Aaron

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.

I feel like I have played this game for four straight seasons where it takes them half a season to get going. I am over panicking about it and know they will probably get it turned around. The question this program needs to answer is why they are taking half a season to figure it out since COVID? It makes tournament runs much harder and less advantageous draws on road. Does the team need more international players? Is the preseason training bad? Is the chemistry off? I don't have the answers to this but it is something Yeagley and Dolson need to sit down and evaluate in offseason when Dolson reviews each program yearly. Program is not in bad shape but to be what everyone expects, a few adjustments are needed or they will be just "another team" pretty quickly here. This happened with Mike Freitag from about 2006-2009 but he was very clearly the problem and once he was tossed out, the next decade was what we all expect. This time it is not a coaching issue, but for the 2020's to be what we want, some tweaks to the program and culture are needed. I don't have the answers to what it is, but Yeagley needs to figure it out. This team will almost certainly turn it around and make a big run again by the end of the season as they always do. However, these slow starts to every season now HAVE to be addressed by the higher ups. To not be playing postseason soccer at home much the last few years due to these early year malaises is not OK. Again the road to the College Cup will go through opponents stadiums. Hoosiers might well get there this way and have proven more than capable of it. However, to be an unseeded team on the road isn't fair to IU or the teams they are playing for multiple reasons for both sides when it comes to talent and fan support. Hoosiers could well make another huge postseason run by the time November comes around. However, no one will feel great about it until the team is playing well all season and getting top 8 seeds with home games in NCAA Tourney. The College Cup runs of 2016-2020 were well earned and made you feel great. The ones from 2021-2023 (and this year will be the same no matter what now) felt hollow and squad underachieved first only to overachieve later on. No matter how this season and future ones finish, the bottom line is we all need to feel like we did after 2016-2020 which is disappointment the squad didn't hoist the final trophy but gave it their all from end to end. 2021-2023 felt like it was a relief to get as far as team did and turn it around and fans and program can't keep having these thoughts. Even if squad does hoist the ninth star, the trophy doesn't feel like it was as well earned as it could have been as nearly happened in 2022. This contrasts to 2017, 2018, and 2020 where it is a shame those squads didn't add to the title collection and spent much of the season in the top three of college soccer. The latter is what needs to be felt. Not the former of 2022 and unfortunately this is what 2024 will feel like regardless. This is what needs to change ASAP and HAS to be addressed in the offseason.

Yes it is the most expensive streaming site on the planet for sports. It is $30 a month or $150 for the year. First two games of IU women's tourney in Bahamas on it as well. However, not sure when else IU fans might need it unless they want to watch Big East content or some of the other holiday tournaments. I have defended this streaming model in some ways, but FloHoops pricing is way out of whack compared to other streamers by about double and I am not sure why (maybe because they have fewer subscribers they have to charge each one more to make ends meet?). I'll be there so not worried about streaming price personally this time but just an FYI for IU fans. Don't shoot the messenger;).

It was Michael Nesci not Josh Maher who scored the first goal. However, Maher looked far better than Lindimore starting at center back and would assume has won the job after last night.

Typical heavy weight fight of an IU Notre Dame match that is fun to watch. This is the Indiana we need to see this year and it will be a really good season. That effort tonight beats anyone on schedule except maybe UCLA, Maryland, and Kentucky who are the other top programs we face later in the fall.

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 know. I watched the match:). Also Elliott and Maher play different positions. Elliott is taking Brett Bebej's spot on the wing since Bebej had his eligibility expire. Maher's spot was taken by freshman Jackson Lindamore who looked like a freshman tonight.

This seems to be typical of IU in recent years to really struggle early in the fall and especially lay eggs on the road in big time atmosphere. In the last few years they have always figured it out about halfway through and ended up in the College Cup or close to it. The home opener against ND next week will tell us a lot as this is the best team Indiana will see all season. A good performance means this was nothing more than the annual early season road stinker Indiana always has recently. Another game like this at Armstrong (which has not happened at any point recently) and then some questions need to be asked if this is talented pieces that don't go together as happened in 2013.

I agree with you. I am just giving you what I think the poster meant with their original comment.

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.

I think they mean a streaming service like youtubetv that is basically a cable provider. However, see my above post that this rarely happens with college soccer and increasingly happening everywhere.

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.

NCAA Soccer has always required a few extra subscriptions for streaming for most games and only a small handful on regular TV. It is only getting worse throughout sports as providers try to make up all the lost revenue from people cutting the cord. It sucks, but bottom line at this point is either you pay several different providers to watch sports or don't watch. I wish it were different but that is bottom line now.

I have talked before about how a coach resigning for what is allegedly a better job only to have the next guy come in and do even better and elevate the program to the next level. Obviously this happened with Brad Stevens at Butler when Todd Lickliter was snatched by Iowa. Well turning to IU baseball I keep saying I hope Jeff Mercer coming in and Chris Lemonis being snatched by Mississippi St. turns out this way. An example of this right down the road is Louisville. I have known for a long time that Dan McDonnell elevated the Louisville program to elite level just over a dozen years ago. What I didn't know is prior to that the Cardinals had a guy named Lelo Prado (https://gocards.com/news/2006/6/16/Prado_Resigns_To_Accept_USF_Baseball_Position.aspx) who was snatched up by USF in Florida which was allegedly a better job then. Without Prado leaving Louisville is not what they are today. I am really hoping that Mercer coming in after Lemonis spurned us for MSU is much like this. It sounds silly, but Louisville prior to McDonnell was much worse that what IU is today. I know the Cards have done some nefarious things overall as a school we never want to duplicate but the model is a good one to follow for baseball. Obviously the ACC is stronger than Big Ten but there is no reason IU being the southern most school, can't take the next step under Mercer that both Stevens and McDonnell led their programs to after someone was snatched up and dominate the Big Ten year in and year out. It could be in 10 years it will look silly that Lemonis left for MSU and this is the better job if Mercer can pull what McDonnell has and there is a chance he could. A great start has been the fact we have owned Louisville head to head since 2013 College World Series year. Also the player development that was missing under Lemonis appears to have been fixed which is what was ceiling us out with previous regime. I will have no complaints if we stay where we were with Lemonis under Mercer as just an upper pack conference regular tourney participant but I will be ecstatic if he can pull what McDonnell did.

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.