71 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(09/13/00 5:43am)
The opponent may not look as dangerous at first glance, but men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley insists his Hoosiers (2-2) are up against a tough team at 7:30 p.m. today when IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis comes to Bill Armstrong Stadium.\nThe game is IU's first since last weekend, when the Hoosiers upset Maryland and then-top-ranked Virginia.\nYeagley knows IUPUI's coach, Steve Franklin and said Franklin will have the Jaguars ready to play IU. The Jaguars won their first two games on the road and bring a 2-1 record into the match.\n"We're not looking past this game (today) to the weekend," Yeagley said. "Their coach is a past assistant here. He knows our program inside and out. He knows how Indiana plays. He knows how I think. And he'll have his team ready.\n"Steve's teams are extremely well prepared. He gets the most out of every player and out of his team. If we're looking past them and we have any kind of letdown, we could be in for a real shocker. And that's what we're trying to avoid."\nThe Hoosiers should be able to avoid a letdown if they continue to improve their play.\nAfter playing poorly against Portland in their season opener, they outplayed UCLA for an entire half and then won two come-from-behind victories this past weekend.\nIU won the two games over the weekend because of several improvements:\n• Better play from its strikers ' forwards Matt Fundenberger, a senior, and sophomore Michael Bock scored the Hoosiers' two goals against Virginia.\n• Improved defensive play ' junior sweeper Josh Rife played much better against Maryland and Virginia than he did in IU's opening weekend, while marking backs John Swann, a junior, and David Prall, a freshman, continued their solid play.\n• Emergence of depth ' IU got solid contributions from several of its bench players. Marking back Ryan Hammer, a junior and Marcus Chorvat, a sophomore, played well off the bench. Bock gave the Hoosiers an offensive spark.\nYeagley said he hopes those improvements, namely the depth, continue to help his team win games.\n"We certainly won't hesitate to make changes," he said. "It is a real plus. The season's long ' three games in a week. You're going to have injuries, and you've got to have depth.\n"In situations where players are fatigued or we need to change momentum and need a boost, I think we have some people who can come in and do that and still maintain our level or even up it."\nThe Hoosiers got offensive boosts from both players and set plays against Maryland and Virginia, when their restarts, which were an area in which they struggled in their first two games, proved effective. The most notable restarts this past weekend were IU's corner kicks, one of which turned into a goal. \n"We got tons of corners and free kicks against UCLA and Portland," said junior Ryan Mack, who was recently named Big Ten player of the week. "Over the weekend we knew that we had worked on those in practice. We worked on them a lot.\n"And they just turned out good in the games. People got to the right places, put their bodies on the line."\nThe Hoosiers put their two-game winning streak on the line tonight and know they must be up to the challenge.\n"We've just got to go in hard, ready to play and get it done in the first half," sophomore Phil Presser said. "We can't overlook the one game. We have to come out as hard as we have every other game. It's just another Division I team we have to beat"
(09/11/00 8:20am)
Bob Knight and IU basketball met for the first time more than 29 years ago. The date was March 27, 1971. Bill Orwig, athletics director at the time, hired Knight as the new coach.\nSince then, Knight has guided IU to three national championships, 11 Big Ten titles and everything in between.\nHe is IU basketball.\nWell, he was.\nKnight was fired Sunday. The decision ended an illustrious career and separated the man and the school that have been known as one for nearly three decades.\n"He was that program," said Digger Phelps, basketball analyst and former Notre Dame coach. "He's a good friend of mine, and I feel for him. It's sad for everybody."\nKnight started to mold his legendary status as coach of IU in his second season, when the team won a Big Ten title for the first time. The Hoosiers also advanced to the Final Four that year for the first time under Knight.\nIU's successes only multiplied during Knight's next few seasons.\nThe 1973 Big Ten title was the first of four consecutive conference titles for IU, and that conference dominance soon led to national dominance.\nIn the '75-76 season, the Hoosiers went undefeated during the regular season. They matched that feat the next season, when they went undefeated and won the NCAA title with a perfect 32-0 record, making them the last undefeated NCAA champion.