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(09/17/10 3:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The debate ends here (or maybe this is where it begins): IU has the best group of wide receivers and tight ends in the Big Ten.Not only that, the Hoosiers have one of the top units in the nation. On a good day, they are top 10. On a bad day, they are top 20.Reason No. 1: Tandon Doss is a star. With Purdue’s Keith Smith out for the season due to a knee injury, Doss is now the conference’s best receiver. And easily, at that.Reason No. 2: Damarlo Belcher could probably be a No. 1 receiver for most teams in the conference.Reason No. 3: Terrance Turner is not only experienced, but he’s capable of big things, especially out of the slot position.Reason No. 4: Duwyce Wilson, while young, is a big-play threat and a star in the making. Have you heard IU coach Bill Lynch talk about the kid? It’s almost as if he’s gushing about his son and how he’s studying to become a brain surgeon (he’s not, by the way). Lynch is that excited about the kid.Reason No. 5: Kofi Hughes, a freshman who transitioned to wide receiver from quarterback, also has a chance to play this season. He’s still got a cast on his right hand, but it’s looking more and more unlikely that Lynch will redshirt him.Reason No. 6: Throw in tight ends Max Dedmond and Ted Bolser, and this unit is comparable to almost any unit in the country.I asked Doss, Turner, Lynch and running back Darius Willis the same question: Is this the best group of receivers IU has had since you’ve been here or since you’ve been following the Hoosiers?Not one hesitated.“Yeah, definitely,” said Turner who, according to Lynch, is the unquestioned leader of the wide receivers. “We have everything that you would want in a receiving core. We all make plays so it’s definitely a great group.”Turner also compared the core with other Big Ten schools.“I think we’re right up there at the top,” Turner said. “You don’t want to think you’re anywhere else but the top.”Don’t get me wrong — there are better wide receivers in college football. Notre Dame’s Michael Floyd, Boise State’s Austin Pettis and Titus Young, Iowa’s Marvin McNutt and Alabama’s Julio Jones for example.All great players, but few have the talent and depth behind them that IU has.Doss and Belcher provide the best 1-2 punch in the conference, having combined for 138 receptions, 1,732 yards and 10 touchdowns a season ago.Compare those numbers with the stats of Floyd and Kyle Rudolph from 2009: 77 catches, 1,159 yards and 12 touchdowns. Or McNutt and Derrell Johnson-Koulianos: 79 catches, 1,424 yards and 10 TDs.Notre Dame’s No. 3 and 4 receivers TJ Jones and Theo Riddick, have a combined 209 career yards — less than half of Turner’s 2009 total. Iowa’s Colin Sandeman and Allen Reisner have comparable numbers.The stats speak for themselves.While the receiving group needs to improve in some areas — catching more touchdown passes, for example — IU fans must enjoy these guys while they have them. This type of receiving core doesn’t step into Memorial Stadium every year. Or even every decade.After this year, Doss and/or Belcher may make the jump to the NFL. Turner will be gone. Quarterback Ben Chappell, too.If you blink this season, you might miss a passing touchdown. These receivers are that good.Stars at the top with plenty of depth behind them — best group in the Big Ten.WKU PREDICTIONExpect IU to look rusty and out of sync at times against Western Kentucky after not playing for 16 days. After all, the starters saw little action in the team’s 51-17 win against Towson.The Hoosiers won’t be rusty enough, however, to lose to a WKU team that hasn’t won a game since Sept. 20, 2008. The IU defense will have a difficult time containing dangerous running back Bobby Rainey, but Ben Chappell and the offense will provide more than enough points to give the Hoosiers their second win of the season.Prediction: IU 48, WKU 21E-mail jmalbers@indiana.edu
(09/09/10 2:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ted Bolser ran his second-down route to the right side of the end zone. The IU tight end wasn’t open initially, but he didn’t give up on the play.Senior quarterback Ben Chappell wanted to throw to running back Darius Willis in the flat, but after a quick pump fake, the Towson cornerback came up, leaving Bolser wide open.Chappell hit Bolser right between the numbers, giving No. 83 his first collegiate reception and first collegiate touchdown on the same play.Bolser immediately threw his left arm in the air, tossed the football to the official and celebrated by giving chest bumps to Chappell and Willis. Bolser admitted after the game that he didn’t know exactly how he was supposed to celebrate.“I had a lot of people telling me what to do, what not to do,” the redshirt freshman said. “My friends were telling me to do some crazy stuff. One of my friends told me to come jump in the stands where he was sitting.”That’s OK, though, because Bolser said he hopes to have plenty more opportunities this season.The 6-foot-6-inch, 252-pound Bolser had a coming out party of sorts in last Thursday night’s season opener against Towson, bringing down four catches for 68 yards and the first-quarter, 12-yard touchdown. This from a guy who practiced with the second team for much of the off-season and learned of his opportunity to play with the starters only a week before the Towson game.Bolser’s road to the field as IU’s tight end was a long one. The Cincinnati native began his football career in first grade as a running back and linebacker. Bolser had so much success at the two positions that he continued to play both until his sophomore year at Indian Hill High School.That’s when he and his coach decided to move Bolser into a receiving role.While he was technically a tight end, Bolser was split out away from the line on most plays and functioned more as a wide receiver.He hadn’t seen any time at wideout or tight end prior to the summer leading up to his sophomore season, but it didn’t matter — when Indian Hill opened the regular season, Bolser was the varsity starter.“From then on, I fell in love with catching the ball,” he said.Bolser, a lifelong Cincinnati Bengals fan, recorded a combined 131 catches and 1,883 yards in his junior and senior seasons and helped the Braves advance to the regional championship game his junior year. He was the third-best tight end in Ohio according to OhioVarsity.com and received scholarship offers from Kentucky, Louisville and Akron in addition to IU.Bolser wanted an opportunity to play early in his collegiate career, and he thought if he worked hard enough, he could find his way onto the field for the Hoosiers.There was only one catch: Bolser would have to become a traditional tight end.