IU Talking Points: 2013 Indiana CWS team revived Big Ten baseball; busy week in B-Town

BLOOMINGTON – Last weekend, former players, coaches and administrators gathered in remarkable numbers in Bloomington, to celebrate the exact achievement people cautioned Tracy Smith would never be possible when he took the Indiana job from Miami (Ohio) in 2005.

With activities all weekend long, the Hoosiers celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Smith’s College World Series team, one that almost singlehandedly changed the direction not just of IU’s baseball program but also the sport in a conference once seen nationally as an afterthought.

That IU team — anchored by Kyle Schwarber, Sam Travis, Aaron Slegers and a host of future pros — won both the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles, before blasting through the first-ever regional in Bloomington and a two-game sweep at Florida State. The Hoosiers won their opening game in Omaha, before a pair of one-run defeats sent them home.

But the impact of that season reverberates even today, more than 10 years after its conclusion.

“It’s a testament to the people in the program,” Smith, now head coach at Michigan, said. “I’d like to think we gave some confidence or maybe paved the way for some other programs, not only at Indiana, but referencing the Big Ten, that yes, we can win here.”

That run, which spanned two seasons and saw the Hoosiers host regionals in consecutive years, forever changed the trajectory of a program now annually expected to compete at the top of the Big Ten.

Through two coaching changes — Smith left for Arizona State before his successor, Chris Lemonis, moved to Mississippi State — and looming conference expansion, the Hoosiers lead the conference with seven NCAA tournament appearances since 2013. They’ve won five combined league regular-season and tournament titles in that time, including current coach Jeff Mercer’s first-season haul in 2019, and Mercer guided Indiana to within one win of a super regional last spring.

In the same span, the league has elevated as well. Sometimes a one-bid conference in the 2000s, the Big Ten now regularly gets 3-5 teams in the NCAA tournament field. Illinois hosted a super in 2015. Michigan reached the final series in Omaha in 2019.

Television and media rights revenues have allowed schools throughout the conference to invest more deeply in modern facilities and expanded support staff. Iowa, Nebraska, Maryland and the Wolverines have all joined IU as programs regularly expecting to appear in the postseason.

While it would be wrong to pin all that to Indiana’s success, the Hoosiers were undeniably the first program to prove it possible, and the best at sustaining it since.

“This team has changed, during that time, the way the Big Ten was viewed in baseball,” Mercer said. “Obviously, the way Indiana was viewed in baseball, but the way the conference was impacted in how many teams make it to postseason play.”

Of the 35 players on that roster, 33 made it back to Bloomington this weekend. That included Schwarber, Travis, Slegers, Kyle Hart, Dustin DeMuth, Scott Effross, Michael Basil, Justin Cureton and Casey Smith, Tracy Smith’s son.

Tracy Smith and his wife came down from Michigan, and his entire coaching staff reassembled as well. Through a golf outing, a Friday night banquet, a Saturday morning tailgate and their on-field honoring during Indiana’s win over Wisconsin, the Hoosiers celebrated what is undeniably among the most transformational teams in department history, all weekend long.

“I love the fact Indiana recognized that, by bringing these guys back to celebrate this weekend,” Smith said. “They talked a lot about that, that this has been the blueprint. Personally, I’m proud. A lot of great memories.”

Busy weekend in Bloomington

We’ve reached the business end of the fall sports season, and there’s a fair bit going on this weekend that will be of interest in the North End Zone facility.

∎Volleyball: The Hoosiers host Rutgers in a rematch of their 3-1 win in Piscataway last weekend, before Minnesota visits Wilkinson Hall on Sunday. The Scarlet Knights aren’t a big scalp — it’s probably a match Indiana needs to win — but Minnesota has a top-40 RPI and represents one of the best remaining victories Steve Aird’s team could add to their NCAA tournament resume.

IU is currently 17-10, and 8-1 at home. The Hoosiers have some solid wins this season (at Miami, Purdue) and a chance at a couple more. Indiana has the sixth-best RPI in the Big Ten right now, per NCAA.com, sitting the Hoosiers squarely on the bubble. A 2-0 weekend would go a long way toward securing the program’s first NCAA tournament berth in 13 years, an achievement that would only bolster significant momentum built by this season and Aird’s recruiting in the upcoming classes.

∎Men’s soccer: For the seventh-straight season, IU will play in the Big Ten tournament final. This time, it will be on home ground.

The Hoosiers, No. 1 seed in the conference field, host No. 2 Penn State at noon Sunday. A win would mark their first league tournament title since the 2020 season, but also their fourth since 2018.

Indiana’s RPI isn’t quite so robust right now as usual, given some patchy form earlier in the season. But Todd Yeagley’s team has won eight of its past nine matches, and might be riding the crest of a wave at the right moment in the calendar to secure more hardware this fall. Either way, their season seems sure to continue beyond Sunday whatever the result.

∎Women’s soccer: Erwin van Bennekom’s Hoosiers confirmed their first NCAA tournament berth in 10 years Monday, an at-large placement that will send them to Saint Louis. The No. 6-seeded Billikens will host Indiana at 8 p.m. Friday.

IU finished 6-2-2 in the Big Ten this season, best in program history. Friday’s match will be broadcast on ESPN Plus.

∎Football: Indiana travels to Illinois on Saturday, a noon kickoff crucial for both programs.

