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 Michigan and won in Ann Arbor for the first time since 1967. It was an ugly defensive battle where both offenses struggled mightily. A couple of other Big Ten results were equally low-scoring slugfests as well.
Also, the hoops squad at IU looked good again in an exhibition win and has its final exhibition today. As usual, we will conclude with a look at the weekly shows and the rest of the Hoosier sports scene, which was led by volleyball getting back on track with a couple of road wins.
Here is what is in this week’s edition:
• IU football wins ugly game at Michigan
• Minnesota upsets Iowa in wild day of Big Ten football
• IU basketball dominates North Carolina in exhibition
• Hoosiers conclude exhibition play today against Western Kentucky
• Back Home Network shows
• Hoosier Roundup
Banner #1 – IU football wins ugly game at Michigan
No. 6 IU football played another tough game in a place they had not won since 1967. Once again, the offense struggled mightily 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 as usual and bottled up Michigan’s anemic offense.
This led to a low-scoring contest where one big pass could make all the difference in the world. Fortunately, for the Hoosiers, that came from Hoover on the first pass of overtime down the seam to tight end Brock Schott inside the five-yard line. This was after a contest where no touchdowns were scored in regulation.
From there, Hoover ran it in to the endzone. After that, in an inverse of last week, it was a Wolverines receiver who caught a ball barely out of bounds on the endzone sideline on their attempt to equalize. This allowed Indiana to survive 13-6 and improve to 7-1 on the year to keep their hopes of a third straight College Football Playoff berth alive.
Afterwards, IU coach Curt Cignetti spoke, Zach Horwitz wrote Five Takeaways and Ian Plaskoff put together a column about the defensive effort.
Banner #2 – Minnesota upsets Iowa in wild day of Big Ten football
IU was not the only one to be involved in an ugly low-scoring game. However, unlike the Hoosiers, other top squads lost these contests.
Next week’s Indiana opponent in Minnesota upset Iowa in Minneapolis 13-10 while Oregon fell to Illinois 21-10. In other results, Northwestern rolled against Rutgers while UCLA dominated Michigan State to remain undefeated and on top of the Big Ten.
Banner #3 – IU basketball dominates North Carolina in exhibition
IU basketball fans got their second chance to see the squad last Sunday in an exhibition setting. While the game was not in Bloomington, it was the second of four contests up in Indianapolis this fall as the Hoosiers played North Carolina in Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Once again, if this contest was any indication, IU will be much improved. A far superior front line allowed the Hoosiers to dominate the Tar Heels, 76-58.
After the game, Hoosier coach Darian DeVries spoke, Inside the Hall had a photo gallery, Ryan Corazza wrote a Minute After, Alex Bozich provided Five Takeaways and Ian Plaskoff and Zach Horowitz put together columns about the victory.
Banner #4 – Hoosiers conclude exhibition play today against Western Kentucky
While the Hoosiers will remain in the state of Indiana for one more exhibition today, it will be a rare time when it will not take place in Bloomington or Indianapolis. Instead, IU steps down a level in competition to play Western Kentucky in Evansville at the Ford Center.
The contest tips off at 4 p.m. on BIG+. Also, Devries spoke about the game earlier this week.
Banner #5 – Back Home Network shows
The Back Home Network has many shows. As a result, it was on air several times this week with programming.
Banner #6 – Hoosier Roundup
• Volleyball got back on track with two road sweeps at Washington and Ohio State.
• Men’s soccer beat Ohio State but tied Northwestern.
• Swimming and diving beat Kentucky and USC.
• Field hockey was edged by Penn State.
• Women’s soccer got dominated by archrival Purdue.
• Wrestling had an athlete compete at the U23 World Championships.
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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