“I didn’t think it would be nearly as hard,” he said. “I never went into a three-point position in my life until I came here.”Not only did Bolser have to learn a new stance and technique, he also had to learn how to block — something he never had to worry about before.During his time on the scout team as a redshirt last season, Bolser was pushed around by defensive ends Greg Middleton and Jammie Kirlew, guys who outweighed Bolser by 40 to 60 pounds.“I was scared to be honest,” Bolser said.But he stayed with it, spent plenty of time in the weight room and bulked up — he added about 30 pounds of muscle — to the point that he now resembles a Big Ten tight end.“He’s done an amazing job,” IU coach Bill Lynch said. “He’s a physical, physical guy and he gets better everyday.”Chappell said there was a point last spring when he didn’t think Bolser could improve enough in the blocking department to move up in the depth chart.“He has improved a ton and has really become one of the better blocking tight ends,” Chappell said. “He looks like a Big Ten tight end now, but he’s still as fast as ever. He’s a special, unique athlete.”Not only can Bolser help protect Chappell and open holes for Willis, but he also provides a threat over the middle to complement a talented wide-receiving core that includes junior Tandon Doss , who did not play against Towson, junior Damarlo Belcher, senior Terrance Turner and redshirt freshmen Duwyce Wilson.Chappell and Lynch agreed: Bolser is a piece the Hoosiers haven’t recently had.“It’s huge. I mean, a big guy over the middle who can catch the ball — I think any offense can benefit from a good tight end,” Chappell said. “We have to work to keep him grounded because the sky’s the limit for him.”Whether he is fending off athletic defensive linemen or serving as a safety valve for Chappell, Bolser will take the next play as seriously as he took the last. There’s only one thing that matters to the converted tight end — contributing to the Hoosiers’ success.“If it’s not thrown at me, I’m going to be blocking, and if it’s thrown at me, I’m going to be catching the ball,” said Bolser, who will likely share time with junior Max Dedmond. “Hopefully I’ll be able to take some pressure off of the receivers, and certainly having them in the wide receiver position takes pressure off me.”E-mail jmalbers@indiana.edu
(09/07/10 3:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Congratulations, you made it through a painful first weekend of college football. Hopefully you didn’t plan your Saturday around ESPN’s game schedule (except maybe the night games).You got to see Florida dominate Miami University of Ohio. You had the privilege (cough, cough) of watching Texas get a win against some school named Rice. Never heard of it? Me neither.And, of course, you had the opportunity to spend three hours at Memorial Stadium watching the Hoosiers beat the tar out of a Towson team that finished last season 2-9 while competing in the Football Championship Subdivision.Let me make this very clear: something has to be done about the cupcake tour that is the first week of the college football season. There have to be rules. These games are a waste of everyone’s time, especially that of the fans who pay ridiculous prices for tickets to see Iowa roll over Eastern Illinois, 37-7.This is the one week every year where every sports fan in America is spending his time in front of the tube watching college football. The NFL regular season hasn’t yet begun and the MLB playoffs are still a month away.College athletic directors across the nation have the chance to grab those fans by the balls and capture their attention for the duration of the season. Schedule the nonconference matchups we all want to see — Notre Dame vs. Cincinnati, for instance. Maybe Florida vs. Texas.IU Athletics Director Fred Glass could have scheduled a school such as Louisville or Cincinnati or Kentucky. Instead, he came up with a riveting nonconference tilt of Towson, Western Kentucky, Akron and Arkansas State.That absolutely cannot happen. But I understand why it does. Teams from the power conferences are motivated to schedule the worst possible teams for their nonconference slates because those games become virtually automatic victories. The smaller schools want to play these games because they get paid to do so.When you pick these matchups apart and look at them for what they really are, they are unwinnable games for teams such as IU. If the Hoosiers beat Towson 51-17, fans and columnists (such as myself) look for the failures in a game full of successes.But if they lose, nobody associated with the team will ever live it down. Just ask Michigan fans how they feel about Appalachian State. A loss to a small school automatically makes the entire season a failure. If the Hoosiers were to lose to Western Kentucky on Sept. 18, God forbid, the interest in the team would shrink to a point close to nonexistence. A coach could lose his job over such a loss.Turner Gill’s tenure at Kansas could be short after a 6-3 loss to — wait for it — North Dakota State on Saturday.If I were in charge of things, I would establish two rules to solve this problem, or some of it.First, at least half of a school’s nonconference games must be played against teams from another power conference (For IU, against SEC, ACC, Big East, Big 12 or Pac 10).That way, IU could still have two patsies on its schedule — say Towson and Akron — while playing two more legitimate opponents — perhaps Louisville and Kentucky. The Hoosiers’ nonconference games would better prepare them for Big Ten opponents. Think they will be ready to play anybody in the conference after their first three games this year?Second, schools cannot pay smaller schools to play them at home. Instead, the power conference schools must agree to a home-and-home series with the smaller schools.It just rubs me the wrong way that athletics directors, such as Glass, are paying schools to play their football team. Are you kidding me? In this scenario, IU would play Akron at home this year and then go there in 2011. These rules will never be implemented — I know that. College coaches want these built-in wins on their schedule.IU coach Bill Lynch was asked after Thursday’s game if he was excited about the fact the Hoosiers’ nonconference schedule is going to be upgraded in the coming years.His response was understandable.“I certainly don’t want to apologize for the schedule we’re playing now,” he said. “Because the Big Ten, once you get in it, it’s tough. Every win is so important in Division I football now because the goal of everybody is to play in the postseason.”Scheduling cupcakes is okay, but it must be done in moderation. Who can take IU seriously when it plays the nonconference schedule it does? More importantly, who’s going to watch these games?Something for Glass to think about when he prepares the schedules for the next five or 10 years.
