IUMS vs Butler - Tuesday, 09.19.23 @ 7:30

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,227]

Offense.  Offense.  Our kingdom for some offense.  

Hoosiers (2-2-2) host Butler (1-3-1) with the match televised on B1G+

Preview

Live Stats

[WayneFleekHoosier 48,547]

Stack some fricking W’s….. Go Hoosiers!  

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,227]

Jared Kelly - Todd Yeagley is shaking things up in a pretty notable way tonight vs. Butler. Luka Bezerra makes his first-career start, while Tommy Mihalic heads to the bench. Hugo Bacharach also not in the Starting XI for a second-straight game. IU desperately looking for offense.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,227]

GOAL!  Sam Sarver gives us a 1-0 lead off an Oduro assist.

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,227]

1-0 halftime score.  Hoosiers 7 shots; 3 on goal.  Butler 2 and 0.

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,227]

Sarver's goal holds up and our Hoosiers take a 1-0 win.  We finished with 16 shots; 7 on goal.  We held Butler to 7 total shots none of which were on goal.

Friday night we'll be in East Lansing for a 7:30 match with the Spartans (4-0-2).  Televised on B1G+.

[Aaron 4,294]

This game only reconfirms what we already know that team is elite defensively and struggles to score. Starting Bezerra at striker and pushing Goumballe back to midfield with Mihalic as a super sub helped some. It bogged down the attack less than previously but this lineup still makes team offensively challenged and there is no answer on the roster to fix it. It should also be noted along with DePaul and Evansville, Butler will be worse team Hoosiers see this season. 

Team really needs a win at a surprising MSU team Friday both to improve their RPI (which still sits in 70's) and stay in the Big Ten race. PSU is back to their form of two years ago and already 2-0 in the league. Northwestern and Wisconsin are much improved while OSU has fallen back to earth and Maryland is surprisingly struggling worse than IU. Michigan and Rutgers look to be just plain bad but it is still early.

Also gratifying to IU is Kentucky is pulling what Penn State did last year where they return almost their entire squad from their elite 2022 season but somehow fallen off a cliff.    

Bottom line is Indiana will go as far as defense takes them this fall and have to hope that is enough to continue the consecutive NCAA Tourney streak of 30+ years.