The Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons jumped into Division-I during the 2001-02 season, a year before I attended the school. The school hasn’t beaten a ranked team in their history and have yet to make an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Actually, IPFW is best known for their volleyball program (yes, those exist).
IPFW upset the #3 ranked Indiana Hoosiers tonight in overtime, 71-68.
No one thought IPFW would contend against the Indiana Hoosiers when they were set to play each other at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne. It wasn’t a traditional road game for the Hoosiers since the crowd was filled with cream and crimson clad fans.
The Mastodons are the favorites to win The Summit League this season, but are still not expected to contend with major programs. They are 3-2 on the season and have already lost to Arkansas and Illinois State. IPFW clearly played a near-perfect game and only trailed for 90 seconds in the game. The backcourt duo of Bryson Scott and Jon Konchar scored a combined 33 points with Scott also grabbing 12 rebounds for a double-double.
IU guards James Blackmon Jr., Robert Johnson and Josh Newkirk were unable to stop the guards from penetrating. Indiana clearly misses the graduated Yogi Ferrell. Forward OG Anunoby only played 13 minutes in this contest, so head coach Tom Crean opted to play a smaller lineup with Newkirk. Indiana may need to play zone the rest of the season if their guards can’t play better defense.
What’s next for IPFW? They have a myriad of small schools on their non-conference schedule with the only big school remaining is Notre Dame, which is being played in South Bend. They have came close to appearing in the NCAA Tournament the last few seasons by going deep in The Summer League conference tournament. It looks like they can win a big game this season when their backs are against the wall.
Indiana better get their issues straightened out soon. They play Mississippi Valley State this weekend, but they have #4 North Carolina next week.
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About the Author…
Bobby Roberts (otherwise known as Sweetbob) is the creator of ‘America’s White Boy’ and contributor at Project Shanks. His writing has been featured on ESPN’s ‘SportsNation’, Sports Illustrated’s Hot Clicks, Guyspeed, and various other sites. You can follow him on Twitter at @Sweetbob.