(09/03/10 4:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The good news: IU wore out the scoreboard by scoring 51 points — 38 by halftime — and compiling 374 yards of total offense in its season-opening victory against Towson.The bad news (why does there always seem to be bad news with IU football?): The Hoosiers gave up 387 yards and two huge plays to a team that struggles offensively.That’s the way the night went. One minute, sophomore running back Darius Willis was running past every Towson defender for a 49-yard touchdown, and the next the Hoosiers were allowing Towson quarterback Chris Hart more time than he could ever need to survey the field and find the open receiver.It’s sometimes difficult to evaluate a team’s performance in an opener — especially against a Football Championship Subdivision team such as Towson — but several themes from Thursday night’s game promise to persist throughout the year.The defense will struggle. Much has been made of the Hoosiers’ move to the 3-4 defense in the offseason, but judging by their performance against the Tigers, things aren’t going to be a heck of a lot different than 2009.The IU secondary looked weak at times, especially on a 64-yard TD pass from Hart to Towson receiver Hakeem Moore. Granted, the Hoosiers’ defensive line didn’t do the secondary any favors by putting little to no pressure on Hart.To win games in the Big Ten, the Hoosiers can’t allow the big plays. They have run with the Indianapolis Colts’ old “bend but don’t break” philosophy. The problem is, they were broken several times by Towson. (Note: Had their quarterback and receivers been on the same page, the Tigers would have had a couple more scores. Countless drops and bad throws killed them.)Evans has promise.Mitchell Evans, that is. The former wide receiver and Wildcat quarterback had a big debut at safety, and as disappointing as the defense was for much of the night, provided reason to be positive about the rest of the season. Two of his seven tackles were of the touchdown-saving variety, and his first-quarter interception came at a key point in the game. Darius Willis is the man. When he’s healthy, of course. Old news, let’s move on.The IU offense isn’t as good as it looked.Ben Chappell, Willis and the gang had a great night, but they received plenty of assistance from the Tigers. Example: On a play midway through the first quarter, Hart rolled out of the pocket and had at least 10 to 15 yards to run (he is a running quarterback, mind you). Instead, the Towson junior chose to throw to a well-covered receiver downfield. Result: An Evans pick, which set up an IU touchdown. (Big Ten quarterbacks will make better decisions.)Only one of the Hoosiers’ five first-half touchdowns came on a long drive. Two Towson turnovers, a failed attempt at an onside kick and a botched punt attempt gave IU a short field to work with on nearly every possession.Chappell has to learn to throw the ball away. The fifth-year senior was efficient for much of the game, but one play late in the first quarter illustrated a skill Chappell has yet to master during his time in Bloomington.When pass rushers are coming and nobody is open, throw the ball away. No harm, no foul. Live to play another down.On this particular play, however, Chappell threw a ball into no-man’s land and nearly had it intercepted. This from a guy who threw 17 picks a year ago — something has to change.The Hoosiers were by no means perfect against a team with a 61-man roster. Compare their performance with last year’s 19-13 win against Eastern Kentucky, on the other hand, and it looks a lot better.At the end of the day, it’s a win. IU is one game closer to finishing the season in a bowl game — that’s what is most important.
(08/31/10 3:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Did you ever see the signs outside beach front restaurants and stores that read “No shirt, no shoes, no service”?The IU football team should purchase one for the locker room that says “No Darius Willis, no chance.” Ben Chappell could get one to display on the outside of his locker: “No Willis, no time in the pocket.”What I am trying to say in more simple terms is: Keep Willis healthy and the Hoosiers will win football games. Lose him to the injury bug and all bets are off.It’s that simple.When he’s healthy, Willis is spectacular, easily one of the better offensive talents the Hoosiers have had in years. The running back led the team in rushing last year as a freshman with 607 yards, even though he missed three games due to injury and touched the ball a combined nine times in two other games.Willis had three 100-yard rushing games, including a 16-carry, 152-yard outburst against Michigan. He gave Purdue a preview of what they’ll be dealing with for the next four years when he gained 142 yards on 19 touches.If Willis stays healthy, the Hoosiers could win eight games. That’s not because he’ll rush for 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns and challenge Wisconsin’s John Clay and Penn State’s Evan Royster for a Big Ten rushing title.There is a zero percent chance of that happening.Willis can help the Hoosiers win games by opening things up for senior quarterback Chappell and the passing game. The threat of Willis running 85 yards for a score will keep defenses honest. It will keep them from blitzing Chappell again and again. It will preserve the linemen so they have the energy to block for their quarterback on a critical play late in the fourth quarter.“Whenever you have a balanced attack and you’re able to run the ball, it opens things up for the passing game,” senior wideout Terrance Turner said. “He’s definitely a key part of our offense and we need him out there. Whatever we have to do to keep him healthy, that’s what we have to do.”Everybody knows this is a passing offense. It has to be. The Hoosiers’ offensive line isn’t nearly good enough to block for Willis 25 or 30 times a game.But the tailback will get his opportunities. Because the Hoosiers have so many weapons out of the passing game — junior Tandon Doss, junior Damarlo Belcher and Turner all started last year — Willis should have some big lanes to run through, as he did a year ago.If he is out for a significant amount of time, however, the entire offense will struggle. IU coach Bill Lynch would be forced to go the route of running back by committee, throwing guys such as senior Trea Burgess and redshirt freshman Nick Turner into the backfield. (Note: While Turner is a remarkable talent, he probably isn’t ready to carry the load as a freshman.)With the threat of a running attack gone, defenses could drop extra guys in coverage (interception) or come after Chappell (sack).There’s not much anybody can do to keep Willis from getting injured again, but that doesn’t mean Lynch can’t try. The fourth-year coach has kept Willis out of practice from time-to-time during the preseason in an effort to keep him fresh for the meat of the regular season.“We were a better offensive team last year when he was in there and healthy,” Lynch said. “You have to be smart in camp with a running back because you don’t know how many hits he’s going to take during those 12 Saturdays.” He and Lynch are doing anything and everything they can to protect the star running back. Fans better hope it works because, without Willis, this season could go downhill in a hurry.E-mail: jmalbers@indiana.edu
