At age 84, the affable, silver-haired Bobby Plump remains one of the state’s top basketball ambassadors and nothing, not a pandemic or an unprecedented NCAA Tournament, can keep those yearning to meet him away.
IBJ Publisher Nate Feltman talks with Morris about the history of the city’s sports strategy and what it has meant for the Indy economy.
Not everyone in college sports believes it’s for the better as athletes get closer to earning money from third parties for use of their names, images or likenesses.
The Zags now face Baylor in the championship game on Monday night at Lucas Oil Stadium.
This is the 41st time I have attended the Final Four. I have never seen anything like this version. And I hope never to see anything like it again.
Led by Jared Butler and the rest of their brilliant backcourt, a defense that refused to give Houston an inch, and a coach intent on making the most of his first trip to the Final Four, the Bears roared to a 78-59 victory Saturday night in their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament semifinals in 71 long years.
After a surprise delivery five weeks early in December, feisty 3-month-old Molly Skolnick of Carmel will be represented at the Final Four by a seat-filling cutout as part of an April Fools ruse concocted by her parents.
Fortune magazine reported that ticket prices are 145% higher than any other Final Four in history. Brokers say the prices would be even higher if a Midwestern team was in the final rounds.
Volunteers are coordinating bus transportation for teams, running to the store for toothpaste for players, sanitizing practice courts, doing laundry for the teams, beautifying the city with new trees, picking up trash, setting up seating pods in the venues and assisting out-of-town media and other guests with just about anything they may need.
Indiana teams were noticeably absent from the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament this year—only Purdue even made the field of 68 teams. But there are still some Indiana-related reasons to watch the Final Four. Here are five of them.
John W. “Ned” Sampson, the longtime coach of Pembroke High School in North Carolina, once went toe-to-toe with members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Although athletes may have been tested on campus, the NCAA has not ramped up its usual testing program at national championships such as March Madness, sources tell AP.
The NCAA and local organizing groups set up expanded ambassador and item-delivery services relying on volunteer help to take care of needs for players, officials and others working inside.
The South Meridian Street bars, Tiki Bob’s Cantina and The Patron Saint, were cited for multiple violations including not requiring masks and social distancing. Both establishments corrected the violations, the health department said.
Gonzaga is chasing a perfect 32-win season. That’s not the only number worth focusing on for this year’s Final Four. Here are a few more that are sure to factor into the chase for the national championship.
Downtown crowds are thin this year amid a pandemic that’s putting a crimp in sales for pop-up businesses, which normally count on throngs of fans to attend games and stop in for souvenirs to or from the game.
The NCAA Tournament has provided a much-needed rallying cry to support our downtown. It reminds all of us of the importance of getting back on track.
Hospitality leaders say no, although it will be some time before occupancy rates are back to normal.
A trio of men’s basketball players asked NCAA President Mark Emmert to abide by, and enforce, Title IX gender equity rules and to create a waiver that would let college athletes start earning money from use of their names, images and likenesses this year.
The 1975-76 IU Hoosiers refused to let anything—injuries, pressure, a brutal schedule or distractions— derail them from going undefeated. Forty-five years later, Gonzaga (30-0) needs two more wins to duplicate the accomplishment.
