Aaron

Something to note is in Terry Hutchen's currently live chat this week he has completely changed his tune from Crean may be back to Crean is probably gone. He's clearly heard something this week (as he's confirmed on chat).

It always has seemed IU has gotten a bit of media coverage in Louisville (although way less than Louisville and Kentucky) between Bozich and their IU coverage in the Courier Journal and even highlights are often on local news. I know a huge amount of their market stretches into Indiana but so do Cincinnati's and Chicago's and IU is invisible in the media to these two cities. Heck, even in football the Colts are tied with the Bengals for the cities favorite NFL team and are shown every week there. I understand Cincy and Chicago have NFL teams of their own so I get that. In general I've always wondered why Louisville has had no problem aligning with Indiana's teams while other states border cities ignore us?

I half wonder if also Chicago (the people living there) kind of considers itself superior to Indiana and thinks it is much bigger and better than our state (that's the vibe I get from friends living there and no knock on them at all for feeling that way and they are great people) so they don't think they need to give anything in our state the time of day (heck they don't even like associating with northwest Indiana which is their metro area). Same with Cincy to a lesser extent. Louisville on the other hand certainly does not feel superior to Indiana and people their don't mind "Hoosiers" (state residents not the team) so they are more likely to like and associate with someone or something from our state. No idea if this is true but a theory I have thought of since starting the thread. I can however, promise you the Chicago market (not sure on Cincy) has way more IU fans and alums than Louisville yet receives maybe 1/100 of the attention from the media.

"Scheduling conflict" sounds a bit weird and how did it just happen now? What is going on that week that IU already committed to? It sounds like again Crean (if he is still our coach) is trying to make the easiest schedule possible which has been an issue throughout his tenure. Are we replacing these games with someone else or leaving just Louisville, Notre Dame Big East and ACC Games as big games? We have always participated in at least our own tourney so if this creates a decent match up at home like we did with Butler or SMU I am all in FAVOR but if it's simply to replace these 2 MSG games with 2 more cupcakes all of Thanksgiving IU has some explaining to do. If this is a situation where IU found out both it's Big East and ACC games are on road and we are replacing it with a good home game hallelujah and I'm happy. If were simply plugging in cupcakes because we want an easier schedule this is very bad. This is a key question that needs to be answered with this move and until then I remain skeptical.

If we miss tourney Teri Moren can follow Crean right out the door. I'm sorry but after that collapse she can't coach here regardless of what she has done in past. Rationally, she has gotten the team to a higher point that they have ever been but a lot of this is Curt Miller's player's still. Like a lot of others coaches in this situation I am waiting to see what she does with her own recruits (although she has recruited very well so far including the first 5* recruit in program history next year) when they take the court. It is very much a wait and see game with her with some very good (last year) and some very bad (a slight underachievement this year although not bad and her 1st year was awful) and jury is still out.

Hopefully the forwards can score and be the answer to our problems offensively. If Hyacinth is out there starting first game we know despite the ranking the class was a bust in some ways. To me this class rides on one of these freshman being able to step in and be our starting forward right away.

Dumb headline name for thread. I absolutely agree Crean needs to go but to say Glass accepts mediocre basketball is an unproven theory at this point. Glass was not going to nor should he of fired Crean after last year when winning a Big Ten championship and he's also not going to fire him mid-season. If this keeps up and a change is not made than we can talk about accepting mediocre basketball but at the moment what is Glass to do? For all we know he may be looking and gauging candidates for making changes after the season. Crean's problem is to many peaks and valleys. His highest points are the best we've had since Knight was fired but his lowest are the worst of any coach since before Knight. At some schools what Crean is doing acceptable. He was pretty similar at Marquette with ups and downs and now here. I certainly think there are schools where a good year for every bad one will work but not here.

I'm mind blown that as of now the Nebraska game is nearly sold out (just top of balcony left) but the Wisconsin game has plenty of tickets left (a good amount at top of main level and most of balcony). Do our fans not understand that they need to show up far more against Wisconsin and provide a big time atmosphere? I understand why the Illinois game has sold so well (only scattered singles left) as it is a weekend and those sell better. However, there is zero excuse for fans to be buying tickets in droves to see Nebraska but not Wisconsin. Can someone please explain this to me?