(08/27/10 4:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU will make a bowl game this season — that is a guarantee (Yes, the Kentucky Fried Chicken Bowl and The Mott’s Fruit Bowl do count).However risky, stupid and ridiculous it might seem, I am willing to attach my name to that statement.Before you write me off as a crazed homer, take a look at the Hoosiers’ schedule.There are four built-in wins there: home against Towson, at Western Kentucky, home vs. Akron and homecoming against Arkansas State.I’ve heard of scheduling patsies, but four in one season?Maryland doesn’t even play Towson, a school located near Baltimore. Ohio State doesn’t even play Akron. Arkansas doesn’t even play Arkansas State. The four upcoming IU opponents posted a combined 9-38 record last year. If the Hoosiers lose even one of those games, the season automatically becomes a failure. (Note: While I know many of you are upset that Fred Glass sold the rights to a home game against Penn State to the folks at FedEx Field, that decision allowed Glass to schedule another non-conference home game — in other words, an extra win.)So there are four in the “W” column. It wouldn’t be wise to guarantee a victory in a specific conference game, but IU will win at least two of eight in the Big Ten. Northwestern at home and Illinois on the road look especially good on paper, and a revenge game at Memorial Stadium against Rich Rod and Michigan also has to be circled on the Hoosiers’ schedule.Give that soft schedule to a talented, experienced, ticked-off group of guys, and you have a bowl-bound ball club. These guys are angry, sick and tired of hearing how bad they are and how good everybody else is.Who could blame them? IU football and mediocrity have become synonymous over the last few decades. But this year, the players claim, things will be different.“We don’t focus too much on what the critics say,” junior wide receiver Tandon Doss said. “We know the things we’re trying to do here, and we are going to continue to work hard and get things done.”Those “things” Doss mentioned have been drilled into the heads of the Hoosier players by coach Bill Lynch. Specifically, improving in red zone and third down situations — areas in which IU struggled in 2009.When the Hoosiers first met as a team in January, Lynch told his players they were a mere 12 plays away from a special season last year. He showed a film to show the individual plays, many of which came in losses against Michigan and Northwestern.After talking with many of those players at IU media day, it is clear they believe they were really that close.And while it is true that good teams know how to finish, the importance of the Hoosiers having many of those painful experiences under their belts cannot be understated. These players are experienced — especially on the offensive side of the ball — and they now know what it takes to win a Big Ten game.Four quarters.Not three and a half.“You never know when a play is going to happen, what quarter or anything like that. You just have to keep playing,” senior wide receiver Terrance Turner said. “Hopefully this year those plays will be in our benefit.”Sophomore running back Darius Willis added that they want to play all four quarters. “We want to win every game. We want to finish every game. We want to play all four quarters. We didn’t finish four quarters last year,” he said.There are plenty of question marks for the Hoosiers — the new 3-4 defense and a lack of depth and experience on the line for example — but this team is good enough to make a bowl game.Six, maybe seven wins. I guarantee it.E-mail: jmalbers@indiana.edu
(08/24/10 12:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Athletics Director Fred Glass is working hard to make people excited about the university’s football program. At this point, that’s all he can do. Though many of his new gimmicks (see: bike valet service) are a bit overreaching in nature, it’s hard to argue with the numbers.Consider:Glass helped the Hoosiers increase the average attendance from about 31,000 in 2008 to about 42,000 last year. That was good for the third highest percentage increase of any program in the country, Glass said. The increase in attendance came in a year when the nation was in its deepest recession in decades. That’s a pretty remarkable feat, especially when you’re trying to sell a 4-8 football team.The smartest thing Glass did in 2009 was lower the price of all student tickets to $5 apiece — including ticket prices for college students who do not attend IU, except for students from the school of IU’s game-day opponent. Even college kids are willing to pay five bucks to see a game and by allowing their buddies from Purdue, Ball State and IUPUI to join them in the game-day experience (tailgating anyone?), he created a party-like atmosphere that everyone wants to be part of — whether the team is winning or not.Glass also targeted younger kids and their parents by introducing Knothole Park, and now the Knothole Club. He expanded on his initial effort, lowering ticket prices for all children up to the age of 18 to $5 apiece.But despite everything Glass has done in the two years since inheriting the mess left by Rick Greenspan, it will never be enough. It can’t be.The new scoreboard is great — now IU has “One of the World’s Largest Screens” to offset Purdue’s “World’s Largest Drum.” But it’s not enough. The Knothole Club is cool, but it’s not enough. The lower ticket prices are nice, but it’s not enough.No gimmick, no matter how well-thought out, can get people’s butts in the seats like winning. If the Hoosiers win, Glass and his marketing staff wouldn’t have to spend hour after hour thinking up ways to sell the on-field product. You think Alabama needs to discount tickets to get students to the game? You think Ohio State needs to create a kid’s club to fill its stadium?Winning solves everything, and Glass knows it.“I’ll acknowledge that being good is the best way to get people in the stands,” he said. “I’m not a goof about that, I understand winning is the best marketing strategy you can have. But I reject the approach I think people sometimes have when they shrug their shoulders and say ‘Well, there’s not much we can do. We’ll just wait ‘til the team wins.’ I think that’s wrong-headed.”It may be wrong-headed, but it’s never going to change. Fans are not going to continually spend their time and money to see a team that can’t win in the Big Ten. They will eventually realize that a cold one on the couch in front of the plasma TV is just as good as taking in a game at Memorial Stadium.If Glass and the Athletics Department ever want to make a profit, IU has to win games. Glass is taking a risk by slashing ticket prices, hoping fans will like what they see and return to Bloomington for years to come.Is that likely? Not unless the Hoosiers start turning 4-8 into 8-4. But give Glass credit – he is trying.