\nDuring those two seasons, the Hoosiers won 37 consecutive Big Ten games, a feat that hasn't been matched since. Knight was honored for his success with Big Ten and national coach of the year awards both years.\nScott May played for Knight during those glory years and didn't want to see his old coach leave.\n"It was a tremendous asset to Indiana basketball and Indiana University that they just lost," May said. "It's really a sad day for the program. The guy was first of all a good coach, a good motivator. He taught fundamentals, had no recruiting violations. How many millions of dollars has he raised for the University?\n"(He was) just an unbelievable guy to have on your side, so to speak. Is he going to be tough to replace? Yeah. I think it'd be tough to say that they're going to replace Bob Knight easily. I just don't see that happening."\nIndeed, Knight won't be replaced easily.\nAfter all, replacing Knight means replacing 661 victories -- 761 if you count his years at Army. It means replacing a four-time national coach of the year, a coach who has won more career games than all but four other coaches and a coach whose name rests atop most lists of coaching accomplishments.\nUntil Knight became an "inactive" coach Sunday, he had the second most final four victories and topped the list of most 20-win seasons among active coaches. He had the third most 25-win seasons.\nBut Bob Knight did more than win ballgames.\nHe made men.\n"Well, the first thing I've always said about his program is it goes beyond championships and beyond games won," Sports Information Director Kit Klingelhoffer said. "You look at what kind of basketball program it is. You look at the people that've come out of his program.\n"The young men that have come out of the program, they've all gone on to be tremendous successes. Whether it's in the classroom, on the basketball court or on the football field, the object is to turn out good people, and to me, that's what he's done throughout his career"
(09/11/00 8:14am)
Kent Harvey should run -- fast and far. And he needs to do it now.\nThe last place Harvey should want to be right now is Bloomington -- let alone on campus.\nPeople on this campus appreciate IU basketball, as well as the coach who's synonymous with it. And they didn't appreciate the role Harvey played in dismantling it.\nPerhaps he doesn't like coach Bob Knight or IU basketball. Perhaps he thought it would be entertaining to get Knight in trouble. Perhaps he just wanted to be on TV or in the news.\nPerhaps he should have thought before he acted.\nI'm still trying to figure out what made Harvey think that he should address Knight, let alone holler at him like the two of them went way back. Harvey doesn't know Knight. Knight doesn't know Harvey. They probably weren't going to establish a friendship anytime soon.\nYet Harvey still felt the need to say hello. According to the stories, Bob Knight grabbed Harvey's arm and told Harvey to address him as Mr. Knight or Coach Knight, if he addressed him at all.\nWhether Harvey meant for it to or not, the incident has snowballed -- costing IU its basketball coach. At a press conference Sunday, IU President Myles Brand said this incident was just one in a series for Knight. Yet many students on this campus will place the blame for Knight's firing on the person who has been at the center of the media frenzy -- Harvey himself. Brand made Harvey out to be the poor kid who's caught up in the middle of all of this.\nThat might be true. But if Harvey does stay at IU, he should change his phone number. And his locks. And his identity. He shouldn't leave his dorm room.\nSure, he's in a bad position now. He might not get the IU education he set out to get. And maybe he never intended for this to become such a huge story. But he did get it started, and he's now facing the repercussions.\nPeople were irritated when the whole story broke. \nEverybody wanted to know who this kid was.\nBut now that Knight has been fired?\nNo more than one hour after Knight's firing was announced, fliers were being distributed on campus. They consisted of Harvey's name, his picture, his e-mail address, his phone number and the following phrase: WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE.\nIt also included a disclaimer in fine print -- calling it a joke -- but you get the picture.\nWhether or not it's right, Harvey might be in danger if he stays here at IU. It's unfortunate that a kid who came here to get an education now has to be careful in public. But he's not just Kent Harvey anymore.\nLike it or not, he's "The Kid Who Got Bob Knight Fired"
(09/09/00 1:10am)
