brtjohns

bump.  need to win only 3 of the 7 remaining competitions to win the cup.  

the beast has awoken?   a win tomorrow would send a message.

i think it'd be a good idea to pin this and let it run.  post the day's event(s) each morning along with changing the date in the title.  or change the title once to something like 'Our Indiana - today's games' or whatever.  it'd be a nice day-starter for those of us who aren't just iu basketball and/or football fans.

bingo, LI.  it's a longass 55-game regular season, way too early to count us out.  we scheduled tough like a good non-coastal program with ncaat aspirations typically needs to, especially if it's in a relatively weak conference.  these are opportunities for resume wins.  cofc is a better team than us.  one win vs a surefire postseason team as the road dog would be nice; two would be huge.  werent supposed to win yesterday facing the opponent's ace at their place.   he dominated us which you obviously never like to see, however an ace is gonna do that more times than not.  thats why he's an ace.   knew after ramos committed the 1st inning throwing error that we'd drop that one.  i cringe every time the ball is hit to shortstop.  he's inconsistent at best.  not a good shortstop, yet.  easy to see he has the tools to be.  it's hard to be called a good defensive team when you lack a steady ss.  his bat looks much improved though.   good to see dedelow appears to have made a big sophomore jump.  hopefully nolden's 9th inning hit yesterday ignites him.  i'm surprised we havent seen gibbs yet even once.  smith was really high on him and i remember thinking, after reading his short bio in this article, that he'd be showing signs of being a stud at right about this time.  if hartong continues to let baserunners successfully run on him and nolden doesnt pick it up, i'd think the adjustment would be to try gibbs behind the plate and put hartong in left, sowers back to right.    

stanford won two at #25 cal st fullerton this weekend.   indiana st crushed #1 vanderbilt yesterday 9-1 (!), but lost the series.  still impressive.  game 1 was a close 3-2.   #11 louisville also with a 3-3 start after a bad weekend that included a couple losses to arkansas st.  same boat as us.   tracy smith and #17 asu now 4-3 after series loss vs #8 tcu.   michigan now 2-5.  yikes.  their next six games are cupcakes, great opportunity for them to right the ship.   illinois is undefeated at 6-0-1, though havent really played anybody.  tied fgcu today.  dont think i've ever heard of a tied baseball game.  understandable in college on a sunday game when students have to get back for monday morning class.   nebraska 4-3.  #13 maryland 5-1.  osu 4-2.

not good or bad, imo.  win the series at stanford as underdogs then drop 2 of the easier games on the entire schedule in 6-error fashion with your top 2 starters.  as nice as it was to take 2 in cali, it was nearly or just as deflating to drop a couple to presbyterian and furman.  have to handle most of your cupcakes and get the easy rpi points, regardless of what point it is in the season.  but a long season means there's many opportunities ahead to make up for bad early season losses.  just cant let them pile up and riddle the postseason resume with stains.  we're definitely capable of winning 7 of next 9.  hopefully all the rust is shaken off and we're firing on all cylinders next weekend vs the cougars because if not, they can easily sweep us.  college of charleston can sweep us even if we do play well.  lemo needs to keep donley at dh.  helluva hitter, just not a reliable defensive player.  also need nolden to find his first team all-b1g form sooner rather than later.  imagine he'll be back in the lineup friday after a needed rest day.  

Manny Pacquiao @MannyPacquiao  ·  Jan 20 I can easily beat @FloydMayweather, I believe that.   dont think he will but i'm sure as hell rooting for him to do so.  i'd root for kim jong un over mayweather.  

dont like, dont hate purwho.  just another indiana school with nationally irrelevant athletics.  kentucky, i hate.  there isnt a worse fanbase out there- any level, any sport.  and calipari truly is a despicable person.  i hated wildcat blue before his arrival though.   people, especially from up north, like to bring up purwho is ahead in the all-time record.  when you hear that, tell them IU leads 78-64 since 1939 (not to mention 5-0) not including tonight.  ie, we've been better head-to-head for the past 75 years, granted it's not heavily one-sided.  purdue dominated prior to 39, when the sport was in its beginning stages, nothing whatsoever like what its been for the past handful of decades.   would've been awesome if notre dame developed into our rival.  that could've really been something.  most fans outside the midwest couldnt tell you where purdue is located or a few facts about them.  thats not a joke or a stretch.  try it distant hoosiers.