Well IU just released the remaining tickets for winter break in interactive map format where you can choose your seat so the official remaining tickets for the 3 games are: 1. Nebraska has 488 seats left with blocks of tickets left in the last few rows of the corner balcony sections and scattered singles in rest of balcony 2. Wisconsin has 7 main level singles left and about 1,600 in the balcony including large blocks in every part of it 3. Illinois has 88 singles left scattered throughout the balcony so it is essentially sold out The announced attendance is always a little lower than tickets left based on past precedent so by the time everything sells you will probably have announced attendance similar to what is left now. Nebraska will probably be somewhere in the upper 16,000 range (capacity is now 17,222 since renovations). Wisconsin will be in the the mid 15,000's and Illinois a sellout. Again I understand the reasoning but it blows my mind that Wisconsin is by far the toughest sell of the 3 Big Ten games. Illinois being a weekend makes sense to me but I thought ticket demand for Nebraska and Wisconsin would be flipped. It brings me back to the threads original point that fans are just looking to go to a game (and the week of holiday break is more convenient a lot) and do not really pay attention to the quality of the opponent which is to bad.

I don't believe the week difference matters as this has been the ticket situation for several weeks. I do think the holiday break matters and had not thought of that when posting the question. I would not be confidant in a complete sellout though. Even last year the Wisconsin game drew 14,098 in a similar situation which was the smallest announced crowd of the year (obviously many of our pre-season cupcake "sellouts" with students had way less in actuality). The lower level will sell out but don't be surprised if we get a similar 14,000-15,000 crowd like we did last year and the smallest of the Big Ten season. This is the one game you really wish students were here and we had a maximum atmosphere. Remember Wisconsin was the team that came closest to beating us in the Hall last year. This game scares me a lot and is the one game at home I am not confident we will win. Just for reference I was very confident we would beat UNC and Kansas and was really worried about the Butler game (so far the only game that has fooled me is Fort Wayne). If anyone is interested I have a good feeling about the Louisville game.

Almost everyone has IU headed to bowl in Santa Clara. Last I checked that is also IU's Big Ten opener at home. Does the NCAA not have a provision to not let these cross? This makes things incredibly tough on fans (granted bowl is at 8:30 and basketball at 7 so only a slight overlap) who want to attend both and even tougher on media and radio who can't do or be in and broadcast in 2 places at once. Can IU not fight tooth and nail for a different bowl for this reason? I wish the hypocritical NCAA would work with bowl games to ensure these games don't overlap for the fairness of all involved for ANY school. This is not pre-conference cupcakes for basketball anymore but conference games now that should not be over shadowed by exhibition bowls.

Well as the person who started this thread kudos to Glass for solving this situation by moving basketball to 6:30 and than letting people watch bowl game from their seats after on big screen. I have been critical of Glass recently but this was handled 100% perfectly by him given he had no control over the start time of the bowl game!

From what it sounds like Fred Glass did right thing but this is THIRD time a coach on his watch has had off field issues. First the softball coach nearly got axed for abusing player, than the women's coach axed for something having to do with off field incident and way he treated people I think, now Wilson for abusing players. How many questionable characters can Glass bring in before people wonder? Interestingly I have met Glass a few times and really like him and think he is a great guy but clearly his judgment in people's character when hiring is an issue. This needs to be addressed.

Also Alex Bozich just reminded everyone on Twitter (and I forgot about this) is they had to dismiss the Tennis coach for a similar reason and Water Polo coach for an unknown reason (although it should be noted program was winning at a high level when dismissed). A disturbing pattern?

If what the Oklahoma player said about ripping players helmet off is true clearly they're were warning signs prior to the hire. Also look how long it took Glass to act as this has been going on for several years. As I said I think Glass is a great guy but clearly he is over looking character issues based on the examples of the 3 coaches I citied above. I would have no problem with Glass staying on as AD but having nothing to do with future hires of coaches. However, trustees need to audit his hiring process

I distinctly remember when the IU-Fort Wayne game was announced that IU was in charge of ticket distribution and it would be considered a neutral site game. Now all of the sudden it is being referred to as a 'road game' by every fan, media and person talking about it. What happened? While it helps IU for KenPom and the RPI to consider it a "road game", when it is not even in Fort Wayne's regular gym and will be 3/4 IU fans it should go down as a neutral site win as was talked about when game was announced. Looks like we got a cushier deal than we thought getting something called a 'road game' that was never suppose to be:).

