Sports
6-Banner Sunday: Hoosiers in the NBA, recruiting updates … – Inside the Hall
6-Banner Sunday is Inside the Hall’s weekly newsletter in partnership with The Assembly Call. Almost 10,000 Indiana fans receive the newsletter each week. In addition to appearing each week on the site, you can also opt to receive 6-Banner Sunday by email. A form to subscribe via email is available at the bottom of this week’s 6-Banner Sunday.
Welcome to another edition of 6-Banner Sunday, a joint production between The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall, and presented by our friends at Trueblood Real Estate, where we highlight the five most essential IU basketball stories of the past week, plus take a look at how the other IU sports programs are doing.
While the week on the calendar has changed, the biggest stories in Hoosier Nation have not. Once again, the NBA’s Summer League and recruiting take center stage as the major news that will interest IU fans.
Besides this, Inside the Hall started a new series looking at Indiana’s incoming freshmen, some new schedule details became known, and the elite play of the Hoosiers’ star bigs was confirmed. We will as usual conclude with a look at other topics outside basketball, led by a blow in the transfer portal on the diamond.
In brief updates, IU once again made a player available to the media, and Inside the Hall and Assembly Call had new shows.
• Hoosiers in the NBA update
• Recruiting updates
• Inside the Hall’s Freshmen Focus series
• Schedule updates
• Jackson-Davis and Holmes named IU athletes of the year
• Hoosier Roundup – IU softball star Taryn Kern transferring to Stanford
The Summer League in the NBA has now concluded. This means the next time Jalen Hood-Schifino and Trayce Jackson-Davis will see the court is when training camp begins.
For Hood-Schifino, he sat out in the final contest in Las Vegas and finished with a 13.7-point average in six games for the Los Angeles Lakers. For his work, he inked an endorsement deal with Adidas.
Meanwhile, Jackson-Davis finally took the court for the final couple of games after sitting out most of the competition with an injury. Jackson-Davis proved his worth by averaging 16 points per contest in the limited action. This included 18 points in the Golden State Warriors’ finale.
Recruiting was the other topic of interest locally this week. This is because three key targets for the Hoosiers in the 2024 class trimmed their list to eight schools, and IU was included in all of them.
The biggest of these was top-10 guard Boogie Fland who Indiana continues to be heavily involved with and took an official visit to campus this summer. Also, including the Hoosiers was top-50 prospect Austin Swartz as he confirmed he will come to Bloomington for a trip next month. Also, announcing Indiana in the inclusion of his list was 2024 top-40 frontcourt player Annor Boateng.
Finally, Liam McNeely did not eliminate any teams from contention in the last few days. However, the top-10 forward did confirm he will take an official visit to IU in September. This is after he visited Indiana last season as the cream and crimson continue to be amongst the top pursuers for his services.
Inside the Hall started a series focusing on all of Indiana’s incoming prospects from high school. The highly touted class includes Gabe Cupps, Mackenzie Mbako, and Jakai Newton.
The big get among these 2023 players is Mgbako, a top-10 player nationally. He switched his college choice from Duke to IU late in the spring as the Hoosiers beat out Kansas for his services once he re-opened his recruitment.
After the huge news last week that the women’s team would have a Thanksgiving night game on network TV against national power Tennessee, an equally big matchup was revealed in the last few days.
This time Inside the Hall reported that IU would head to powerhouse Stanford on Nov. 12 for a showdown. Former Hoosier Tara VanDerveer coaches the Cardinal. The contest will also feature a matchup between arguably the two best post players in the country in the form of Cameron Brink and Mackenzie Holmes.
The other game of interest per ITH’s report is a game in Holmes’ home state of Maine against the Black Bears in Portland on Nov. 30. Other revelations included opponents of much lower caliber, which are home contests against Eastern Illinois on Nov. 9, Murray State on Nov. 17, and Evansville on Dec. 18.
On the men’s side, the non-conference schedule was already released a while back. However, Inside the Hall was able to obtain the amounts paid by the Hoosiers in their nine guarantee games (seven pre-conference and two exhibition matchups). The most Indiana paid out was $105,000 for the opener against Florida Gulf Coast.
It was widely thought that IU had the two best bigs in the country on the men’s and women’s squads. This was further confirmed when both Holmes and Jackson-Davis received the athlete of the year award for their sports which includes all athletes across the entire athletic department.
On the men’s side, the Hoosiers will need to replace Jackson-Davis’ production. The prime candidate is former five-star recruit and Oregon transfer Kel’el Ware.
For the women, Holmes returns for one final COVID season as IU should once again contend for a national title. Indeed, they are among the favorites to do so in the early betting lines. Holmes has transformed the Cream and Crimson into a national power, and since her arrival on campus four years ago, the squad has never spent a week outside the AP top-25.
• After one of the greatest seasons in program history for softball, elite freshman Taryn Kern announced she was leaving shortly after the final game. While the Hoosiers will still be one of the better conference teams in 2024, Kern confirmed she is heading back home to an elite Stanford squad, leaving the Cream and Crimson without their top player. Indiana does bring in another highly ranked newcomer in Aly VanBrandt, who was named Miss Softball in Michigan.
• Baseball, on the other hand, held on to all of their best bats following the draft and closure of the transfer portal. Indeed, Carter Mathison, Devin Taylor, and Brock Tibbitts will all be back next spring and were named Summer League All-Stars following standout performances. In addition to this trio, the Hoosiers will return Tyler Cerny and Josh Pyne and bring in top transfer Nick Mitchell and elite freshman Andrew Wiggins. With all the talent, IU is expected to be among the favorites in the Big Ten and should be in contention for a top-16 spot as a regional host.
• Water Polo announced an update to the coaching staff.
• Track and Field also gave information on its new coaches.
• Indiana had 13 CRCA Scholar-Athletes.
Thanks for your continued support for The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall. We’ll be back next weekend with a new roundup.
Now go enjoy yourself a 6-banner Sunday.
Aaron (Ari) Shifron
Assembly Call Contributor
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