hoosier god tracy smith is 2-0 in the maroon and gold, great wins over #12 okla st.  speaking of:   Tracy Smith @ASUSkip  ·  3h 3 hours ago Sitting around with the family and former IU great Josh Phegley, watching IU take on Stanford.   cal state fullerton is 0-2, defeated by south florida and alabama st.  yikes.   long beach state took the first two from michigan.

nobody said wins have to be pretty... still count in the left column.  this squad isnt as potent as last year's, but it's just as gritty.  love it.   17 hits, 4 er, 0 bb, 13 k in 19 ip.  zero walks.  i'd say bunn is pleased right now, to say the least.  majority of opposing offenses will be weaker than stanford's.   get those brooms ready....

welp, thanks for the gift-wrapping.  lock 'er down, halstead.  

winner tonight, whether us or them, will probably feel like they stole one.  ugly game, really.  wouldnt have been quite as ugly if several of our hard-hit drives werent caught.

B1G!  bulldog performance by effross.  jumped ahead of about every batter he faced.  looked like an early round pick in front of the scouts who were there primarily for quantrill.  didnt expect a 3 up 3 down out of halstead.  first outing in a year.  he'll be fine, stuff looked good.   rolaids play of the game: c-rod's 2-run yicketty vs a stud lefty to break the tie.  has already hit more home runs this season than he hit all of last year.   sowers drove one the other way in his second college at-bat vs an all-american.  enough for me to buy the hype.  i liked pasteur's at-bats too.  i'd be surprised if he wasnt dh tomorrow.  dedelow looked great in his debut at first base.  thought donley was pretty shaky in left.   purwho got trampled by western carolina, 17-6.  michigan starts their year down the road at long beach state, currently up 1-0.

for people here that dont have pac12 network, i was given a link on another forum to a site, similar to a firstrowsports or vipbox but smaller and essentially exclusive to west coast sport, that "should carry the game".  pm me if interested.  i dont want to post it here and potentially compromise it for those guys.  it's a very simple page that looks like it was created by a fan for his/her fellow fans, if you know what i'm sayin.

Roger Rodeheaver ‏@Plamaker_ Our new ride! #iubase       that thing is sweet.

d1baseball just released their projected field of 64.  they have nebraska hosting, maryland and illinois a 2, and our hoosiers a 3.  opponents also include cal state fullerton, college of charleston, stanford, louisville and dartmouth with an auto bid.  kentucky, xavier, indiana state and long beach state not listed but were tournament teams last year.  thats a tough non-conference schedule.   d1 also published their b1g preview.  both d1 and baseball america tab sowers as foy.  ba projects michigan, not us as a tournament team.   i'd be ecstatic if we took two at stanford.  need at least one from effross or morris, for the sake of rpi and confidence moving forward.   the sense i'm getting from lemo's interviews is that we have depth all over the diamond.  starters will constantly be pushed which is of course a great thing.  i expect to see a lineup of: rodrigue 4 nolden 8 hartong 2 donley 7 sowers 9 pasteur 5, dedelow 3, gibbs 0 in some order in the next three slots ramos 6 effross   eustace is another young guy reportedly impressing in scrimmages.  got the start in the xavier exhibition.  if donley doesnt cut it defensively in left field, one option is eustace replaces him out there and donley moves back to dh.  or if gibbs is swinging a hot stick, put him behind the dish and move hartong to left, donley to dh.  or maybe donley and dedelow just switch positions since dedelow is naturally an outfielder.  sujka, wilhite and cangelosi are also fighting for playing time.  lots of depth and flexibility.  this team will be really competitive and exciting to follow.  cant wait.

i assume memorial stadium's press box will soon be getting a makeover as well.  wonder what will be constructed in place of the sembower and old softball field.  that area has been a wasteland for 2.5 years.  prime real estate.  surely there's a plan for it.  i'd guess student housing but an athletics facility like a volleyball/wrestling gym would make sense.  there's a ton of unused open space around it to turn into parking including those ugly basketball/tennis courts seldomly used.  or maybe it's being saved for an inevitable new varsity sport(s) like hockey, gymnastics, lacrosse, etc.  thats years away though.

