Sports

Before the green flag drops at Bill Armstrong Stadium, here’s our primer on what to expect at the track, from unpredictable weather to the crowds in the stands to the actual racers speeding around on single-speed Schwinns.

Forget the NBA mock drafts and IU fan sites. Amid the speculation about whether Cody Zeller will go pro or stay in school, your best source may be the Amish guy who installed my dad’s windows.

Okay, so the Hoosiers didn’t finish their exciting 2012–13 season on the high note IU fans had hoped for. No need to belabor that point.

There wasn’t much to admire about IU’s sloppy Sweet 16 loss to Syracuse on Thursday. But CBS sideline reporter Rachel Nichols liked what she saw in star Hoosier guard Victor Oladipo—or so one would think, judging by this unfortunate photo posted on Deadspin. 

Mike Botkin is a lifelong Purdue Boilermakers fan. He has been offering the dissenting opinion on the IU hoopla all season.

But do his moves hold up off the court? You decide—here’s a two-year-old video of Oladipo, in a country-clubby cardigan, performing at an IU event as a freshman, making a suave through-the-crowd entrance and crooning the R&B singer’s “U Got It Bad.”

As IU prepares to take on the Syracuse Orange this Thursday night in the Sweet Sixteen, we turned to the oddsmakers for encouragement.

Legendary coach Bob Knight, Victor Oladipo, and Cody Zeller have all landed on the iconic weekly magazine’s cover, recently and over time. See the best of the rest IU basketball SI covers over the years.

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard that President Barack Obama has penciled in Indiana at the top of his bracket for the 2013 NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

Usually we can’t take our eyes off of Victor Oladipo, but today we couldn’t help wondering which lucky kids got the honor of surrounding him on the Sports Illustrated cover. Dustin Dopirak of The Hoosier Scoop tells us that most of the covermates are IU athletes, and tweets from IU athletic departments confirmed the appearance of baseball, soccer, football, and volleyball players and a (swollen-eyed) wrestler.

Oladipo threw down a huge dunk at Chicago’s United Center against a Fighting Illini squad that simply watched (presumably in amazement) from midcourt.

Of all the curious selections announced last night by the Big Ten Conference during its annual awards show, perhaps the most puzzling was the pick for Coach of the Year.

The Manassass High School football program got the documentary treatment last year with Undefeated, which took home an Oscar. ESPN has its own series called 30 for 30 that revisits famous (and infamous) events in sporting history. Now Indiana University’s Little 500 bike race itself will be featured on the silver screen, by way of IU alumni and co-directors Thomas Miller and Peter Stevenson, with assistance from current IU senior Ryan Black. The title: One Day in April.

“I feel like I might be the most blessed person in the city of Indianapolis,” says Jim Peal, strength coach for Butler University. Peal was diagnosed with colon cancer last month, but after undergoing surgery on Feb. 4, he is now cancer-free. The surgery went “fantastic,” and Peal says he will not need to have any further treatment. Peal had an early form of colon cancer, and the surgeons were able to remove it all.

Despite the star treatment, Veach says staying humble makes connecting with fans much easier. He considers himself a typical teen. “When I’m hanging out with my friends back at home,” he says, “we usually talk about video games, girls—normal stuff.”