The awards had been given out. The stands had emptied. The interviews had been done.\nAnd here at midfield Saturday night, two players remained.\nOne was Matt Fundenberger, a senior forward for IU. The other was McKinley Tennyson, Jr., a senior forward for UCLA.\nBoth are key players on premiere college soccer teams, and both once played together.\nThey dominated together, actually.\nFundenberger and Tennyson led Indianapolis North Central High School to four consecutive state championships in high school. They formed the most formidable attacking tandem in Indiana.\nThen they went on to college and became rivals.\nSince then, they've met at least once every season, and every game has been a memorable one.\nIn 1997, Tennyson scored the game's only goal, in the third sudden death overtime, to eliminate Indiana from the NCAA tournament and end the Hoosiers' undefeated season.\nIn '98, UCLA won 2-1 in the Hoosiers' final regular season game.\nIn '99, IU won 3-2 in four overtimes in the NCAA tournament.\nSaturday, UCLA won 2-1, and Tennyson scored the game's first goal.\nHe then went on a celebration sprint past Indiana's bench while looking at the crowd.\nFundenberger's reaction?\n"I don't know what that was," he said. "I don't know what the intention was."\nTennyson, however, said it had good intentions.\n"I just think I was excited to be home, score in front of my family, all my friends, even some of my friends here in Indiana," he said. "It wasn't anything bad, just to say, 'Hey, I'm back home.'"\nHe could have played four years for the Hoosiers, instead of four games against them, but he said he decided to attend UCLA to "do something different."\nSo he may have played in front of a home crowd for the last time.\nThe only way Tennyson will play at IU again is if the Hoosiers host an NCAA tournament game and the Bruins happen to be the opponent.\nFundenberger won't be too sad if he's played against his old teammate for the last time.\n"He had a chance to come to IU and he didn't. And now all he does is score against us," Fundenberger said. "In every single game we play against him, he scores against us. I'm happy for him, but I'm not happy he's doing it against us. Let him do it against everybody else.\n"But what are you gonna' do, he's a great player. Nobody can stop him."\nFundenberger managed to stop him at midfield Saturday, after everyone had left Bill Armstrong Stadium. He stopped Tennyson, shook his hand, posed for a picture and, perhaps, stood on the same soccer field as his old teammate for the last time.
(09/08/00 5:15am)
The men's soccer team opened the 2000 season with as tough a schedule as anybody, losing to top-5 teams Portland and UCLA in its first two games.\nAs strange as it may sound, the Hoosiers' next two games may be tougher than the first.\nIU travels to Maryland today, to play in the Maryland Classic, where the Hoosiers will meet Maryland, ranked as high as eighth, and Virginia, a top-5 team.\nIU coach Jerry Yeagley expects both games to be tough.\n"If we thought it was tough this weekend, it's gonna' be a lot tougher (at Maryland)," he said. "I mean, we're at their place, playing two veteran teams ' Virginia returning everybody and Maryland returning a team that outplayed us last year here. It's a crucial time. Yet, I wouldn't change it.\n"We have a chance to redeem ourselves. If we could get one victory against one of those two teams, then we'd be 1-3, and yet I'd feel pretty good about it ' if we played well."\nYeagley said the Hoosiers hope to play well by building on their last game, a 2-1 loss to UCLA.\nAgainst the Bruins, IU rebounded from a poor performance against Portland to outplay UCLA for much of the match. The Hoosiers outshot the Bruins 16-9 and controlled play throughout the second half.\nThat solid play against UCLA leaves the Hoosiers with something positive to look back on heading into this weekend.\n"We showed a lot, going down 2-0 against a top-5 team, that you can come back, get a goal and dominate and have that many scoring chances," sophomore midfielder Pat Noonan said. "It shows character of our team, but we got to finish those chances.\n"For us to be a winning team, we got to finish them."\nThe Hoosiers did indeed have trouble finishing against both Portland and UCLA. IU's strikers didn't get as many scoring opportunities as their midfielders and couldn't convert the chances they did get. Noonan and junior midfielder Ryan Mack created the most opportunities for IU, with Noonan scoring the team's only goal of the weekend.\nYeagley altered the lineup somewhat last weekend to generate more offense and said he might do the same this weekend.\nIn Noonan, Mack and sophomore midfielder Phil Presser, Yeagley has three players he can use in several positions. The most effective change against UCLA was playing Mack as a striker and moving Presser to the center midfield.\nYeagley said he'll make adjustments according to what the situation requires. And whatever situation his players encounter this weekend, he thinks they're ready for it.\n"I tell you what, these guys aren't dreading going to Maryland," Yeagley said. "They're looking forward to it. They're looking at this as an opportunity to show what they can do."\nAnd they're looking to win.\n"That's something that we can always put in the back of our heads, you know, that we know the feeling of losing," senior goalkeeper T.J. Hannig said. "And I don't think anybody on the team wants to experience that too many more times, if at all"