(08/11/10 9:04pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU football coach Bill Lynch is confident about the upcoming season. He thinks he has a team that can compete with — and beat — many of its Big Ten opponents.That much was clear from Lynch’s comments at the Big Ten Media Days in Chicago, and he more or less repeated those sentiments when the Hoosiers began practice on Friday. Lynch genuinely feels good about this team.And despite IU’s disappointing 4-8 finish in 2009, he has reason to feel that way.The Hoosiers were competitive in nine of their 12 games last season. If they had made a few more plays, they could easily have won four more games and had IU fans snatching up tickets for this year’s Thursday night home opener against Towson.That obviously didn’t happen. The Hoosiers didn’t have the ability to put teams away when they were down. They didn’t have the closers to deliver the knockout blow. They gave their opponents air when they were near suffocation.“Our theme has been to finish,” Lynch said during Big Ten Media Days. “We had so many games last year where we were competing and had the lead in the fourth quarter and didn’t finish the job.”Lynch has almost everybody back on the offensive side, including fifth-year quarterback Ben Chappell and standout wide receiver Tandon Doss. He also has remarkable depth at receiver and experience on the offensive line, as well as a running back in Darius Willis who can, if healthy, run through even the smallest of holes.The Hoosiers have a defense that Lynch is excited about. The defense may not be stacked with household names, but it also doesn’t consist of the glaring holes it has had so many times in the past.Adam Replogle, Nick Sliger and Larry Black are back to anchor the defensive line. Senior Tyler Replogle has been a consistent starter at linebacker ever since he was a freshman. And the secondary, which was extremely suspect at times in 2009, has been restocked with former offensive players Matt Ernest and Mitchell Evans.“I think the competition there will be really good and that we’ll have some guys surface out of there that will have a real impact on the defense,” Lynch said.Then take a look at the schedule. Yeah, there are a few games that you can pencil in an “L” next to right away. At Ohio State, “L.” At Penn State, “L.” At Wisconsin, “L.”But what about the other nine games? Many, if not all, are winnable. The first three, along with the homecoming contest against Arkansas State, should be cakewalks. Isn’t Northwestern beatable at home? What about Rich Rodriguez and Michigan? Or a game in Champaign against Illinois?No, this team won’t be great. These Hoosiers won’t win any Big Ten championships, post any shutouts or throw 60 points up on the new scoreboard in Memorial Stadium.But Lynch and IU fans have the right to be confident — it will be better. E-mail: jmalbers@indiana.edu
(04/30/10 3:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bring on Michigan – again. The No. 44 Hoosiers will play the three-seeded Wolverines for the second time in six days after taking care of No. 11 seed Michigan State 4-0 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday. IU (16-9), which beat the Spartans 7-0 on Saturday, took control from the start.The Hoosiers grabbed the doubles point by winning matches at No. 2 and No. 3 and then made quick work of the Spartans in singles play.Junior Santiago Gruter and sophomores Jeremy Langer and Will Kendall earned singles wins for the Hoosiers.Gruter jumped on his opponent right away at No. 4 singles and rolled to a 6-2, 6-2 victory. Langer fell behind 3-1 in the first set at No. 2, but he battled back to win the set 6-3 and dominated Michigan State’s Austin Brooks 6-2 in the second.“I just feel like whenever I go down in a match, I’m never out of it,” Langer said. “I can always bounce back and make adjustments.”Kendall, who has been in and out of the singles lineup all season, looked as good as ever before in his 6-2, 6-2 win over the Spartans’ Joe Vallee at No. 6. He replaced freshman Alex van Gils, who had gotten the start in the first match against Michigan State.“We needed that,” Bloemendaal said. “It’s just a little different emotional pressure with the good crowd and the (weather) elements we had to face. I think, for the most part, the guys responded well to it.”IU now turns its attention to this afternoon’s match with No. 25 Michigan. The Hoosier team said it feels confident about its chances to avenge its 5-2 loss to the Wolverines because the conditions will be different.Sunday’s match between the two teams was played indoors.“We’re playing outside, we’re playing in the wind and we know Michigan definitely doesn’t like that,” Langer said. “We love it. I think it’s going to be a great match, definitely in our favor.”
(04/29/10 3:54am)
Two months ago, IU men’s tennis coach Randy Bloemendaal didn’t have a doubles lineup he could rely on.
(04/29/10 3:48am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU men’s tennis coach Randy Bloemendaal thought his team was good enough to finish in the Big Ten’s top three in 2010.But after a season in which the No. 44 Hoosiers (15-9, 5-5) split each of their five weekend sets, he and his team must settle for a 6-seed in the Big Ten Tournament and a first-round date with 11-seeded Michigan State (13-13, 1-9).That’s okay, Bloemendaal said, because it could turn out to be the best possible draw for his young squad.“I think it’s a perfect storm for us,” the third-year coach said. “The draw ended up being exactly what we need to win this tournament.” Bloemendaal said the team needed to play Michigan State in order to regain confidence following Sunday’s 5-2 loss to Michigan.Should IU win its first-round match? The team would face the Wolverines again in the quarterfinals.The Hoosiers’ five conference victories have come against teams seeded seventh through 11th. To win the tournament, the team will likely have to beat the top three teams — all three of whom are ranked ahead of them in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings. IU has yet to knock off a team ranked higher than No. 42.But the Hoosiers aren’t concerned. When asked whether the team could win the Big Ten Tournament, freshman Josh MacTaggart only smiled.“Yeah,” he said. “Definitely.”All of the conference tournament matches will be played at the IU Varsity Courts beginning at 9 a.m. today and will run through Sunday.
(04/15/10 3:38am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For the second consecutive match, the Hoosiers played exceptionally well against a top-40 team. But for the second consecutive match, the IU men’s tennis team walked away with a 4-3 loss. The No. 41 Hoosiers could never quite get out of an early hole in singles play, as they dropped a hard-fought match to No. 15 Louisville at the IU Varsity Courts. IU was coming off a tough 4-3 loss to No. 39 Minnesota on Sunday. The Hoosiers (12-7, 3-3) earned the doubles point for the third consecutive match. They got wins from the duo of junior Lachlan Ferguson and freshman Josh MacTaggart at No.1 (8-4) and the tandem of junior Santiago Gruter and sophomore Jeremy Langer at No. 2 (8-5). Finding consistent singles victories, however, has been difficult. After Louisville’s Austen Childs and Robert Hall defeated Langer and sophomore Stephen Vogl at No. 1 and No. 6 singles, respectively, the Hoosiers’ sophomore Maxime Armengaud helped keep IU alive by posting a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 win over Andrew Carter at No. 5. But Gruter (5-7, 6-7) and MacTaggart (4-6, 6-1, 3-6) lost close matches and the Cardinals walked away with the win. Ferguson also earned a singles win for the Hoosiers, defeating Victor Maksimcuk 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 10-5 at No. 2. “I thought we played really well today,” said IU assistant coach Scott Linn. “Lachlan did a great job of closing out and Maxime being back out there competing for us is a good sign. But I think we’ve got to get one of these wins against a team ranked so high and then we’ll start winning a lot against those teams.”
(04/14/10 12:55am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Hoosiers have yet to play a team currently ranked in the top 15 this season. The team will play against two this week alone. The brutal schedule begins today when the No. 41 IU men’s tennis team will play host to No. 15 Louisville at 2 p.m. and unranked Vincennes at 7:30 p.m. at the IU Tennis Center. The Hoosiers will face No. 5 Ohio State on Friday.“This is the time of year when we’re trying to get to our best tennis, and I think that schedule will help us get there,” IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said. “Guys are going to have to step up and respond to it.” For the next three weeks, IU will be working hard to prove that it belongs in the field of 64 for the NCAA Tournament. The Hoosiers (12-5, 3-3) still don’t have a real signature win on their resume. They haven’t beaten any higher-ranked teams, and their best win came at No. 53 Northwestern on March 28. A win against Louisville, a team that has only won in Bloomington once, could be the one the Hoosiers have been so desperately looking for. That task won’t be accomplished easily, however, because IU is coming off of its toughest loss of the season against No. 37 Minnesota on Sunday. “It’s going to be tough,” Bloemendaal said. “With a young team, this is very difficult. But really, it’s all about being resilient at this point. You’ve got to let it go and get ready to play again.”
