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Mike Woodson wants IU-Kentucky series back: 'However we’ve got to get it done, I’ll take it.'


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Mike Woodson promised to beef up IU basketball's nonconference schedule. And he followed through, with games against Kansas and Arizona on the horizon.

But the opponent most IU fans want to see on the schedule is Kentucky. 

At Wednesday night's annual trip to Huber's Orchard and Winery, Woodson said he's spoken to Kentucky coach John Calipari about renewing the rivalry.

I’m gonna stay on his heels about trying to get the Kentucky-Indiana series back on the table. Over the years that was a helluva game. It might not be Bloomington-Lexington. However we’ve got to get it done, I’ll take it.”

 

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/indiana/2022/05/25/mike-woodson-wants-indiana-vs-kentucky-basketball-rivalry-back-john-calipari-iu-hoosiers/9933358002/


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Cal has no interest in true road games anywhere. He avoids them as much as possible. My guess is he will never step foot in Bloomington, IN again. That may be the least of his concerns. Another subpar season or first round tourney loss (with the national player of the year on his team) and they'll bury him somewhere in the 'hollers'.

What people forget is uk is the one that keeps changing the game locations. From home to neutral court back in the early 90's where it stayed that way for a decade or more and then uk caused it to go back to home games. A "scheduling conflict". Then Cal got his feelings hurt and demanded neutral court again. Honestly don't care where they play. Seems like it's a game that should happen every season for the fans but if IU can play Kansas, Arizona, or Louisville I'd be fine with that too.

What's clear is CMW is not ducking anyone. That's great news for the fans and the program. It also means he better keep up the recruiting success if he want's to have a chance to compete in these games. 

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Of course, home/home would be best, but a neutral somewhere else could work.

The "neutral" site could be in Ohio (Cincinnati or Columbus) or Chicago. The "IU" concern was that a marquee game in Bankers Life Fieldhouse was a recruiting showcase for UK in our home state. Fine, move the neutral to Ohio/Illinois and have both schools showcase in that state. 

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12 minutes ago, macomb hoosier said:

Of course, home/home would be best, but a neutral somewhere else could work.

The "neutral" site could be in Ohio (Cincinnati or Columbus) or Chicago. The "IU" concern was that a marquee game in Bankers Life Fieldhouse was a recruiting showcase for UK in our home state. Fine, move the neutral to Ohio/Illinois and have both schools showcase in that state. 

We could do it like the game vs Arizona in Las Vegas - make it a destination game.

This would never happen, but play it in historic high school gyms in each state - A lot fewer ticket sales, but the tv ratings would be through the roof for something like that.

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9 hours ago, Euroclydon said:

Cal has no interest in true road games anywhere. He avoids them as much as possible. My guess is he will never step foot in Bloomington, IN again. That may be the least of his concerns. Another subpar season or first round tourney loss (with the national player of the year on his team) and they'll bury him somewhere in the 'hollers'.

What people forget is uk is the one that keeps changing the game locations. From home to neutral court back in the early 90's where it stayed that way for a decade or more and then uk caused it to go back to home games. A "scheduling conflict". Then Cal got his feelings hurt and demanded neutral court again. Honestly don't care where they play. Seems like it's a game that should happen every season for the fans but if IU can play Kansas, Arizona, or Louisville I'd be fine with that too.

What's clear is CMW is not ducking anyone. That's great news for the fans and the program. It also means he better keep up the recruiting success if he want's to have a chance to compete in these games. 

Personally I don’t even care if we ever play Kentucky again. At least as long as Cal is there. Play home and away or don’t play them. Chickensh@#t won’t play at IU because they’re scared of the crowd. Don’t need them.

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8 hours ago, Zlinedavid said:

If “neutral” means Bankers Life or the Yum! Center….meh…ok fine. I’d rather have them on campus, but those are about as non-neutral as neutral sites get. 

KBJ says he wants it held in Fort Wayne at the Memorial Coliseum.

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I think that Cal would be dumb to schedule IU at this point. His seat is already hot enough without losing to IU. On the flip side, if he should win 🤮, then I don’t think it really helps him that much.