(09/05/00 5:13am)
Men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley didn't like what he saw offensively Friday night when IU played Portland, and he didn't hesitate to change his lineup.\nIn hopes of getting center midfielders Ryan Mack, a junior, and Pat Noonan, a sophomore, more involved in the attack, Yeagley tried several lineups against Portland Friday and UCLA Saturday.\nAgainst the Pilots, Yeagley used both Mack and Noonan as outside midfielders, while moving sophomore outside midfielder Phil Presser into the middle.\nYeagley fiddled with the lineup again against the Bruins, using Mack as a striker and Presser again as a center midfielder. Yeagley said the new lineup might be here to stay.\n"We wanted to get Mack or Noonan wide," he said. "We thought we could get some more going wide, so we tried both of them wide. We tried everything to get one or more of them involved.\n"We might keep Mack up front, at least we'll have that option. We might use him both places ' midfield and up top. But when he went up top, I think it caused a lot of problems, more balance. And Phil Presser, he did a real solid job in the center midfield."
(09/04/00 6:05am)
IU men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley said during two-day practices his team hadn't been tested.\nHe said after two exhibition games it hadn't been tested.\nHe said, in the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic this weekend, it would be tested.\nHe was right.\nThe Hoosiers not only got tested Friday against Portland, they also got beaten. IU gave up two early goals and lost 3-0 to the Pilots.\nThe Pilots opened the scoring just three minutes into the game, when senior Miguel Luna scored on a restart 25 yards out. Luna doubled the score 14 minutes later, when IU junior sweeper Josh Rife failed to clear the ball.\nRife headed the ball out of the penalty box, but it landed on the foot of Luna, who sent a volley in the corner of the net, giving the Pilots a 2-0 lead.\nLuna's goal was the Pilots' second goal on their second shot of the game.\n"The first half, we gave up two shots and two goals," Yeagley said. "I can't remember that happening. Actually, I felt pretty good at the end of the first half. I thought the last half-hour, after we got over the shakes of the first 15 minutes, we really played well.\n"We had seven chances and a lot of danger. I said, 'Guys, we've outperformed them. We gave up two shots and two goals. You keep this up, you're gonna' win the game.'"\nBut IU couldn't keep it up.\nThat intensity disappeared in the second half as Portland outshot the Hoosiers 9-5, and few of those shots seriously threatened Portland sophomore goalkeeper Curtis Spiteri. Sophomore midfielder Pat Noonan created the most opportunities for IU, including a rocket saved by Spiteri with nine minutes remaining.\nWhile IU's offense struggled in the second half, Portland's picked up where it left off in the first.\n"We tried to attack from deep, instead of pushing it up," Portland coach Clive Charles said. "We dropped people off of them. So I think that caused them some problems, because they weren't sure whether to come up or drop off. We actually played a counter-attack game, as opposed to a high-pressure game."\nThe Pilots, as Yeagley expected, played many balls in the air. One of those resulted in their third and final goal.\nWith 25:56 remaining in the game, Portland senior defender Casey Barber sent a ball into the box, and sophomore striker Conor Casey headed it past IU senior goalkeeper T.J. Hannig, who had came off of his line.\nThe goal killed any chances IU had of making a comeback. It was also one of the two goals that Yeagley thought Hannig could have saved.\n"I was very disappointed with T.J., both in terms of his leadership and the third goal, which killed us," Yeagley said.\nHannig, too, thought the early goal hurt the Hoosiers.\n"Give the credit to Portland," he said. "They're an excellent team. But we couldn't quite find our legs in the first 15 minutes. We really didn't come out ready to play. That's one thing we have to find ' to come out ready and play in the first 15 minutes"
(09/01/00 5:22am)
