really good season for Indiana. But yeah, I mean again. And it I turned into a better season than I think a lot of people expected I would have had. Earlier losses, yeah.
But then like you think about how people's confidence dipped in them after the Stanford game, after the first Iowa game, stuff like that. Like I think I don't think a lot of people would have at at a certain point in this season expected them to be to end up playing as well. So I think that's that's another positive kind of outlook on it. Yeah, we'll get into it in our future episodes.
So stay tuned and make sure when we post that, but the Hoosiers will take on the Gamecocks this this Friday at 5:00 PM Eastern in Albany on ESPN. Amanda's actually gonna be there. Amanda's gonna, Amanda's gonna make the trip. We gotta go. See my family. Yeah, Amanda is lives. Would you say 10 minutes? 1015 minutes ish. From outside. Of outside of Albany. What it what it's the It's like MVP Arena I. I honestly don't know. I've never been. Oh, OK Well. My parents moved there when I
came here. I don't like. I've never actually lived there. Oh, really? I only go back for summers on, like, vacations? Yeah. Well, yeah, Amanda, but we'll be traveling to Albany tomorrow, actually, by the time 12 hour drive, 12 hour drive to. Everybody wish me luck. Yeah, she's going to do it with a couple other of our really good friends. A lot of a lot of student media
is going to go over there. So if if you want live coverage over there for the game, make sure to follow each and every one of us. I mean, there's too many people to count. At least one person from every outlet. Is going to be there, Is going to be there, Is going to be there. So, Indiana students, we travel, we travel, cover, cover our teams. We can over new. York. Yeah.
So Amanda will be there. And make sure to follow her and read her stuff as she'll bring you live coverage from the Sweet 16. I'll get you covered here in Bloomington. I will be making the trip, but you can read all our stuff on inside the hall. Amanda, have a safe trip. And so we'll talk to you guys next to see if Indiana continues to advance in the month of March.