watched interstellar last night, a total utter mindfuck.  puts you through such a roller coaster of emotions and critical thought.  it's a must-see...then you'll want to watch it again and again and again to try to better understand and follow the plot.  even if you're not a fan of sci-fi's or near 3-hour movies, give it a shot.   other great movies i saw recently include chef, guardians of the galaxy and nightcrawler.  dumb and dumber to didnt exceed my low expectations.  anchorman 2, on the other hand, wasnt bad.  the final hobbit movie was disappointingly just decent; could've been so much better.   thanks 41 for linking to movietv, which becomes my backup free movie/tv site.  i've used primewire, formerly 1channel, for years.  dont even remember the last movie i paid to see.  now, back to my parks & recreation bingewatchathon.

keeps maturing and progressing, a klinsmann invite will come in the future.  probably more likely as a cam or wing than a forward.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2po84L-giY8&feature=youtu.be

good article on him.  we're getting a great one.  http://www.elitebaseballteams.com/blog/jake-matheny-commits-to-the-indiana-hoosiers/

if i'm deciphering the below tweet correctly, sounds like we've hired a new volunteer assistant coach in shawn roof, an illinois alum who had a significant minor league career from 07-12. Eric Roof ‏@TurnUpTheHeat15 Twitter, @BigTenBaseball, & @IndianaUniv nation welcome @shawnroof4 to the @HoosierBaseball family. Congrats! #bigtenbloodlines collegiate baseball has released its big ten predictions. picks donley as poy and IU finishing 4th behind maryland, nebraska and illinois. that nolden hard work video made by casey james-smith really blew up. mlb fan cave tweeted it twice. can only bolster recruiting.

from mlbtraderumors   "New Cardinals outfielder Jason Heyward only has one season remaining before free agency, and St. Louis likely has the financial flexibility to sign him long term. It’s not surprising, then, that there’s been some discussion in the St. Louis media about the possibility that the Cardinals would extend him. For the right price, Heyward (who’s already set to make $8.3MM in 2015) would be an exceptionally strong extension candidate.   Heyward won’t turn 26 until next August, and he has an excellent all-around game that includes plus defense to go with good on-base ability, reasonable power and above-average baserunning. He might also be able to retain his value as his defense declines, too — his control over the strike zone and toolsy profile suggest he might still have headroom as a hitter.   Of course, the same factors that make Heyward a good extension candidate would also make the Casey Close client a very attractive free agent. The fact that free agency is so near makes an extension a different proposition than it was when MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes examined Heyward’s candidacy early in the 2013 season.   Perhaps the best precedents for an extension for a top position player with between five and six years of service time are those of Matt Kemp (eight years, $160MM) and Adrian Gonzalez (seven years, $154MM). Heyward isn’t, or isn’t yet, the offensive player that Kemp or Gonzalez were — Kemp was coming off a .324/.399/.586 season at the time of his extension, while Gonzalez had just hit .298/.393/.511 in pitcher-friendly San Diego. But average salaries have skyrocketed throughout the game since those contracts were signed in 2011 (the average MLB salary jumped 12 percent just last year), and we should expect extensions to keep pace.   Also, Heyward is two years younger than Kemp was and more than three years younger than Gonzalez at the times of their contracts, a significant matter when the contract would begin with the player heading into his age-25 season (or age-26, depending on how one wants to look at it) rather than his age-27 season (Kemp) or age-29 season (Gonzalez). And Heyward is a far better defensive player than either Kemp or Gonzalez, with a UZR of 24.1 last season and of at least 12 for three seasons straight. Historically, that’s not an attribute that figures to get Heyward paid like huge power numbers would, but it makes it that less likely that his next contract will be a bust — Heyward’s on-base ability and excellent defense significantly limit his downside. Jacoby Ellsbury‘s seven-year, $153MM deal with the Yankees, signed as a free agent after the 2013 season, provides a recent precedent for a contract for a star-caliber, left-handed outfielder with defensive value. Again, though, Heyward is far younger than Ellsbury, an enormous point in his favor.   Given Heyward’s youth, it isn’t hard to see an extension heading toward at least eight rather than seven — a nine-year extension would only go through his age-33 season, and even a deal of ten years or more doesn’t seem ridiculous. Heyward isn’t likely to reach the same stratospheric heights as Giancarlo Stanton ($325MM) or Miguel Cabrera ($248MM), but those head-spinning deals should help keep the market trending upward, and it isn’t hard to see Heyward clearing $200MM, as Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron proposed last month. Heyward could also seek an opt-out clause, like Stanton, and like fellow Close clients Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw and Masahiro Tanaka.   Or maybe the idea that Heyward is a $200MM player after a .271/.351/.384 season simply won’t add up, regardless of his youth and defense. But perhaps, from Heyward’s perspective, not matching the Stanton or Cabrera deals doesn’t mean he can’t come out ahead in the end. Heyward is so young that he could play his way through a nine-figure extension and still be young enough to land another.   Seen from that angle, a shorter deal, perhaps modeled on Mike Trout‘s six-year, $144MM contract, might make sense. Heyward isn’t as young or as good as Trout, but he might be able to land only a similar total over six years because Trout’s contract began with three pre-free-agency seasons and Heyward’s would only begin with one.  That way, Heyward could hit free agency heading into his age-31 season, at which point he would still be young enough to hit it big. A nine-year deal, say, would be much more lucrative, but would probably leave him too old to net another huge contract after it’s over.   That route is probably unlikely, however. Heyward is only one year from free agency and has little reason to give the Cardinals a discount, and he was not particularly motivated to sign an extension with the Braves. That might suggest Heyward could either sign a huge deal for eight-plus years, or hope for a big season, test the free agent market and perhaps wind up with a contract that’s even longer. When you’re as young and as good as Heyward, there are few bad choices."

