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Aaron

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Everything posted by Aaron

  1. Aaron

    IUMS - 2016 NCAA Tournament

    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.
  2. Aaron

    #IUMS - 2016 B1G Tournament

    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.
  3. Aaron

    #IUMS - 2016 B1G Tournament

    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.
  4. Aaron

    #IUMS vs MSU

    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)
  5. Aaron

    #IUMS @ OSU

    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.
  6. Aaron

    #IUMS @ Notre Dame

    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).
  7. Aaron

    #IUMS @ Notre Dame

    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.
  8. Aaron

    #IUMS @ Notre Dame

    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.
  9. Aaron

    Student attendance

    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
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