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(10/13/21 2:48pm)
The Jaguars men’s and women’s basketball teams are fired up and preparing for their regular seasons to start next month. The head coaches of each team spoke about what to expect this season.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Last season the men’s basketball team finished 8-10 overall last season and 7-9 in the Horizon League. Head coach Matt Crenshaw is gearing up for a new season and hopes to come out stronger.
“The message we’re preaching right now for the team is just to get better every day and we’re also talking about this particular group laying the groundwork, laying the foundation for the future of the program,” Crenshaw said.
He talked about how they have some seniors who will be playing for a new coach and how it’s all about leaving a legacy and leaving their mark for the future Jaguars in the future. Crenshaw said it’s also about laying the blueprint for how they want things to be moving forward. He spoke on goals for the season being individual improvement and to improve in the conference standings from where they were last year. Crenshaw explained how he’s a competitor, wants to get to the conference tournament and how that’s always going to be the goal.
“We want to set our expectations high so we can always have something to grind and to keep us motivated trying to achieve,” Crenshaw said.
Two of the team’s leading scorers last season, Marcus Burk and Elyjah Goss, decided to go professional, while another, Jaylen Minnett, transferred to another school. With those three gone, they now have a young team. Their first game of the season against Butler will be a challenge, but for Crenshaw it’s a welcome one.
“We always want to try and play a challenging and competitive schedule, we like to always play one of those power five teams,” Crenshaw said.
Whether it’s Purdue, Northwestern or Butler, he likes to play one of those local power five teams within a two hour drive. Crenshaw believes it helps in recruiting to play a challenging schedule. He also touched on Hinkle Fieldhouse being a special place with the history, people in Indiana.
“I really wanted to challenge our guys, it’s going to be a tough game,” Crenshaw said.
He noted that Butler is returning their whole team from last season including those who were injured and that they’ve even added pieces.
“They’re going to be really good and what you want to get out of those games is really just experience, for when they get into maybe playing in a conference tournament or you’re playing in that game to get to the conference finals,” Crenshaw said. “It’s all about experience, that’s what we’re lacking right now is experience in actual playing.”
Their roster includes quite a few upperclassmen, but with the pandemic and past seasons, they didn’t get the experience past players received. Crenshaw said they have a lot of juniors and seniors, but not a lot of experience actually being out there on the floor 30 minutes a game.
“Obviously you want to go into games trying to win 100%, but you also want to learn something from every game so for us we want to go compete, we want to win and we want to use that as an opportunity to get better,” Crenshaw said.
The men’s team tips off their season with an exhibition game against the Anderson University Ravens Wednesday Nov. 3rd at 11 a.m. at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The start of their regular season will see them travel across town to take on the Butler Bulldogs Tuesday Nov. 9th at 6:45 p.m. at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
When it comes to the women’s team, they finished 15-5 last season and 11-3 in the Horizon League. They have quite a bit of experience on this season’s team with players returning with the extra year of eligibility that the NCAA granted players due to the pandemic. Head coach Austin Parkinson touched on goals they’re bringing from last season.
“One of the things from last year we talked about was finishing through the line, some of that was due to covid, being out of the conditioning shape when the season was interrupted halfway through and conference, but we felt like in some of the fourth quarters especially late we felt we didn’t finish quite the way we want to,” Parkinson said.
He touched on the added depth the team has this season and that with that added depth, that they’re stronger in the fourth quarter. Parkinson said they have a pretty veteran group coming back, touching on their two post players Macee Williams and Morgan Allen. He also mentioned the return of Rachel McLimore, Destiny Perkins and Natalie Andersen. Parkinson said they have really good players that continue to get better.
“We want to win a regular season championship and a tournament championship.“We talk about that one time and one time only in our first meeting in the summer and then we never speak about it again,” Parkinson said.
He said they talk about being very process focused, trying to get better every single day and build good habits.
“We’re very defensive oriented, we guard really really well, that’s always kind of the backbone of what we do,” Parkinson said. “But I think the last couple years, our perimeter shooting and ability to share the basketball that puts shooters in a good position to score has made us really effective.”
He explained how those techniques made them one of the better offensive teams in the country last year including leading the league in three point percentage. Parkinson credited that to the players and the work they put in. When fans show up at games, they should expect to watch a fun team. He touched on a couple transfers they got who are both high caliber players that will add to a pretty solid team already.
“Our players always play really hard and they play the game the right way, they try to play unselfish, I think it’s a fun group to watch,” Parkinson said.
The women’s team tips off their season with an exhibition game Nov. 4th against the IU Northwest Redhawks at 7 p.m. at home in The Jungle. The start of their regular season will see them travel to Ann Arbor, MI to face off against the Michigan Wolverines Tuesday Nov. 9th with time to be announced.
(09/22/21 5:22pm)
The Indianapolis Colts were looking to go 1-1 on the season after a loss to Seattle in week one, but the Los Angeles Rams had other ideas. It was a close game right up until the end, when the Rams punched it in with too little time left for the Colts to do much. The game started out with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Rams QB Matthew Stafford to Cooper Kupp, the PAT by Matt Gay was good and the first quarter ended with Los Angeles leading 7-0. The second quarter turned out to be a field goal battle. The Colts pulled within four at the 14:52 mark of the second quarter on a Rodrigo Blankenship field goal. But the Rams would answer back with a field goal of their own, but Blankenship put three more up for the Rams. At halftime, the score read 10-6 Rams leading the Colts.