didnt play well and still forced overtime and all it took from a likely ncaa tournament team.  this game prepares us very well for big ten play.  do hope before they depart for nebraska they focus on all of the swatted drives in the film study.  if you make a strong drive to the basket determined to score, you have to finish at the rim.  jbj, rojo and williams have no problem getting past their man, but damn near always settle for a fading away layup when they approach the bucket.  in most instances it results in a turnover or a stop.  i've noticed it all season.  oladipo did it a ton during his first two seasons, maybe watford too.  drove us all nuts.   jbj will be so much fun to watch when he puts more effort into being a complete player.  a good player now thats just scratching the surface.  future all-star when it comes together for him.  his defense is just well below where it can be and needs to be.  he's been a liability on the defensive end in the formidable games thus far, no doubt about it.  his finishing in the paint leaves a lot to be desired as well.  adding muscle in spring and summer 2015 will help.  also needs to watch film of junior oladipo to recognize what kind of energy and alertness it takes to dominate like he can and fulfill his star potential.  he's gonna be a helluva player.

7-time champ black belt in tae kwon do, college team captain, majoring in neuroscience... her future isnt bright at all.  helluva pick-up.  gotta keep this superhuman in btown or indianapolis after she obtains her master's - cook or lilly, perhaps. berbary has done a nice job here in her first two seasons as hc.  under contract through 2019.  hopefully the program keeps rising and we dont lose her to a powerhouse.  i imagine those big southern schools are very appealing to her though, from and having played at georgia and coached in a couple southern states.  wouldnt blame her.

57 days until opening day.  crimson over cardinal.  roster still isnt updated on iuhoosiers.com.  new baseball sid has been unimpressive if you ask me.   makes all the sense in the world to play the notre dame-indiana baseball game/series at victory field.  the three parties need to make it an annual event, and air it on wndy/wish.   something else to look forward to, regarding our current highest rated 2015 recuit by perfect game: PBR Indiana ‏@PBRIndiana Dec 10 The Hotlist: Top 2015 Power Hitters http://www.prepbaseballreport.com/news/PBR/The-Hotlist-Top-2015-Power-Hitters-2405781693 … includes @HoosierBaseball commit Luke Miller