(04/12/10 3:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IU men’s tennis team came ever so close to sweeping weekend matches against Iowa and Minnesota. After knocking off the No. 60 Hawkeyes 6-1 on Saturday, the Hoosiers (12-6, 3-3) found themselves in a serious battle with No. 39 Minnesota. With the match score tied at 3-3, sophomore Will Kendall had an opportunity to win the match for the No. 41 Hoosiers at No. 6 singles against the Gophers’ Brendan Ruddock. The match went back and forth throughout, but Kendall held a 4-1 third set lead and looked to be headed for the victory. Ruddock responded by taking five of the next six games to even the set score at 6-6. No player could gain a decisive advantage in the tiebreak. Kendall had a good serve here; Ruddock a nice shot there. With Kendall ahead 5-4, Ruddock tapped a shot close to the net and Kendall slapped it by the Gopher freshman. But Ruddock called it out, the official agreed with him, and he used the momentum to win the final two points and the match. IU coach Randy Bloemendaal said he couldn’t see the shot from where he was sitting on the opposite side of the court, so he didn’t argue with it. He was, however, disappointed that his team didn’t play better with a lead in the 4-3 loss to the Gophers. “We carried the lead for a long time today, and I didn’t think we did a good job with it,” Bloemendaal said. “That’s just something you have to learn how to do. We haven’t been in this situation enough this year. The more you are in it, the more you learn how to handle the pressure around you.” Junior Santiago Gruter and sophomore Jeremy Langer each won both of their singles matches and both of their doubles matches on the weekend. Langer was especially impressive at No. 2 singles. He defeated No. 105 Tobias Wernet of Minnesota 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 on Sunday to even the score at 3 and give the Hoosiers a chance for the win. Langer knocked off Iowa’s Nikita Zotov 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday. “He was very determined today,” Bloemendaal said. “I thought he did a good job of taking advantage of his strengths on the court. He played some good tennis, there’s no doubt about it.”
(04/12/10 3:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU junior Lachlan Ferguson and his older brother, Callum, never had a chance: They were going to be involved in sports. Ferguson’s father, Jim, said he and his wife, Pauline, decided very early on that the busier their sons were with athletics, the less trouble they would get themselves into.That’s the way Jim and Pauline had been raised. They played a great deal of tennis from an early age and eventually became successful professional tennis players in Australia. “We wanted the boys to enjoy a busy outdoor life,” said Jim Ferguson, who is in town for the week to visit Lachlan. “Whatever schools they picked up along the way was terrific.” Tennis wasn’t the only sport for the Ferguson boys, however. Lachlan and Callum grew up competing in both cricket and tennis but could only choose one when they grew into teenagers. Callum went with cricket, and he is currently playing professionally on the Australian national team. Lachlan chose tennis, and he has never stopped playing since. “When I was about 13, dad sat me down and said ‘it’s probably about time you pick a sport,’” said Lachlan, who plays No. 1 singles and doubles for the Hoosiers. “We had just had a tennis court put in our yard and, to be honest, I didn’t want it to go to waste. So I was like, ‘Alright dad, sign me up. I’m going to be a tennis player.’” At age 15, Lachlan left high school and began traveling around with the Australian national team. His game got better, he started to feel more comfortable, and he decided to join a professional tour a couple of years later.But after a year playing against the pros, Lachlan decided to go back home in Adelaide, Australia, and decide what he wanted to do next. He didn’t enjoy tennis as much during that year on the tour, and he had a lot of studying to do. “I wanted to look at some other options, and I hadn’t finished high school,” he said. “So I went back to study and finished my high school through the Internet. And then I started e-mailing back some of the college coaches that had contacted me during my years away from home. The rest is history.” Lachlan came to IU, leaving behind his friends and family in Australia for another four-year period. He now spends his summer breaks playing team tennis in Germany, so visits with his family are few and far between. But adjusting to Bloomington wasn’t difficult, he said, because he had been away from home so often during the previous four years. “It wasn’t that tough because I moved away from home when I was 15,” Ferguson said. “I had to train with the national team, so I left home and moved to Melbourne. But, yeah, I haven’t been home that often since coming here. I have only spent a couple of weeks here and there back home over the past three or four years. I mean, I miss my brother and my mom and dad, but I will get back there eventually.” While Jim and Pauline miss seeing their son on a regular basis, they have turned his new life into an opportunity to see a different type of tennis played in a different country. They spent about two weeks in Bloomington last spring, and Jim is back again this year. Jim has been blown away by the opportunities Lachlan and other college tennis players have in the U.S., and he said he is grateful that a game such as tennis has given Lachlan a life many Australians only dream of. “We’ve enjoyed the environment watching the kids out here,” he said. “They have a magnificent facility. The competition is fantastic and the facilities are to die for. I wish we had some of these facilities back in Australia.” Decision time is nearing for Lachlan. He’s not sure exactly what he wants to do when he graduates. His father would like to see him give the professional game another try. Lachlan hopes that can happen. But he has other options.Ferguson, who was named to the ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District team in 2009, will work toward a Master’s Degree in physical therapy when he returns home. His 3.90 GPA. is the best on the team. Lachlan said he might start pursuing that degree during an extended down period following a surgery this summer. He has spent a good part of this season battling injuries and knows he must get them corrected if he wants another chance to play professionally. “I will most likely get that done. It’s a pretty serious operation,” he said. “A lot will be determined by how that operation goes. If I come back and I’m feeling good, I might go out and play for a little while. I’m playing reasonably well at the moment, so that’s an option. “I’m going to have to sit down and make a decision when the time comes, but I’m going to sit on that one for a while.” Ferguson will soon leave IU, but he will always be a Hoosier; that’s a given. He is the team captain. He’s the team’s best and most academically successful player. And he cares so much more about his teammates than he does about himself. Even when he was injured for a stretch at the beginning of the spring season, he attended practice every day and motivated his teammates. He stood on the sideline like a coach, readily giving the other players advice and encouragement. For Lachlan, that has always been the only way to do things. He turns negatives into positives. He puts others before himself. That mindset came from his father, who still works with Lachlan even though he sees him for only a couple of weeks each year. Jim shares his experience. He gives Lachlan praise. He corrects him when he does something wrong. Nothing he does goes unnoticed by Lachlan. Because, even after everything Lachlan has been through in his busy life, his dad has always been there for him. “It’s great. I really like it,” he said. “I really miss him a lot. It’s funny because I’ve had a hard time at some stages in my career trying to get advice out of him. He’s taken a back seat in my career, for good or for bad. But I’m a little older now, and hopefully a little more mature, so when I get out on the court, our relationship is really good. It’s really an amazing thing.”