I'm stunned we got seeded so high and get 2 home games but no complaints. Just goes to show you when you schedule tough you get rewarded. As for who we play, don't let the "Akron" name fool you. They have had a mediocre year and have an extremely leaky defense as does Nova. If we are ever going to score these are the teams to do it against. Both teams have high powered offenses with bad defense as I said so it will be strength on strength and weakness on weakness. Overall, we got a great draw even though Charlotte is a bit scary with a defense even better than ours and an offense much better (although they scored 4 goals or more in 4 games against week teams so it may be equal when playing a team at our level). Elite 8 would be Butler at home or at Wake Forest which was no accident that the NCAA gave us these rematches. We have not hosted a sweet 16 game in 8 years since we beat Michigan so that would be nice if we can win 1st game. Overall, with who we have in front of us we could not of asked for a better road and it's up to us to find the net. We have a great chance to make a run at a title or could lose in the 2nd round if our scoring issues continue but the NCAA certainly did us a favor.

I've had about enough. I'm not firing Yeagley at all but Fred Glass needs to call him into his office and ask him and figure out why he's having so much trouble getting bona fide forwards and what he can do to help him fix this. To stay as coach long term he will need to fix this or move on. This has been a problem for to many years since Zavaleta left and Todd is either unwilling or unable to recruit solid forwards. I give him 2 years to fix this and than in 2019 (when hopefully we'll be starting Armstrong renovations and become even more attractive to recruits) if we still have the same issues with getting strikers and scoring I'm starting over with someone else. We are an elite program and Glass needs to treat it that way. One trip past the Sweet 16 in 12 years (when we got hot and won championship) and one Big Ten championship in 10 years doesn't cut it. We could literally win a national championship on the strength of our elite D or we could lose in the 1st round 1-0 because we can't score. We will get the last bye as the 16th seed like we do every year (RPI 17) than go to whoever the 1 seed is in sweet 16. I will bet anything that's what happens. It's also not a good look for a coach when Hyacinth came up to take the PK and I was thinking he's gonna miss and I heard a couple people near me yell "S--t why is Hyacinth taking a PK". When fans know what you are doing is wrong its an issue. I know Hyacinth got the goal but his slowness again cost us 4-5 really good chances on the attack again. I admire him but he should not be playing at this level and Yeagley to his credit recognizes this and has reduced his role from full time starter to part time sub. Also I can't believe Lomeli couldn't save a thing with how well he always is on PK's. With all that said this game never should of been there in PK's which are totally random. Our inability to score let us down again and is the primary issue moving forward not what happened when we got to PK's.

Where did you see the times for the Semi's? Everything I've seen says TBA with no announcement which game is at 12pm and which game is at 230pm? Also I would like the Big Ten to put some rules in place about how many men you can play on defense at once. If I'm IU and Maryland I'm petitioning the Big Ten office big time to limit this as to often opponents (especially Northwestern) play 'gutless' to quote Hope Solo throwing numbers back on defense and not trying to win. That's why I love IU Maryland games as both teams actually bring numbers forward and try to win which is far more entertaining soccer.

Went to game yesterday and Tanner's goal was thing of beauty! Overall we played a good 1st half and produced a goal than went into a lull in 2nd before Thompson's amazing goal. Still no one has figured out or made an issue of how ridiculous it is that 2 solid wins over St. Louis (57) and MSU (21) is seen as weaker than a bad tie versus Ohio St (107) as our RPI sits at 18 when it was 16 after Louisville game. If we lost the OSU game that's fine but NCAA penalizes ties to much under current formula (we dropped as many spots tying OSU as we gained beating Louisville)

While I think we have a plethora of problems on offense someone needs to explain the ridiculousness that is the RPI? How do we gain 12 spots being Louisville than lose them back tying Ohio St. We started at 29 before Louisville and are now there again after the tie to OSU. I can understand if we lost to OSU being given a huge penalty, but for the RPI to see a tie with OSU to be as bad as a good win at Louisville is ridiculous. If we don't get Maryland in Big Ten tourney its unlikely we'll get a bye in NCAA tourney. We've done exactly what NCAA has asked in making a tough schedule (and winning a couple of them) but if bad ties are going to penalize you as much as a good win is going to reward you I have an issue (especially given the randomness of soccer). NCAA seriously needs to redo their RPI formula because at 8-1-5 with our schedule we should not equal a no. 29 RPI no matter how many bad ties we have. The biggest problem is the RPI is going to determine our tourney seeding and these ties are going to penalize us way more than they should given the victories we have. If I'm Todd Yeagley I'm razing hell about this to the NCAA to redo RPI formula to either reward good wins more or penalize bad ties less. Those 2 things are not equal but all year the RPI has treated them that way. Now with all that said we need to play better and the fact that we can't put away inferior competition and score enough goals is a huge problem and must be addressed but the NCAA also needs to address their RPI formula.