Halftime brought back many memories for fans as there was a special Hall of Fame ceremony to recognize the accomplishments for two former Colts stars. Those two former Colts stars happened to be running back Edgerrin James and Quarterback Peyton Manning. You could tell it was a special day from the moment you got to the stadium with all the Manning jerseys fans had on.
Edgerrin James was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2020, but covid-19 didn’t let fans take part in a ceremony. James was drafted by the Colts fourth overall in 1999 from the University of Miami. James stayed with the Colts from 1999-2005 and is in their Ring of Honor.
With the Colts, James was Offensive Rookie of the Year, First-team All-Pro, NFL rushing yards leader and a Pro Bowler in 1999. In 2000 he was again an NFL rushing yards leader and Pro Bowler while also making Second-team All-Pro. He again made the Second-team All-Pro and Pro Bowl in 2004 while making the Pro Bowl for the fourth time in 2005. James was also named to the NFL’s 2000s All-Decade Team.
Peyton Manning was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year. Manning was drafted by the Colts first overall in 1998 from the University of Tennessee. He stayed with the Colts from 1998 until 2011 when he signed as a free agent with the Denver Broncos for the 2012 season. His accomplishments include:
Two Super Bowls, one of which he won MVP for.
Five NFL MVP awards
Two NFL Offensive Player of the Year awards
NFL Comeback Player of the Year in 2012
Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year
7x First-team All-Pro
3x Second-team All-Pro
14x Pro Bowler
3x NFL passing yards leader
4x NFL passing touchdowns leader
3x NFL passer rating leader
2x NFL completion percentage leader
NFL 2000s All-Decade Team
NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
Number 18 retired by Colts
Colts Ring of Honor
Number honored by Denver Broncos
3x recipient of the Bert Bell Award for NFL Player of the Year
Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year
8x KCC Offensive Player of the Year.
Once halftime ended, the Colts took the field hoping to mount a comeback victory over the Rams. The first score of the second half came from the LA Rams on a two-yard run from Ashton Dulin. The kick was up and good making it 17-6 Los Angeles, but the Colts answered back shortly after on an eight-yard pass from Carston Wentz to Zach Pascal. The Colts then converted on a two point conversion on a pass to Jack Doyle to make it 17-14 LA.
The Colts mounted what fans hoped was a comeback early in the fourth on a Rams fumble. The Colts scooped it up and put it in the end zone and converted on the PAT to take their first lead of the game 21-17. But the Rams answered back with a ten-yard toss from Stafford to Kupp and converted on the PAT for a 24-21 Rams lead. The Colts tied it a short while later on a Blankenship field goal, but LA slipped by with 2:23 to go in the fourth on a field goal by Matt Gay. The final score read LA Rams 27 Indianapolis Colts 24.
But late in the fourth quarter, the Colts suffered another setback with an ankle injury to QB Carson Wentz. He has sprains in both of his ankles after playing through the first sprain only to go out on the second. His status for week three when the Colts travel to take on the Tennessee Titans is unknown. That game kicks off next Sunday at 1 p.m.
For the Rams, their next game is back home next Sunday against the defending Super Bowl champion, Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 4:25 p.m at SoFi Stadium.
(09/14/21 12:09pm)
Sunday marked the first home opener for the Colts, as fans from Indianapolis and Seattle packed Lucas Oil Stadium full. But unfortunately for the Colts, the outcome wasn't what they expected.
Seattle outscored Indy 7-3 in the first quarter, 14-7 in the second and 7-0 in the fourth. Russell Wilson and his high powered offensive line was simply too much for the Colts defensive line. As for the offensive line, Carson Wentz simply had no protection against the Seahawks defensive line.
Wilson was 18-23 passing for 254 yards and four touchdowns while Wentz went 25-38 passing for 251 yards and two touchdowns. Indianapolis took the initial lead in the first quarter on a 21 yard field goal by Rodrigo Blankenship. Seattle answered back and took the lead on a 23 yard pass from Wilson to Tyler Lockett, Jason Myers then connected on the PAT. Seattle then struck again early in the second on a nine yard toss from Wilson to Gerald Everett, Myers connected on the PAT. However, the Colts came back with a touchdown of their own on a ten yard toss from Wentz to Zach Pascal. Rodrigo’s PAT was good and Indy pulled within four at 14-10.
After that Colts touchdown, Seattle pulled away. Late in the second quarter, the Colts sacked Wilson and fans went wild thinking they’d pretty much diminished any hopes of scoring for Seattle. However, on 2nd and 20 for Seattle, Wilson heaved a moonshot of a pass for 69 yards to Tyler Lockett for a touchdown. Myers connected on the PAT, and it was 21-10 Seattle. Once that touchdown happened, the energy shifted.
https://twitter.com/Seahawks/status/1437119402684542984?s=20
The third quarter saw no scoring for either team, but Seattle would strike again towards the end of the fourth. Wilson tossed a 15 yard pass from Wilson to DK Metcalf, Myers connected on the PAT and Seattle took a 28-10 lead with 6:41 to go in the game.
The late Seattle touchdown opened the floodgates with Colts fans heading for the exits in droves. While it was too little too late, the Colts had one last score in them. With just over two minutes remaining in the game, Wentz tossed an 11 yard pass to Zach Pascal to make it 28-16. Indianapolis then attempted a two point conversion, but the Seahawks sacked Wentz.
Looking ahead to next week, the Seahawks will have their home opener at Lumen Field against the Tennessee Titans where they’ll look to go 2-0. For the Colts, it doesn’t get any easier as the Los Angeles Rams come to town fresh off a 20 point win over the Chicago Bears 34-14. Colts will seek to claim their first win of the season.