The risk/reward balance isn’t favorable for Cal.  Especially considering that Woody will have IU rolling soon. 

Edited by IUKane21
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23 hours ago, macomb hoosier said:

The "neutral" site could be in Ohio (Cincinnati or Columbus) or Chicago. The "IU" concern was that a marquee game in Bankers Life Fieldhouse was a recruiting showcase for UK in our home state. Fine, move the neutral to Ohio/Illinois and have both schools showcase in that state. 

Cincy is relatively easy to get to from either campus. The issue is that there’s only one arena that’s comparable in size to SSAH or coRuppt Arena, and it’s the aging Heritage Bank Arena (FKA Riverfront Coliseum). It’s a decent enough arena for minor league hockey and concerts/events, but it’s not exactly state of the art. UC’s Fifth Third Arena and XU’s Cintas Center are newer but significantly smaller (12K and 10K capacity). 
 

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If CMW wants the game, so be it.

Personally, I don’t think we owe PUKe anything and should make no concessions to Calipari and his program. I am completely satisfied with the upcoming schedule and how we’ve strengthened it. We don’t need them on our schedule and I would rather not play them than to give in to old Teflon John.

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2 hours ago, Steubenhoosier said:

If CMW wants the game, so be it.

Personally, I don’t think we owe PUKe anything and should make no concessions to Calipari and his program. I am completely satisfied with the upcoming schedule and how we’ve strengthened it. We don’t need them on our schedule and I would rather not play them than to give in to old Teflon John.

This is a lot the way I feel.  I don't like the idea of caving and looking like the weaker program.  However, if you kick Cal's ass on his terms, that's a potential bonanza.

I do not like it in Indy though...seems like way to much of a win for Cal and for a team that IU beat two of the last three times, no way should they be dictating the terms.

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Draw a straight line between BTown and Lexington and you’d wind up approximately in Madison, IN. Given that town’s history of boat racing on the Ohio, here’s what we’re going to do. (Hold my beer)

We’re going to get a couple of barges, constrict a court and play the game in the middle of the damn river. One year we can have it slightly closer to Indiana, next year we can have it slightly closer to Kentucky. 
 

Two years of this and Teflon John will be begging to come back to SSAH, because god knows what a good dose of Ohio River water will do to those Ferragamo loafers. May want to put on socks Johnny Boy. :coffee: 

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On 5/26/2022 at 8:10 AM, IUFLA said:

All for it, and though I think it'd be better on the campuses, if the only way to get it is a neutral site, so be it..

I liked it better when it was played at neutral sites.  Sea of red on one side and sea of blue on the other.  Don’t know why most are hung up on the home and home aspect, there’s other big name programs we can get for that.

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1 minute ago, ThePaulieWalnuts said:

Don’t know why most are hung up on the home and home aspect

Because a “neutral” site game in Indianapolis is still a platform for Teflon John to peddle his snake oil to recruits. Get the game in BTown….yeah, that ain’t going to happen. 

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48 minutes ago, Zlinedavid said:

Draw a straight line between BTown and Lexington and you’d wind up approximately in Madison, IN. Given that town’s history of boat racing on the Ohio, here’s what we’re going to do. (Hold my beer)

We’re going to get a couple of barges, constrict a court and play the game in the middle of the damn river. One year we can have it slightly closer to Indiana, next year we can have it slightly closer to Kentucky. 
 

Two years of this and Teflon John will be begging to come back to SSAH, because god knows what a good dose of Ohio River water will do to those Ferragamo loafers. May want to put on socks Johnny Boy. :coffee: 

I like it. Kentucky has to swim back home though. 

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1 minute ago, ThePaulieWalnuts said:

I liked it better when it was played at neutral sites.  Sea of red on one side and sea of blue on the other.  Don’t know why most are hung up on the home and home aspect, there’s other big name programs we can get for that.

I think it has a lot to do with the perceived recruiting advantage that Kensucky gets.  Having a game in talent-rich Indianapolis is big for pUKe's recruiting.  IU getting a game in Kentucky means a lot less since there's very little talent coming out of Kentucky.

Have these games elsewhere outside of Indiana would take away a lot of that perceived advantage.

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