Aaron

Was worried about Webber graduating from the moment season started and hate that I was right:(. This program has been in the mud for years and 2023 looks like a one-year exception unfortunately.

RPI now at 15. If you can beat NW and win Big Ten Tourney very likely will be a top-8 seed with a chance at top-4. The Big Ten as a whole, pulling a Curt Cignetti turnaround in one yr. has been huge for IU's RPI rising about 125 spots with their October run in 2024 as opposed to roughly 50 last year and never got above 20.

You want ANY chance at that bye and top-16? You need a win and tie minimum between the Michigan and UCLA road games. Home wins against teams 30-50 is not really helping RPI and has been steady around 40 since the Wisconsin win. Also, Wisconsin has fallen off the face of the earth in conference play so that win is not holding up. OSU and Maryland are legit. Outside of that everyone is kind of in a big pot and solid. For IU to get close to Maryland or OSU both in RPI and conference standings, they need to win their home games (especially MSU is a MUST win for even a solid chance at NCAA Tourney given their metrics) and pick off one of these road games to be safely in and fighting for bye. Otherwise they will spend rest of fall on the bubble as they are now.

Did former PSU coach Bob Warming kick their current coach Jeff Cook from the sidelines and take over the team again? For the first time in a long time a team basically showed zero interest attacking against IU and mostly parked the bus. This was a regular occurrence under Warming a decade ago when the Nittany Lions were plucky underdogs. However, since Cook took over, PSU has always been the best and most talented team in the Big Ten outside of the Hoosiers and Maryland and could easily match anyone in America pound for pound. Penn State did lose their three elite players from last year in Mangione and Butts up top and Shakes in goal. However, I would expect them to be at the point where they should be able to seamlessly reload but apparently not. The replacement goalie is fine, but their offense went from elite to awful in one season and as a result they appear to play defensive heavy and try to luck into a draw or win on a counter attack. Very surprising and glad IU broke them down eventually for the relatively easy win. The typical October surge seems to be well underway now as the squad is getting hot!

Single game tickets are on sale now. Still limited reserved seats left on main level for all games. https://iuhoosiers.evenue.net/list/WBM The "Not Many Left" for each game indicates between 60 and 90% of stadium is already sold via season tickets. Making some educated guesses here, but looking at what is left single game on the main level, my guess is about 11,000-12,000 season tickets were sold and roughly 5,000-6,000 seats are available single game, mostly in GA. Also with GA now being balcony and court only, I would strongly recommend buying from the reserved option for $3 more per ticket if one does not want to be in balcony. Only about 1,000 GA court seats are available and as soon as those are filled each game it is straight to balcony without a reserved seat. Good news is tickets are still very affordable at $12 for GA and $15 for Reserved. Also SeatGeek should have plenty of seats at good prices for non-premium games on secondary market.

Not as much as hoped. It dropped UK from 27 to about 40 and improved IU from about 40 to 35. The RPI loves road wins so a victory at Michigan next week who is around 25 is what is really needed to have chance to get near the top-16. Good news is their RPI now projects them as a tourney team but its tenuous as one of last teams in. Good news for IU is the Big Ten as a conference in soccer has gone the way of IU Football in one season from terrible to elite between 2023 and 2024. Instead of getting one bid, this time we will see 5-6 from the league and nearly everyone but MSU and Rutgers are well inside the top-50. Every win going forward in conference will help the resume outside of MSU as all are teams inside top 40-50 of RPI. PSU, Michigan, UCLA Northwestern are all opportunities for quality wins rather than last year where each league game was about avoiding a bad loss.

Currie-Jelks is ready. She was out last year due to pregnancy that the program did not release until after the season. The baby is now born and it sounds like she has help taking care of it as she plays and goes through school at IU. She is full go and can definitely compete from a physical standpoint. Whether she can crack the rotation and get minutes is an entirely different question and unknown.

