Aaron

An FYI: Southwest just launched two special non-stops from Indy to LAX for Rose Bowl going out on 12/31 and returning on 1/2. They are not cheap at $1300 dollars a ticket and only premium pricing fares offered but it brings the number of nonstops for those days to 5. It generally is only two per day total on a normal day with one on American and one on Delta. However, American added an extra flight to their regular one and Southwest launched two specials for the game on the route they don't normally fly (and note it is $400 less than the $1700 the other carriers are charging).

The comment was for two years down the road. I would hope the portal class for 2026 and 2027 has not been finished, nor has the 2027 recruiting class. The 2026 recruiting class is indeed finished, but it is the best in program history and sixth nationally, with the two highest-ranked recruits in program history. It is indeed very early for the 2026 and 2027 seasons, with a lot of great pieces, but still roster spots to fill, just as I said.

You are assuming this is the end of the recruiting, and they won't get more elite players in the portal and recruiting. I would agree if those are the only players IU was getting and this was the end of the roster, but let's see what else they have. This is a great start. Declaring them a national title contender with just this is indeed a bit much but a great start.

The fact that he jumped at the first opportunity to get out of town tells me he knew his status in his current job was tenuous.

Glant is gone, finally! Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Best thing for the program ever!

This team will be fine. Playing against one of the two best centers in the country in Crooks yesterday (Lauren Betts is the other on UCLA) without your post player and you hung in the game tells me team will be solid. Also, most importantly Ciezki is thriving in the second year in this system as a transfer similar to Scalia's trajectory. This tells me Big Z and Phoenix while solid this year, will really thrive next year. These two players are the legit transfers of this class and just need to mature into their role here. The other transfers were last minute fill in's I don't see much more coming of. Team will finish similar to last year as back end tourney squad this season. They should really make hay up the Big Ten in 2026-2027 with Beaumont, Big Z, Phoenix, Caffey, Makalusky, and the two stud freshman coming in Gigi Battle and Addy Nyemchek who will be even more game ready than Caffey and Makalusky are now with more athleticism. That's a nice core along with any transfers to really hit another peak in 2026-2027 and beyond.

That Illinois win will 100% lock in a top-four seed and first two rounds in Bloomington! RPI was in the top-15 heading into last night, and Purdue is elite, so the Illini were the final landmine to lose that right, and the last regular-season matchup against the Boilers is now a pride game that will not affect IU's seeding. No Big Ten Tourney in volleyball.

Agree with all of that!

I know and only put so much stock in that. I still take high value in beating a p-5 squad on the road. Certainly Butler would have had a right to be equally excited if they beat IU again without Ciezki in Assembly Hall this year. It's a value win in any circumstance at FSU and coming back against a hostile crowd shows IU has guts to be a solid squad.

Florida State on the road is far from Mickey Mouse. They are a lower end ACC team but beating a power five team on the road is so far from a cupcake and metrics still have them as top-60 squad. Yes Iowa State and some Big Ten teams are first elite competition, but beating a middling high major squad on the road is nothing to sneeze at and no easier than playing Minnesota at home or Illinois on road to open conference play. That Audi Crooks, Big Z matchup will be a doozy against a grown women inside assuming Iowa State is opposition. Certainly far better having Z than Lily to bang with her. Crooks is arguably best center in nation not named Lauren Betts and is a load to handle.

There is a reason Ondineme only sees mop up minutes. Size is great but lack of ability down low easily overrides this.

Last two games has shown why Moren doesn't trust her bench beyond Phoenix, Maya, and Edessa with bit minutes to Kiaku. Faith, Spreen, and Ondineme cant play any meaningful minutes and why Kiaku only a few and any of them are unlikely to see big minutes here at any point in their career. Both times these third string lineups have looked terrible and showed you need one of Shay or Lenee at all times. Butler game lost ten points off the lead late and when tried again early fourth quarter today eight points came off lead in an instant and had to go back to some starters. With that said Marshall game was clearly a wake up call and they doubled the expected metrics overall in the last two games when the good players were in against similar level competition. Still have some questions about the turnovers and Shay and Lenee better be ready to both score big every night similar to DeVries and Wilkerson on men's side. Also, women have their high level center again in Big Z and Edessa is as at least as good as Striplin last yr as a backup. Big difference is Z is so much better then Meister who was expected to do big things and failed big time. Just glad the wake up call came after a closer than expected win, instead of a loss as happened last year. Still have the grit and hard nosed defense of a signature Moren squad, and as long as Shay and Lenee continue scoring at regular rate with Z inside, team will be no worst than last year as back end tourney team and maybe a seed line or two higher without the bad losses early.

You lost five of the the top six seeds yesterday. This is far from an IU problem. Either the NCAA needs to reform to year round as US Soccer, Todd Yeagley and Sasho Cirovski have been pushing or have a blind draw tournament and take RPI out. Current model is unsustainable and 1-48 are basically the same. The product on the field is not good because the top players don't go to college. IU is amongst the best of what's left, but right now you have the defense of a FIFA video game. I used to marvel at watching IU. Now I feel like I am watching the IU Indy team of several years ago I did not enjoy. This is no knock on IU who has done nothing wrong and Yeagley is getting the very best of what is left. Its the NCAA not listening to its two most legendary coaches and has caused random champions and hard-to-watch product. College baseball had this crisis 20 yrs ago and has adopted quite well to getting a lot of the best talent into the sport again. Now its soccer's turn to do same or we will see more random unseeded Vermont's winning title like we did last year who will feel unworthy. Its a really good thing IU's eggs and top teams are not entirely in soccer anymore since sport is becoming irrelevant through no fault of its own and doing very best it can under current constraints NCAA has hamstrung it with.

Lack of urgency in the second half. The game was a microcosm of the season. Teams realized by the end that if you take Ault away, little happens. The results of the season were similar to 2014, and the team was built much like 2010 with Bruin. An offense can win you a title, but defense and a goalie can lose you the first game. The latter happened when you were a one-trick pony. It can get you far, but not all the way.

There was always the chance the offense could win them a title, or the defense and goalkeeping could cost them their first game. Right now, they have one half to try to keep it from being the negative one. Regardless, they must find a top-level goalie and a couple more backline players in the offseason. SLU is the anti-IU with an elite D and goalie, and minimal attack. While Brown and the SLU goalie had similar chances with tough but savable shots, the SLU guy made them all, and Brown could not bail his side out and reason it is 1-0 bad guys. While the D is the primary culprit in the goal, the lack of being able to be bailed out by a top-flight keeper, as SLU was, is the difference. Whether it is Michelle who has promise but is raw, or a portal or elite freshman guy, this level of keeping meets many sides' standards, but not IU. If the Hoosiers want to remain elite, this is a must-fix. The evaluation of Brown I see with his size, but it was a clear misevaluation for the elite awareness needed and must be addressed in the offseason to be a serious contender. Not mad at IU, but a clear upgrade and correction is needed to be a serious contender going forward as well as plugging a hole or two on the backline. While ideally you want both size and awareness, I'll take Harms' awareness last year and lack of size over Brown's inverse any day. Brown is a finished product who rivals only Souderland in 2013 and Caulfield in early 2019 in terms of awareness issues. Michelle is either that or Louis Soffener, who was awful his first couple of years due to Freitag being an awful coach, and Yeagley developed him into a top-level goalie by the end. We will know by next year if Michelle has the awareness and if he does Yeagley will get it out of him.