#IUMS vs Evansville

[Aaron 4,147]

This preview does not deserve more time than it is worth as Evansville is terrible and by far the worst team we will face this year and we should win in a route in a perfect get well game. Evansville has not beat us since 1990 and at home since 1985. Since 1990 we are 19-0-1 against them and have won 16 in a row without a tie or loss. 

If you want to be honest as much as it is nice to have an in state rivalry with them, unless they improve I would focus on the Butler and Notre Dame rivalry who are much more on our level and replace Evansville with someone else (Louisville maybe who has been off our schedule last few years and has IU alumnus John Michael Hayden as coach) unless they get better. As it is right now, even a win is detrimental to our strength of schedule and will cost us 5-10 spots in RPI which we really cant afford right now given it is at 15.   

[Aaron 4,147]

Not sure what we can learn playing this atrocious Evansville team but the good news is we are not messing around and already lead 2-0 10 min in. This all with Morris and Ahlinvi sitting out with injuries. No idea how serious but don't need them tonight.

Bad news: Like I said even with a win our RPI is going to take a major hit and also not sure what we learn playing a team like this.  

[Aaron 4,147]

It took us a while but we finally make it 3-0 with 15 min left in first half.

[Aaron 4,147]

IU 3-0 at the half.

One bummer is Joe Schmidt appears to have obtained a pretty serious left knee injury. The good news is while he is valuable he is definitely our weakest player in the starting 11 and we have plenty of guys like him on bench. With that said in this essentially practice game (thats what I am calling it with how bad Evansville is) its better to not get anyone injured.

Also while our attack is strong we definitely miss Morris' contributions a lot and against anyone else thats a big loss but I don't believe that serious as Yeagley called it a 'slight nick' during his halftime interview. Ahlinvi I love but we are so used to playing without this season he is a bonus at this point. If we can only get one of the two back next game I definitely pick Morris especially with Schmidt possibly out extended time (although like I said he is only a slight loss to begin with which is no offense to him but the depth of our team). 

[Aaron 4,147]

Well Aiden Morris is mostly fine and played last 25 min and its a really good thing as well. First 20 min of the half I would argue were our worst of the season. Game was never in danger but Evansville had majority of possession and even got a goal which is really bad since they had not scored in a month. Once Morris entered we once again dominated and tacked on two more for an easy 5-1 win. That included a goal in the last couple minutes by Trey Kapsalis who I don't believe played before tonight much less scored. Also Ben Yeagley (coaches son) played first time this year as coach used a ton of benchwarmers late as he always does against Evansville. 

I learned tonight Aiden Morris staying healthy is a must if we are going to have any chance to get where we want. Our Mid looked so discombobulated without him whole night and I am not sure who else we would beat without him. 

Overall got the result we needed tonight and as long as we play like we did for most of the first half and the second part of the second half we should be fine given our light schedule to close season. With that said no one is this bad and can beat us if we don't play our best. In football terms think of Evansville as Rutgers and the last three Big Ten opponents as Maryland and that should tell you all you need to know.