The Hoosiers and Illini each sit in the bottom two of their respective divisions, but both picked up important upsets last weekend. IU is now three wins from bowl eligibility, Illinois two, and there remains a path to six for each team.

The easiest such route, for either team, travels through beating the other. For IU’s purposes, upsetting Illinois in Champaign would put the Hoosiers two wins from a bowl berth with as many games to play. They would likely be favored at home the next week, against Michigan State, and a win there would send Indiana into the Old Oaken Bucket game in Lafayette 5-6. The road remains steep, but climbable.

∎Men’s basketball: We’re a long way from postseason implications, but after a scare Tuesday night against Florida Gulf Coast, the Hoosiers will want to make life easier for themselves Sunday evening against Army.

∎Women’s basketball: Teri Moren’s team has the tastier of the two hardwood weekend schedules. IU hosts Eastern Illinois (7 p.m., BTN Plus) in its season opener Thursday, before traveling west to Palo Alto.

There, Indiana will face Stanford in a matchup of preseason top-15 teams. It will be a stern test for the Hoosiers but, as with Tennessee last season, also an early chance to prove themselves among the nation’s best.

That game will be broadcast on ESPN.

Freshman DB steps up for Hoosiers

Tom Allen won’t have wanted to confront the question of how to replace Noah Pierre, after his sixth-year senior captain was lost to a serious injury during Indiana’s Oct. 21 homecoming loss to Rutgers.

But that process might have pulled back the curtain on one of IU’s next impact defensive backs.

Jordan Shaw, a true freshman from California, finished as the Hoosiers’ co-leading tackler (nine) and played significant snaps in last weekend’s win against Wisconsin. Shaw stepped into the husky role Pierre previously occupied, making it his own and leaving his mark on a defensive performance critical to the Hoosiers’ first Big Ten win.

“Because of the situation with Noah, it allowed us to be able to kind of catapult him to a higher role probably a little faster, but he was ready when called upon,” Allen said Monday. “Definitely put a lot on his plate quickly, but he responded well.”

Shaw’s competitive debut came a week earlier, playing spot snaps in the near miss at Penn State.

IU didn’t lean so heavily on Shaw in that game, but when called upon he didn’t shrink, registering half a sack. That, combined with his work in practice, prompted Allen and defensive coordinator Matt Guerrieri to hand Shaw more responsibility, and he snapped at the chance.

The one-time All-American Bowl selection rose to the challenge, with nine tackles and a pass defended. When Wisconsin tested him, Shaw stood firm.

“Even before the injury to Noah, he was a guy we had just noticed in practice,” Allen said. “Definitely put a lot on his plate pretty quickly, but he responded well. I think he’ll continue to grow and develop, and he’s just a tough kid. He’s got a really good football IQ.

“We had high hopes for him, expectation for him, coming out of high school, and he’s proven to be a guy that’s going to (have) a great future here.”

TRIVIA

During Indiana’s 2013 season, which culminated in the College World Series, what was the Hoosiers’ final record against regional rival Louisville?

ODDS & ENDS

∎ We’d normally have led today with some information on Derik Queen’s recruitment, considering the expectation was he’d sign during the November window now open. But intelligence is slim on that front. No commitment date has been announced, and there hasn’t been much movement since the field seemed to narrow down to IU and Maryland. Kansas and Houston remain involved, and while it seemed like Queen had trained his focus on the Hoosiers and Terrapins, the lack of concrete information lately puts things in a holding pattern. Entirely understandable from his end, just not much to add for the moment.

∎ IU’s Nov. 18 game against Michigan State has been flexed to the six-day window, meaning we won’t know a kickoff time until next week.

∎ If you want, briefly, to entertain the possibility of bowl eligibility while it’s so far away, a couple of quick-glance takeaways.

First, the cluster of four- and five-win teams (Maryland, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern) with a reasonable path to six presents a possibility the conference will have more bowl-eligible teams than confirmed tie-ins. The Big Ten would likely get early picks on unfilled bowls, and I doubt a bowl-eligible Big Ten team wouldn’t get a berth somewhere, but the league might have to get creative. Second, given that field, should the Hoosiers reach six wins, their ceiling is probably Music City Bowl (more likely Pinstripe Bowl) and their floor is almost certainly Quick Lane Bowl (Detroit) or a game outside the current tie-in list.

∎ IU’s team players of the week: Brendan Sorsby, offense; Aaron Casey, defense; James Bomba and Chris Freeman, special teams; TD Collins, Drew Pearce, Austin Barrett, Declan McMahon, Reece Bellin, Reece Lozano, special teams.

∎ Tom Allen announced Monday Cam Camper is out for the season, after undergoing a procedure to clean up his surgically repaired knee. Allen did not specify the procedure but characterized it as related to last year’s ACL tear, and that it should ensure Camper can be “100% healthy for the future.”

∎ Speaking with reporters Monday on Zoom, Mike Woodson suggested Jakai Newton could yet redshirt this season. Newton is still recovering from a knee clean-up of his own, and Woodson said a redshirt is a possibility, though he also emphasized that discussion hasn’t really begun in earnest yet.

ANSWER

Unconventionally, the Hoosiers faced Louisville four times that season, finishing 3-1. They defeated their friends down I-65 three times, once in Florida in an early season nonconference event, once at Bart Kaufman Field and once in the College World Series. The Cardinals’ lone win in the series that season came in Louisville.

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana honors 2013 IU College World Series team 10 years later