(03/26/10 4:05am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At this time last season, the IU men’s tennis team was 7-7 and went limping into the Big Ten season by losing seven of 10.This time around, as the No. 40 Hoosiers prepare to play No. 38 Wisconsin and No. 43 Northwestern this weekend, they will do so with a great deal of confidence and momentum.Winning streaks tend to have that effect on a team. The Hoosiers (9-3), who started the season with a mediocre 4-4 record, have won five consecutive matches heading into the Big Ten season, including three road matches in a row last week. “Our expectations are to go to both places and really beat them,” junior Santiago Gruter said. “I mean, we beat them here last year, and we really want to step it up on the road. I know I need to do a better job on the road than what I’ve been doing and kind of lead the way. But we’ll get two good opportunities against good teams this weekend.” If IU is to knock off Wisconsin for the second consecutive year, it will have to put forth a special effort. The Badgers are led in singles play by the lethal one-two punch of No. 13 Moritz Baumann and No. 25 Marek Michalicka. Baumann is currently the highest-ranked singles player in the Big Ten and Michalicka is third. Together, Baumann and Michalicka make up the No. 11 doubles tandem in the nation, second-best in the conference. IU coach Randy Bloemendaal compared the challenge of playing the Badgers and Wildcats to that of going to Oklahoma for a double-dip with Oklahoma and Tulsa last month.That weekend ended with two disappointing losses. Bloemendaal said he hopes the result will be different this time around. “I think my young guys are playing much better and Ferg (Lachlan Ferguson) is stepping up. We’ve been working hard on doubles this week, and I feel like we’re playing well in both singles and doubles. We feel like, if we get the doubles point, we’re going to be hard to beat, even on the road.”
(03/26/10 4:02am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Most college tennis teams in the Midwest get used to the fact that with inclement winter weather they have to be inside nearly five months of the year. For that reason, they feel more comfortable and play better indoors. The IU men’s tennis team is an exception to this rule. A lot of that has to do with IU coach Randy Bloemendaal. Now in his third year at the helm for the Hoosiers, Bloemendaal coached at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina before moving to Indiana. He loves the outdoors and the opportunities outdoor tennis offers his players. He said most Big Ten teams would prefer to play the season indoors. Bloemendaal, however, has based his training program around outdoor tennis for years, and he said he feels that will give his Hoosiers a decisive advantage during this year’s conference season.“I think the training shows up outside because of the way the points are constructed,” Bloemendaal said. “You get into the meat of the point, you get past the first exchange more often than you do indoors. You get rewarded indoors for a lot of things that don’t matter that much in tennis. It’s kind of a fluke. Outdoors, you have to go out and kind of work it more and then that training shows up an hour and a half to two hours into the match.” The Hoosiers (9-3) have become so good outdoors that they have the ability to win on the road against teams that live in warm climates. One example comes from last week’s match with then-No. 70 Central Florida. IU went into that match without a road win on the season. Central Florida had been playing well, steadily climbing in the rankings. It was just the Hoosiers’ second outdoor match of the season. The Golden Knights had been practicing and playing out in the sun for months. But because of the team’s comfort in the outdoor environment, the Hoosiers left with a 5-2 victory.“I think we’re in better shape than most teams, and we’re also fully confident in ourselves,” junior Santiago Gruter said. “Some of those toughness drills that we do really show up outdoors because of the longer points, and that’s the main reason why I think we’ve been more successful outside.” While Bloemendaal said he isn’t sure of his team’s record outdoors, he said he couldn’t recall a loss during the past two seasons.IU has had its ups and downs this season, but Bloemendaal has never been overly concerned. He said his team’s depth will allow it to accomplish a lot of things and he believes his club will prove to the nation that it belongs in the upper tier during the outdoor season. “We have eight or nine guys in singles that are playing at a level of being in the lineup now,” Bloemendaal said. “All of them are going to battle for spots at different points in the season. I think after this weekend, we’ll be right back in the rankings where we should have been at the beginning of the season.”
(03/02/10 3:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Can the IU men’s tennis team win on the road? That is the obvious question to ask after the No. 48 Hoosiers lost back-to-back matches at Tulsa and Oklahoma last weekend. The team is 0-3 in true road matches this season. Last year, IU coach Randy Bloemendaal’s second with the team, the Hoosiers were 2-6 in true road matches and 11-4 in Bloomington.Bloemendaal, however, is not concerned.“The effort was good enough,” he said, referring to the matches against Tulsa and Oklahoma. “I know, watching it from a distance, maybe that doesn’t seem right, but the effort was there. It was good enough to win on the road in the Big Ten against top-ranked teams. It’s not an effort thing.“The guys just have to learn how to perform in those pressure situations,” he said. “I mean, the home team probably won 80-90 percent of the big points in all the matches. When that happens, it almost becomes a grind for you mentally. But the effort was just as good as any time we’ve been at home.”One factor contributing to the lack of road success is the quality of competition the Hoosiers play away from the IU Tennis Center. Their three road losses have come against No. 10 Mississippi, No. 26 Oklahoma and No. 33 Tulsa — all three of which are ranked at least 15 spots higher than IU.But the worrisome part about the losses has been the Hoosiers’ lack of competitiveness. They dropped all nine doubles matches in the three matches combined and won only three of the 15 singles matches.“It’s frustrating not to get the job done on the road, but we’ve got to realize that we’re still a pretty young team,” junior Santiago Gruter said. “We gotta do stuff better on the road, like being more aggressive. We have to realize that they’re not going to give us anything. As the season moves on, and as the freshmen get some more matches, we’ll be able to do a better job, hopefully.”Even after everything that has happened this season, Bloemendaal still believes his Hoosiers have the potential to be a top-20 team.“We definitely have the potential to be, our guys just aren’t playing with that confidence right now,” he said. “We’ve shown that at home from time to time. If we get a breakthrough win, we’re there.”The road competition won’t get much easier for the Hoosiers in the coming weeks. After playing at unranked Central Florida on March 17, the next four away matches will be against ranked Big Ten teams (No. 31 Wisconsin, No. 44 Northwestern, No. 69 Purdue and No. 13 Illinois). When will that elusive road win come? That remains to be seen.