It's October which for IU soccer is winning time. I said all along I knew they would turn it around as they always do. However, they need to stop with these slow starts and leaving it to that. Good news is Big Ten is elite this year so a big October this time will likely make you an NCAA host. Already these last two games moved IU's RPI up about 100 spots from about 135 to 35. With every game but one against a top-30 RPI team now in conference that number will be well into top-16 with another big month. Hoosiers should praise the lord that the conference went from maybe its worst year ever in 2023 with them being only bid to maybe best it has ever been in 2024 and could well get 5-6 bids.

Yup. PSU is in Philly. Just saying what dates we have for conference play and none of them tell us what Big Ten opponents will be in the holiday package after New Years.

We won't know until the Big Ten game(s) come out. Could be bad. Could be great. A lot of times the early opponent in the package is Ohio State or Wisconsin it seems but could be anyone. I'll judge the package once I know who the one or two Big Ten teams are and that is the same every season. The holiday games are never good outside whoever the Big Ten opponents are and we don't know who that is yet. Why is this year different? When has there ever been a good game in it during the non-conference outside of the Kansas game last year which was a fluke? If you want to say the holiday games are almost always bad I am with you. However, this season is no better or worse than others outside of having Kansas in it last year which significantly enhanced it compared to every other season and might make this time a let down which is fair. Now it is back to how it was every season prior to 2023-204.

Minnesota will NOT be in the holiday mini series as students are here until Dec 20. The mini series Big Ten opponent will be whoever they reopen Big Ten play with AFTER the new year. Whoever this is will indeed make or break the package as always, but we won't know who it is until the full conference slate is out. Second semester starts Jan 13 and the game or games being played in Bloomington between New Years Eve and then are not known other than the Jan. 7 PSU matchup. The mini series will include the matchups on the 21st of December and 29th of December vs. Chattanooga and Winthrop as well as a conference opponent or two between Jan 1-12.

Before last year no. This would have been the latest. However, last fall, the Big Ten schedule came out on Sep 20.

Not at all. Similarly tough to the men in every round. Baylor is a ranked team and was one line behind IU in March Madness seeding and has the athletic guards the Hoosiers struggle with. Columbia actually is a really good Ivy League squad and got an at-large bid to NCAA Tourney last year after losing to conference power Princeton in league tourney title game. I do expect IU to beat Columbia although it won't be easy and will probably be somewhat close like Princeton game in last years holiday tourney. However, Baylor is a true toss up. Also, notice that everything but the last game (assuming Indiana beats Columbia) will be streamed on FloHoops which is $30 a month (although it can be bought for one month and cancelled). Assuming many won't see team until the championship or 4th place game depending on Baylor result.

I don't take numbers from overseas seriously. I look at the timing of the add. If this is someone that was expected to be a contributor they would have been added much earlier this summer to the roster. It is very rare for this late of an addition to ever contribute and is usually done out of desperation or to provide a practice body as likely is the case here.

Sounds to me like a practice body. Would love for it to amount to more but sincerely doubt it. With Garzon and Sandvik they were ranked players and explicitly recruited to be contributors. Any addition to a roster this late, whether it is foreign or not (see Dallas James for men's team), is almost always to provide practice competition. This is not a knock on the coaches or any of these players and they serve an important role. However, expecting or hoping for them to be contributors at some point is almost always a bit of wishful thinking.

Besides what I have already said, my policy is side with no one in this situation. The Hysterics are arrogant and have cut off many people who don't tote their water much like Woody did to them. Both Woodson and the Hysterics have massive egos and it was bound to end with hurt feelings. In the end the Hysterics get cut off from the program which is sorely needed and Woodson better win big this year. Woodson can think he has support of everyone and if he wins he can do what he chooses. If not, the people who he thinks are his friends will turn on him one by one as well and no one is invincible no matter what Woodson thinks and he will be shown the door. No winners here and we have two people (Eric and Woody) cut from the same cloth who are thin skinned and eventually these personalities eat each other up as happened here. The Hysterics airing this dirty laundry in public confirms they have as big an ego as Woody. If the Hysterics did not have an ego they would keep the meeting in house and not vent publicly. If Woody did not have such an ego he would not have called the meeting and chewed them out. Both are wrong in this sense.

