Murphy’s Law dictates that anything that can go wrong will in fact, go wrong. That’s about the most I can say about yesterday’s IU Indianapolis loss to Northern Kentucky, 71-67, which was capped off by the team bus catching fire. It wasn’t as if the Jaguars were the only side that was snakebit; the Norse had problems getting people into the game with issues regarding parking and ticket taking. And then the game happened.
You know how when you see a performance between two clubs so bad you feel like its setting the sport back a few years? That was how I felt. Both teams hit dismally from long range, with both only hitting ten out of 28 attempts by IU Indy and 30 by Northern Kentucky, respectively. At least IU Indy was able to hit the free throws, missing just once out of 12, compared to the Norse’s laughable 5 out of 10.
Nobody fouled out, but NKU’s Josh Dilling, who led both teams with 28 points, sure got close with four, and three players on both sides had 3 fouls. IU Indy must’ve cursed the Norse bench, because two of the three Norse players that dressed off the bench didn’t score. As for the Jaguars, Sean Craig led the team with 22 points and 9 out of 19 baskets made, with Paul Zilinskas following suit with 15 points.
As for the game itself, well, whenever this team doesn’t hit the three, they’re likely gonna lose. What I hadn’t realized until watching the game was that Northern Kentucky also wasn’t hitting the three, keeping the Jags in the game. Northern Kentucky managed to get off to an early lead as the first ten or so minutes were a rather low scoring affair, before IU Indy came back to jump ahead by 7.
The Norse would recover and go into the break with a 3 point lead. The Norse would run off with their score increased to 12 early in the second half, though the team would never fully get rid of IU Indy, as a series of missed baskets and turnovers allowed the Jaguars to reduce the deficit to six around the 9:40 mark and then 4 with a minute to go. However, two missed jump shots from Jarvis Walker and Zilinskas would ensure that the Jaguars wouldn’t leave Highland Heights with a victory.
… or a bus, for that matter.
After the game, the team was driving back to Indianapolis when the team bus caught fire around Lawrenceburg, which was on the Indiana/Kentucky border due to what the team described as a mechanical issue. Nobody was hurt, but all of the team supplies, like jerseys, were destroyed, and several players lost belongings. You would think that Indiana University Indianapolis wouldn’t fret over this, but, uh… if you’ve ever read my stuff in about the year, I’ve been a contributor and the previous years as a commentor on the HoriZone Discord and the old Horizon League forum, money is, in fact, an issue.
Unlike the parent school Indiana University of Bloomington, which could easily absorb an incident like this due to network deals and donors, IU Indianapolis has no such benefits; playing in the Horizon League limits your expose to ESPN+ all season, and I doubt ESPN pays the league that much, there’s no local radio because the team has been unsuccessful for so long and requires infrastructure, and it took nearly 30 years for the school to break ground on a Division I grade arena, which was probably something they would have done in the late 90s or early 2000s had the funds been there.
I’m not saying the school is dirt poor; it has one of the largest endowments in the league, but athletics has never really been a pressing issue for the university due to its status as a transient school. So, if you feel like supporting the team, feel free to donate to them to help them get back on track.
The good news for the Jaguars is that they only have home games for the rest of the regular season, starting off with a Thursday encounter with league leaders Robert Morris at the Jungle before capping things off with Senior Day against Wright State on Saturday. The Wright State game will be at Corteva Coliseum, so if you’re going, keep that in mind. The bad news is that, with the loss, the Jaguars pretty much are going somewhere in the first round, as even if a lot of things go their way and they tie with Wright State at the end of the season, they’d still lose the tiebreaker on common opponents. Just thought I’d mention that.
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