(02/23/10 2:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Celebrating on the court is often frowned upon by coaches in sports. Athletes are taught to forget about a play, be it good or bad, and move on with the game.In tennis, however, celebrating is a very important aspect of the game, and coaches encourage it.With four matches going on simultaneously during singles play, it is easy for one player to influence his teammates on the courts around him.IU men’s tennis coach Randy Bloemendaal understands the impact these celebrations can have on a match, and he makes his players practice being vocal every day.“I really think it’s a large part of what goes on out there,” Bloemendaal said. “We consistently tell our players that body language that is acceptable for a tournament match is not acceptable in a team match because of how your teammates respond to it. It’s not acceptable to celebrate in a way that no one can tell that you are celebrating. It has to be over the top. So we are trying to get the guys to feel comfortable being uncomfortable.”One instance that epitomizes the potential impact one player can have on his teammates came during the Hoosiers’ home match against Harvard on Sunday.At a point during his No. 3 singles match against Aba Omodele-Lucien, freshman Josh MacTaggart did a little dance after winning a point and screamed “Let’s go Hoosiers!” Like clockwork, each of his three teammates playing beside him won the next game of their respective matches.All of a sudden, the Hoosiers had a great deal of energy — the influence of one player being vocal.“When a guy like Josh says something positive, it gets you going,” sophomore Stephen Vogl said. “Hearing him all the way across the court gets the entire team pumped up, and it’s really a team sport when it comes down to it.”The vocal part of the game can be difficult for some players.Seven of the nine Hoosiers are from overseas and very few had experience playing team tennis before arriving in Bloomington. They grew up competing in individual tournaments and didn’t need to motivate players around them — they were 100 percent focused on their own match.It is also tough to muster any kind of energy or celebrate out loud when the team is on the road.There is no crowd to cheer the players on, and once a match starts going in a negative direction it usually continues that way.“The comfort level is definitely less so you have to become more disciplined in your approach,” said Bloemendaal, whose team lost its only true road match of the season at Mississippi. “You have to be able to manage your downswings better when you’re on the road, because the crowd is going to be on you a little bit and, obviously, the home team is going to be on you a little bit more. You don’t have help like you do at home.”Junior Santiago Gruter, a native of Lima, Peru and the Hoosiers’ No. 1 singles player, agreed with Bloemendaal but said the team works hard to stay together and motivate one another no matter what the venue.“It’s definitely tougher, but I think you just have to be a little more unified on the road,” Gruter said. “If you see one of your teammates struggling on one court, you’ll do everything you can to support them and get them through that match. It’s a little bit more challenging to do that on the road, but we have to be aware of that.”
(02/17/10 5:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU freshman Josh MacTaggart doesn’t overpower anyone on the tennis court.His serve is of average velocity compared to his Hoosier teammates, and he rarely surprises anyone with his strength. At first glance, he looks more like a runner or a swimmer than a tennis player.But don’t be fooled — MacTaggart is the real deal. He went from being an unknown kid to being a ranked singles player in only a few months during the fall season.While there are many things on the court that the freshman cannot yet do, it is what he can do that separates him from so many other players. MacTaggart places the ball in a place that his opponent doesn’t want it. He almost always gets the ball back over the net, forcing the player on the other side to make a mistake. He gets inside his opponent’s head because of his unique style of play. But above all else, MacTaggart competes.He detests the thought of losing and, for that reason, he rarely does.The United Kingdom native is 18-5 in singles play this season, including a Big Ten Singles championship and a run to the semifinal of the ITA Regional in the fall. He’s playing at No. 3 singles for the Hoosiers, one of three freshmen in the early season lineup (Isade Juneau at No. 5 and Alexander Van Gils at No. 6). “Most players look in the mirror and they see a forehand or a backhand, but Josh sees someone who is trying to win,” said IU coach Randy Bloemendaal. “In a skill sport there are people — especially young men — that sometimes forget that it is a one-v-one sport. They put in their heads that it is a performance sport, and it’s really not. You’re competing against the other player, and I think Josh does a tremendous job of recognizing that he is a competitor first and a tennis player second. That really separates him from a lot of the players out there.” A typical match for MacTaggart goes something like this: He jumps on his opponent early, usually by winning the first two or three games, and MacTaggart lets him know it. He yells “Let’s go IU!” after a big point, and the frustration becomes visible on the face of the enemy.MacTaggart’s opponent usually becomes so upset during a match that he yells something at the young Hoosier or runs to grab an official from another court, certain that MacTaggart is trying to cheat on balls close to the line. Nothing his opponent can do will faze MacTaggart — he’s seen it all. After all, he heads into every match with the same game plan. Whether or not he executes that plan doesn’t really matter; he’s never going to stop trying. “I try to get a good start and then keep the tempo the rest of the match,” MacTaggart said after Saturday’s match against Butler. “I sometimes struggle to do that but just keeping the tempo is important.” When Bloemendaal was recruiting MacTaggart, he looked past his on-court ability at the time and thought more about the type of player, and competitor, that he had the potential to be. The second-year coach recognizes that there are skills MacTaggart has yet to master. But the most important thing, he says, is the fact that the freshman is comfortable with the skills he does have. “He’s got good feet, great hands, and his competitiveness is like that of Andy Murray, where he is very tenacious on the court and he wants to beat you any way he can,” Bloemendaal said. “I really think it is less about the skills and more about competing.”After watching one of MacTaggart’s matches, it becomes easy for the average onlooker or even the most avid fan to wonder how good he could be if he had a dominating serve. But as Bloemendaal explains, it is much more complicated than that. “A weapon sometimes becomes almost like a burden. It kind of complicates the game,” he said. “The skill usually comes far before learning how to use the skill comes. It’s kind of like a basketball player that’s dominating inside and you give him a mid-range jump shot. Does that make him a more effective player? "Yes, it makes him a better skill player, but is he more effective? And that’s kind of where we’re at with Josh. We want to add things to his game, but we want to build him in the best way — the way that will make him the best player he can become.”