Big game for women's team tonight.

UPDATE: IU wins 71-57. While IU has won at Mackey and in the Big Ten Tournament, this was the Hoosiers' first home win against Purdue since 1998. This puts IU in sole possession of first place in the conference at 6-1, at least until 5-1 Ohio State plays next.

While I won't pretend to follow women's basketball closely, it's at least worth noting that while the men's team is having its worst season in memory, the women are having their best season in memory. IU is 11-2 and is 5-1 in the Big Ten, good enough for a three-way first place tie with Ohio State and Purdue. The Hoosiers are not ranked in either of the polls at the moment, but currently stand at #15 in the RPI and #18 in the Sagarin ratings. IU plays Purdue at Assembly Hall tonight. As a rivalry, it's always a big game. IU would gain legitimacy as a win, but I'm sure Purdue isn't anxious to surrender its historical upper hand in this series. One of the nice benefits to the Big Ten Network is that a game like this is actually televised.

Slow news days.

Not much at all is happening in the college sports world these days. In the next few days, I plan to begin a series of posts discussing the good, bad, and ugly of each of IU's 2006 games. If I had been writing the blog last year, I probably would be linking to the old posts, but this year I get to start from scratch. In other news:

• Former IU women's basketball player Jenny DeMuth,ranked seventh on IU's career scoring list, is now an assistant at IUPUI.
• The Hoosier Scoop has tracked down a brochure for IU's Bahamas trip. IU will play once on Friday, twice on Saturday, and once on Sunday. NCAA rules prohibit missing class time for such tournaments, and because IU, unlike many schools, holds classes on Labor Day, the team will have to hurry back after the Sunday game.

Hoosiers lose in WNIT.

It's now the offseason for all IU basketball teams. The women's team lost 60-53 at South Dakota State. It turns out that SDSU improved to 25-4 with the win over IU and is a respectable 49th in the RPI ratings. IU finished at 19-13, a respectable record for a program that has seen more than its share of upheaval in recent years and has had different coaches in each of the last three seasons.

IU women prevail over Iona.

The IU women managed a 74-71 win over Iona in the WNIT. The reward? A trip to South Dakota State for the round of 16. SDSU is located in Brookings, SD, a town I didn't know existed until a few minutes ago.

The week to come.

Now that the inaugural season of the Kelvin Sampson era is complete, look for some sort of basketball post mortem this week. I also plan to provide an update and some discussion of the baseball team. Meanwhile, believe it or not, there is an Indiana University team still playing basketball: the IU women play Iona in the WNIT tonight at Assembly Hall.

Women's team qualifies for WNIT.

The IU women's basketball team received an at-large bid to the newly expanded, 48-team Women's National Invitational Tournament. While the men's NIT features a reduced field this season (just ask Iowa!), the women's field has been expanded, and now features a representative from each of the 31 Division I conferences. Apparently the "next best" team to the conference's NCAA entrants receives the automatic NIT bid. The NIT selected IU for one of 17 at-large slots.

Women lose in second round of Big Ten Tournament.

After noting that IU fans don't pay much attention to women's basketball, I completely forgot to mention that the women's team lost to top-seeded Ohio State 72-60 on Friday night. Mea maxima culpa. Ohio State and Purdue play for the title this evening. Because of her long-term commitment to Indiana University, we should all be rooting for Coach Versyp and the Boilers, right? Yeah, right. O! H! I! O!

IU women defeat Iowa in Big Ten tournament.

The Hoosiers prevailed comfortably in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, defeating Iowa 67-53. IU faces Ohio State, the top seed, tonight. OSU was as dominant in women’s basketball this season as they were in men’s basketball, so this is a tall order for IU.

Women's Big Ten Tournament

Unlike our two neighbors to the north within Indiana, IU’s women’s program has never gained much traction with the fanbase. It’s hard to say why, and it’s a chicken-egg scenario. Maybe the team would be better with more fan support, maybe the fans would come out if the team were more competitive.

It really has been a rough road for the women’s program in recent years. Former coach Kathi Bennett was seriously injured in a car accident during her tenure at IU. After a promising first season, Sharon Versyp bolted for Purdue, her alma mater (how could Rick Greenspan have not had a Purdue-specific buyout or non-compete provision?). Former coach Jim Izard, who led IU to the NCAA Tournament when I was in school in the mid 1990s, committed suicide under strange circumstances. Still, the one positive moment in recent years for the women’s program was the 2002 Big Ten Tournament title. The Hoosiers defeat #1 seed Purdue in the semifinals and #2 Penn State in the final. This is the tenth year of the men’s Big Ten Tournament, and given the relative stature of the men’s and women’s basketball programs, it is hard to believe that the women have IU’s only Big Ten Tournament title.

This year’s Hoosiers enter the tournament 6-10 in the Big Ten and 17-13 overall. IU had a nice win over a ranked Western Kentucky team in the pre-conference but clearly struggled a bit in the league. IU is ranked #60 in the latest RPI projections, so presumably they will have to win the whole thing again to make it to the NCAA.

I won’t feign expertise on women’s basketball (I’ll talk about all IU teams on this site, but I will only feign expertise on football and men’s basketball). Instead, here’s a link to a nice tournament nutshell from the Indianapolis Star.