Roundup: RoJo's College Hoops Career Will Have One Last Hurrah

Welcome to another edition of 6-Banner Sunday, where we highlight the six most essential IU basketball stories of the past week.
Or, when it’s a slow news week in the offseason, we highlight the six most essential IU sports stories of the week.
The men’s basketball season is now weeks in the past, but one Hoosier will be playing in San Antonio the week of the Final Four. More details on that, plus IU Swim & Dive’s incredible run at the NCAA Championships, in this week’s 6-Banner Sunday.
In this week’s edition:

1. IU Swim & Dive finishes 3rd at NCAA Championships
2. Robert Johnson to compete in 3×3 challenge
3. Indiana State Tournament finals
4. Freddie McSwain meets the Hoosier Network
5. IU women advance to WNIT quarterfinals
6. Little 500 lineup + best of the rest

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IU Swim & Dive finishes 3rd at NCAA Championships

Indiana came close to another National Championship last night. The Men’s Swim & Dive program captured finished 3rd with 422 points, behind only Texas (449) and California (437.5).
The star of Friday night’s action in Minneapolis was Indiana’s Ian Finnerty. Finnerty broke the American 100-meter breaststroke record by finishing with a ludicrous time of 49.69 seconds. In doing so, Finnerty won an NCAA title and became the first American to ever break the 50-second barrier.
The IU Athletics’ website has more on the accomplishments of Finnerty and his teammates
On the women’s side:

• Junior Lilly King was named Big Ten Swimmer of the Year for the third straight season

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Robert Johnson to compete in 3×3 challenge

The collegiate career of Andy Bottoms’ favorite Hoosier isn’t over yet. Well, sort of. This past week, it was announced that Robert Johnson will compete in the first-ever 3x3U National Championship.
Each of the 32 conferences in Division 1 will send a team to San Antonio comprised of four outgoing players. The team rosters have not been released yet, but it has been confirmed by IU that Johnson will play for the Big Ten’s team. The full list of players competing will be made official on Thursday, March 29.
The event takes place from March 30-April 1, and begins with pool play, followed later by bracket play. Pool play and quarterfinal action will be streamed live on Twitter, while the final two elimination rounds will air on ESPN2.
And because all participants have exhausted their collegiate eligibility, there will be cash up for grabs. It is not an NCAA-affiliated event. For every game a team wins through the semifinals, the four players will split $1,000. The winning team shares $50,000.

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Indiana State Tournament finals

Damezi Anderson and Romeo Langford may not have been at Bankers Life Fieldhouse last night, but there was still a packed house for the IHSAA Boys State Finals.
Attendance for the early session (1A and 2A) was 13,127, the largest since 2008. The night session was packed for the 3A and 4A games.
The one player Archie Miller had his eye on Saturday evening was Culver sophomore Trey Galloway, whose team played Evansville Bosse in the 3A final. Galloway is a four-star shooting guard and is currently the highest-ranked Hoosier in the 247 rankings for the class of 2020.
Galloway ended the game with 14 points, five rebounds, two blocks and a steal as his Culver team won the 3A title.
Results from the other State Finals (links via Indy Star):

• 4A: In the late game, Warren Central followed up their win over Romeo Langford’s New Albany Bulldogs by defeating Carmel. Warren Central finished the season undefeated.
• 2A: Caleb Middlesworth led the way for Oak Hill, scoring 25 points in a 12-point win over Forest Park
• 1A: Morristown set class records for points and margin of victory in a title game as they downed Southwood, 89-60

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Freddie McSwain meets The Hoosier Network

Known for his non-stop hustle, superhuman strength, and ability to dunk on students while wearing flip-flops and grab rebounds over taller opponents by the handful, outgoing senior Freddie McSwain joined the folks at The Hoosier Network last week as a special guest on their podcast.
In a 30-minute interview, McSwain discussed the 2017-18 season, his time at junior college in Kansas, his preference for Waffle House, his future plans and much more. Early in the interview, McSwain, who didn’t start playing competitively until high school, discussed how he was able to pick up the game so quickly:

(My close friends) always picked on me, because I was always taller than them. It was just like, they always picked on me (and said) ‘you’re not good. you’re not good.’ But I’m like, I’m gonna show y’all I can get better than y’all. They pushed me. I’m glad I had friends like that back at home. They pushed me, they motivated me every day. I’m grateful to death because they pushed me to continue to play and be great.

At The Assembly Call, we’re also grateful we had the opportunity to watch McSwain for two seasons.

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IU women advance to WNIT quarterfinals

The IU women’s basketball squad clinched their third consecutive 20-win season on Thursday night by thrashing Purdue to advance to the WNIT quarterfinals.
In front of a season-high crowd of 5,564 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, Indiana completed a three-game season sweep of the Boilermakers by dominating from start to finish in a 73-51 victory.
Senior Tyra Buss, the program’s all-time leading scorer, poured in 24-points. Postgame, Buss spoke glowingly of the atmosphere the fans provided:

“That was an amazing crowd. We hope they keep coming back and giving us their support as long as we keep playing. They just gave us an extreme amount of energy. It was really electric and it just made it really fun to play in there.”

Next up for Indiana is another home date, this one with UC Davis of the Big West Conference. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. eastern this afternoon. Info on how to watch, both in-person or via online streaming, is available here.

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Little 500 lineup set + best of the rest

Saturday marked the annual Little 500 qualifying round in Bloomington, where some students party all day and others compete for a spot in the greatest race in college sports.
This year, the conditions were downright miserable. A combination of sleet, snow, and rain muddled the track inside Bill Armstrong Stadium and provided another obstacle for both riders and fans.
When it was all over, the Cutters nabbed the top spot on the men’s side, while Delta Gamma will start out in first in the women’s race. For more information and results on qualifying, check out this piece from The Hoosier Network.
Before you go:

• On the latest episode of Assembly Call Radio, the crew (+ regular guest Dr. Galen Clavio) broke down the common misconceptions of the pack-line defense and why No. 1 Virginia’s loss to No. 16 UMBC isn’t an indictment of the system
• IU baseball split a doubleheader in Iowa City to open conference play. The rubber match was canceled because of inclement weather (The Hoosier)
• The Hoosier Network sat down with three members of IU soccer’s most legendary family for a video interview
• Remember Bryant Fitzgerald, the IU football player oddly ruled ineligible to play last season? He’s back and ready to contribute (Herald-Times)
• IU Softball clinched a series with No. 18 Ohio State by sweeping a doubleheader (IU Athletics)
• No. 13 IU Water Polo had a dominating weekend, going 5-0 at the Red Flash Tournament (IU Athletics)
• After a brief time on the sidelines with an ankle injury, OG Anunoby is back in the starting lineup for the Eastern Conference-leading Raptors. Less than 10 seconds into Toronto’s game with Brooklyn, Anunoby connected on an alley-oop from Kyle Lowry

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And with that, the joy of hanging Banner #6 is now one week closer.
Thanks for your continued support for The Assembly Call. We’ll be back next weekend with a new roundup.
Now go enjoy yourself a 6-banner Sunday.