Welcome to another edition of 6-Banner Sunday, a joint production between The Assembly Call and Inside the Hall, where we highlight the five most essential IU sports stories of the past week. 6-Banner Sunday is written by Ari Shifron.
Football continued its conference season with a showdown against Ohio State and lost for the first time in nearly two years. Meanwhile, IU basketball won an exhibition game last Sunday and has another one today as competitive contests are here.
Also, the hoops squad bagged a future recruit and projections for this year for them. As usual, we will conclude with a look at the weekly shows and the rest of the Indiana sports scene, which was led by an announcement of sponsorship on jerseys department-wide.
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Here is what is in this week’s edition:
• IU football falls to Ohio State, snapping 22-game winning streak
• IU basketball dominates Butler in exhibition game
• Class of 2029 guard Micah Mohler commits to IU basketball
• More preseason projections for IU basketball
• Podcast on the Brink and Back Home Network shows
• Hoosier Roundup
Banner #1 – IU football falls to Ohio State, snapping 22-game winning streak
IU played its toughest game of the season and arguably the biggest game in Memorial Stadium history. The atmosphere and fans in the stadium created a hostile environment for the opposition. Also, for the first time in years, the Hoosiers had nearly all supporters in their own venue and the number of traveling Ohio State fans was cut to a small of the turnout.
Once again, though, Indiana struggled on offense for large parts of the game as quarterback Josh Hoover continued to have inaccurate throws and issues processing the field. However, IU’s defense played lights out and bottled up Buckeye quarterback Julian Sayin and the nation’s top wide receiver in Jeremiah Smith.
This led to a low-scoring contest where the Hoosiers needed a score on their final drive. However, wide receiver Nick Marsh could not get his foot down by inches on what would have been a game-winning touchdown on a throw that led him to close to the sideline.
As a result, Ohio State held on 19-15 and Indiana fell to 6-1 this fall and had their 22-game win streak snapped. The last loss before Saturday came nearly two years ago in December of 2024 to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff.
Afterwards, IU coach Curt Cignetti spoke, Inside the Hall had a photo gallery, Zach Horwitz wrote Five Takeaways and Ian Plaskoff put together a column about the end of the winning streak.
Banner #2 – IU basketball dominates Butler in exhibition game
IU basketball fans got their first chance this fall to see the squad last Sunday against opposing competition. While the game was not in Bloomington, it was the first of four contests up in Indianapolis this fall as the Hoosiers played at Butler in Hinkle Fieldhouse and plenty of Indiana fans were in the crowd.
If this contest was any indication, IU will be much improved with a far superior front line as the Hoosiers dominated 96-68 over the Bulldogs. Fans will get another chance to see the squad in the Circle City today when IU takes on North Carolina today at 5 p.m. ET with plenty of tickets left.
After the game against Butler, Hoosier coach Darian DeVries spoke, Inside the Hall had a photo gallery and Ian Plaskoff provided Five Takeaways.
Banner #3 – Class of 2029 guard Micah Mohler commits to IU basketball
The Hoosiers picked up a commitment for down the road. The commitment came from class of 2029 guard Micah Mohler.
While Mohler has no stars or ranking yet, he had an offer from rival Purdue. He averaged over 20 points a game last season as a freshman for Austin High School.
Banner #4 – More preseason projections for IU basketball
While the game against Butler would seem to indicate the Hoosiers could be much better, IU opens the season at just 47th in KenPom. They are also a nine seed in bracketology according to Joe Lunardi.
Banner #5 – Podcast on the Brink and Back Home Network shows
Podcast on the Brink returned this week. On it, Alex Bozich was joined by Assembly Call’s Brian Tonsoni to discuss IU basketball.
The Back Home Network has many shows. As a result, it was on air several times this week with programming.
Banner #6 – Hoosier Roundup
• IU announced a jersey patch program with Merchants Bank that will see sponsorship from them on the uniforms of all 24 sports. The company already has the naming rights to the field at Memorial Stadium.
• Men’s soccer suffered its first loss of the fall to Rutgers.
• Field hockey topped Ohio but fell to Northwestern.
• Volleyball continued its sudden rough patch, losing to USC as well as Oregon.
• Women’s soccer tied USC but lost to Michigan State.
• Men’s golf finished fourth at the Purdue Fall Invitational.
• Women’s golf won the Illinois Invitational at Medinah.
• Swimming and diving competed at the CSL Match 5.
• Cross Country competed at the Pre-Nationals.
Thanks for your continued support of 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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