Holmes vital for Indiana’s hopes

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana center Mackenzie Holmes spent a whole year working so she could take one more shot at an NCAA championship.

She committed herself to recovering fully from the left knee injury that limited her mobility and productivity last March when the Hoosiers fell short of their title dreams. She promised to come back a better, stronger player.

After leading the Hoosiers through an unforgettable season, Holmes finally gets her chance to show everyone she’s happy, healthy and capable of helping Indiana meet the lofty expectations that come with being a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“I think it’s really cool to see different teams getting those one-seeds and just being in those top-10, top-five teams because in years past, it’s pretty consistently been the same teams,” Holmes said after the pairings were announced. “So to see how much the game has grown and all these different teams up there has been really cool.”

Indiana is one of this year’s intriguing top-line newcomers, and Holmes, of course, is a big reason the Hoosiers are viewed as a legitimate championship contender.

Holmes was named a first-team AP All-american on Wednesday. She’d already earned her third straight all-conference selection, made her second appearance on the league’s all-defensive team and was selected as the Big Ten’s Player of the Year.

She starts postseason play ranked No. 7 nationally in scoring with a career-best 22.3 points per game and second nationally in field goal percentage at 68.8 percent and second in the Big Ten with 1.9 blocks per contest.

Indiana (27-3) broke the program record for overall wins and tied the mark for conference wins (16).

They’re not finished, either.

On Saturday, Indiana hosts NCAA tourney games for the second straight season and the second time in school history. They’ll face either Tennessee Tech (22-9) or Monmouth (18-15), who met in a play-in game Thursday.