I think if we want change we need to vote in the trustees election right now. It is all intertwined starting at the top. I don't have a particular favorite (well actually I do but will not endorse a candidate in this post) but most important is to get Jeremy Morris the incumbent out of there and get new blood in there. He singlehandedly hijacked all of last months meeting which is another peak into the world of dysfunction in the current administration. Any of the other 11 candidates would be a welcome change and any IU alumni can vote at this link: https://dataforms.iuf.iu.edu/trustee-election/vote

It is important to note that when a university has the dysfunction described above, that sports are often what bring it to the surface and force changes (see the Indiana State Baseball team declining to host among other things). This is likely what will lead to changes at IU as well eventually. It's why I see next season as a "can't lose situation" in many ways. If Woodson does well and wins it will be fun to be a fan again. If he fails it forces a much needed house cleaning from top-to-bottom likely starting with Buckner.

Its a trend throughout the University. No one in the current administration (athletics and academics) at the top can handle any criticism and will remove or marginalize anyone who calls them out just as happened to the Hysterics (albeit they deserved it way more than others who have been given this treatment). The University will lose more great people going forward (I know of at least three wonderful people in their current leadership roles who are leaving this fall due to their disgust with how the school is currently run) until major changes are made and they are currently being replaced with 'yes men and women'. Athletics are the least of the issues right now but definitely a microcosm of a much larger issues starting with Buckner, the trustees, and the current administration. Speaks to a lot of insecure people in charge including Woodson.

Absolutely and it speaks to everyone moving in a different direction as I said. IU needs a complete house cleaning at the top and many other Universities are laughing at the school right now and pulling donations. It all started with Quinn being put in charge of the trustees which he was totally unqualified for and has spread around to all levels. Reminds me of the Herbert days again and eventually like with him there will be a complete house cleaning. McRobbie was far from perfect but was the best leadership IU has had since the 90's much like Tom Crean. Both were flawed, but more successful than anyone else since then despite lots of issues. All of this speaks to how poorly the University and board of trustees has been run the last 30 years and Buckner and the current administration are just the latest example of it and maybe the worst of all or at least close to it.

Two things are true and somewhat mutually exclusive in all of this. 1. The Hysterics guys are a major issue and not having them around the program as much going forward is a VERY good thing. 2. The IU Administration is a dysfunctional mess right now starting with Quinn, the trustees, the president and it goes right on down. Until house is cleaned from top to bottom at IU more and more of this dysfunction will come out in public with everyone moving in different directions. All of this is interrelated to very poor leadership at the top that goes right on down and dirty laundry is now being aired in public from all angles and won't stop until their is a house cleaning of the trustees, Quinn, the president, Woody, and other administrators at the top. All are interrelated despite the university and athletic department being separate entities officially and many of the best people at IU have been removed by this administration (the Hysterics don't fall into this boat of being 'the best' but same idea of being tossed out) for daring to speak up against them. A couple more examples of the disfunction: https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/iu-trustees-arent-unanimous-on-letter-supporting-pres-whitten.php https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/iu-trustee-meeting-interrupted-by-protests-calling-for-whittens-termination.php This is all I could find, but more of this type of dirty laundry will likely be aired going forward until major changes are made at the top and eventually it will come from much more respected and better people than the Hysterics.

Last time IU had a Dickerson it worked out pretty well and he even managed to have a decent pro career in MLB after:).

Some systems rely on elite pitching or even a lot of extra bases with less homers. Also lower average with lots of homers can be done as well. Lower averages with no dingers is not a system anyone would ever use:).

That's an elite pickup. Was injured last year but hit nearly .375 with double digit home runs two seasons ago. Should fit Shonda Stanton's system perfectly that is offensive heavy and relies on high averages and a lot of bombs.

There is already a thread for the weekend here as an FYI: https://btownbanners.com/topic/14489-iu-baseball-ncaa-regional-may-31-june-3-knoxville/