See my post directly above about Hyacinth and how we struggle to field dynamic forwards like other teams and you have your answer. This team doesn't have a dynamic scorer like every good offense does which is the main problem. I also didn't mention Ballard who is great at putting in junk balls off of scrambles and cleaning up but certainly doesn't create his own shot. You can tell he is a transplanted midfielder. Lastly Tanner Thompson who is my favorite player is like a point guard who is great at setting up people and can create shots from the mid by juking people out of their shoes but he is not the one playing up top who is suppose to score most of your goals (Hyacinth in our case and I have laid out his problems above).

Again Maybe this is enough. I don't necessarily expect a run to the title every year but while we have that 2012 title we are certainly no longer elite. I expect us to be 1st or 2nd in the Big Ten every year in the Big Ten flipping Maryland which is not happening. We also besides the great 2012 run (which came after a good but not great year) have not made it to the college cup any other time since jerry Yeagley left in 04 and only past sweet 16 once. We struggle to get top forwards. We build an elite midfield, solid d and goalie but besides Zavaletta and Bruin we struggle to field top flight forwards for 12 years. Soccer is certainly a game of randomness but seeing David Goldsmith on Butler or Jon Gallagher last night makes me amazed at how hard we have had recruiting elite scorers. Heck even the Indy 11 have turned around this year by bringing in a stud named Eamon Zayed who is a scorer to replace a well past his prime Kleberson which has keyed the turnaround. Either Todd isn't trying as hard as he needs to with recruiting great forwards or he is not getting what he thinks in what he is recruiting. While I admire Hyacinth and love his athleticism and enthusiasm the reality is he is to slow for this level which constantly kills us on counter attacks and fast breaks in our attack. He also has a hard time creating his own shot. Even Femi was a bit wild with the ball as our previous forward and lacked strength at times. We need a forward in the mold of Zavaletta or Bruin to take the next step. Again we are very good team and maybe my expectations are to high and I need to except this as the new norm. I certainly enjoy watching this team but we have been caught or past by Notre Dame, Louisville and Akron in the region. It's a question I struggle with whether we need to be happy with the very good we have or expect even more.

I think a very serious question needs to be asked if IU wants to be very good or elite like it was during the Jerry Yeagley era? I think Todd is a good coach and the team is very good but not elite. Maybe this is good enough and messing with what we have now could make things a lot worse. This reminds me a lot of IU basketball in the 90's. Not what it was in the 70's and 80's but still very good. After firing Knight (which I was 100% for given his off court behavior so we can remove that part in this discussion) we made things a lot worse. We could certainly do a lot worse than Todd Yeagley and maybe messing with what we have now is a bad idea if it leads us to what happened to basketball post-Knight. However, we could also do slightly better if we got a coach on the level of Notre Dame and Louisville but that's hard. I'm not sure what the answer is but thought I would throw this out here.

I am a former student and I have to say the new system is brilliant in my opinion. Instead of getting mostly balcony games you now get half your seats in GA and if you are timely and loyal you will no longer have to sit in the balcony very often. This whole system rewards loyal students as it should be.   Last night lower GA was full earlier than in past years because people knew if they did not get there early they would end up in the balcony. Before, there was less incentive to show up early as you knew you would get a good seat in first 25 rows no matter what in GA. Now you must show up early to get a good seat.   As for the balcony not being full no one would want those tickets most likely (especially for no-name U in early season) if they were released to the public every game. The games are full for break because going is a novelty. I also grew up in the area and I always went to break games prior to being a student because these were the only games you COULD go to. If every game had tickets sold you would not have the same numbers as it is no longer special.   The only change I could argue making is releasing Rows 26-45 of the eastside to people on the waiting list if they want them. Otherwise pre-season sell outs whether students attend or not is far more preferable to athletic department moneywise and it keeps opposing teams fans out (although that's rarely an issue).   There is no perfect system but the new one IU has implemented this year is certainly a step in the right direction and I'm not sure there is a better one. People will always complain no matter what system is used