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IU Indianapolis team bus catches fire on return home after game at Northern Kentucky

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•02/23/25
TeamBus_241123_001_HitePatrick_USAT
Photo by Patrick Hite / USA TODAY Sports

A tough weekend for the IU Indianapolis basketball team took a turn for the worse following a loss to Northern Kentucky.

The team’s bus, which was carrying players, coaches and staffers back to campus, caught fire. According to a report from Kyla Russell of WISH News 8, everyone was safely evacuated and there were no injuries.

That’s certainly welcome news, because the condition of the bus following the fire would otherwise be immense cause for concern.

You can take a look at the wreckage from the aftermath of the fire on the IU Indianapolis bus below.

Needless to say, that’s a scary sight and one that sends shivers up your spine imagining people on board. Luckily, the team responded quickly and was able to get out in time.

Unfortunately it likely made for a long trip back home after securing a new transportation method.

The team was coming off a game against Northern Kentucky in which it was competitive for a half. After the two programs battled back and forth in the first half on Sunday, Northern Kentucky took full control against IU Indianapolis, never trailing in the second half.

Three players finished in double-figures scoring for the Jaguars: Sean Craig (22), Paul Zilinskas (15) and Alec Millender (12).

Strangely enough, the incident with the IU Indianapolis team bus isn’t the first of its kind in college athletics.

Tennessee equipment truck gets into accident

On the heels of an important win over Oklahoma last fall, the Tennessee football team ran into trouble after the game when the equipment truck hit a snag on the road back to Knoxville.

According to James Bryant of KATV in Arkansas, the Tennessee equipment truck was in an accident on I-40 East in North Little Rock. The vehicle appeared to be missing its front right tire, while some of the other tires on the hauler appeared to be shredded.

The equipment truck mishap was really the lone hiccup for Tennessee on the trip to Oklahoma, which went about as well as anyone in Vol Nation could have hoped for. Tennessee secured a 25-15 win that probably wasn’t quite as close as the score indicated, with 12 of Oklahoma’s points coming in the fourth quarter.

The performance was impressive enough that one ESPN analyst believed Tennessee thoroughly looked the part of a College Football Playoff team. In hindsight, he was correct — Tennessee did, in fact, reach the playoffs.