Josh Rife could've stayed with the Texas Christian University soccer team this season, retained his starting position in the midfield and perhaps won more All-WAC honors.\nBut Rife didn't want what he had at TCU ' job security. He wanted to play for the best.\nSo when he considered where he might transfer, he considered one school.\nIU.\nSince men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley had seen Rife play at the Butler Soccer Classic last season, and liked what he saw, he considered Rife as well.\nNow Rife is IU's starting sweeper and the anchor of an inexperienced defense.\n"The coaches asked me where I'd like to play, and then they kinda hinted at they were probably looking at me in the back," said Rife, a second-team All-WAC player in 1999. "So I had an idea coming in where I'd be.\n"You know, the coaches have been helping me out a lot, and the players have been real supportive and everything. They're just helping make the transition smooth and everything like that. It's a new position playing sweeper. But things are coming along. I think every game it's getting better."\nEvery game, thus far, has consisted of two exhibition games. The Hoosiers won both games, but were never seriously tested.\nThis weekend, however, Rife will see just how well he's adapted to his new position. The Hoosiers play Portland and UCLA Friday and Saturday, respectively, in the Adidas/IU Credit Union Classic.\nYeagley has been impressed with Rife in practices and exhibitions and hopes he will continue to play well this weekend.\n"Josh has been a pleasant surprise," Yeagley said. "He's a midfielder who would prefer playing midfield, but he's doing an excellent job so far as sweeper. You can hear him. He's talking. He's demanding. And he's only been with this team for two weeks. He's strong, he's good in the air, he's mobile.\n"He's taken hold of that position at least until now. We'll see. I hope he can continue that this weekend. This will be his first real test. But I'm very pleased so far."\nSo is senior goalkeeper T.J. Hannig, who's had MLS player and former All-American Nick Garcia as his sweeper the past three seasons.\n"Josh has stepped in and he's done really well," Hannig said. "He's willing to listen. He's ready to learn the position. He hasn't stepped in and really played that position before. But he's adjusting to it really well. He's adapted quickly to our system of play.\n"When Nicky came in, he wasn't even a defender; he was a midfielder himself. He was thrown back there and played as a freshman, and I wasn't nervous at all. I know Josh can step in and do the job."\nBut Rife's job doesn't merely require switching from midfielder to sweeper.\nIt requires being the team leader, the guy who tells everyone else where to be and when to be there.\nIn short, it requires telling teammates you've played with for a few weeks what they need to do.\nRife hasn't had a problem with his role, though. He came to Bloomington for a week this summer and met some of the players while he was here. He said all of the players have been very helpful in accepting him as part of the team.\nSo Rife has adjusted to his position. He has adjusted to his teammates. The only thing he said he's still completely adjusting to is the atmosphere.\n"The biggest thing is the fans," he said. "When we were up in Fort Wayne last weekend (for two exhibition games), (there were) just kids coming up before the game wanting autographs, at halftime wanting autographs, after the game. You just don't get that down at TCU, so it's a totally different environment."\nAnd one that Rife's willing to get used to.
(09/01/00 5:19am)
IU soccer coach Jerry Yeagley remembers the last time one of his teams played Portland. He found his Hoosiers in a familiar situation ' an NCAA final four.\nThe year was 1988, and the Pilots boasted Kasey Keller, current U.S. national team goalkeeper, in the net. They had allowed six goals on the season to the Hoosiers' 11.\nIU won 1-0 at Bill Armstrong Stadium, then claimed its third national title on its home turf.\nYeagley remembers his most recent UCLA match, as well. \nThe year? 1999. \nThe situation? Same as before ' a final four. \nThe result? IU beat the Bruins 3-2 in four overtimes, then claimed its second straight national title and fifth overall.\nYeagley called the Portland match, "one of the roughest, toughest games" he remembers in all the years he's coached. And any IU-UCLA game is bound to be a close one.\nWhich brings us to this evening.\nIU plays host to the Adidas/IU Credit Union Classic this weekend, and will play both Portland and UCLA for the first time since beating each team in an NCAA semifinal.\nThese matches should prove just as challenging as the previous two. They could, in fact, be even more challenging.\n"Well, let's say this: We have not faced, in our first two contests or in practice, the strikers that we'll be facing this weekend," said Yeagley, whose Hoosiers won exhibition games against IU-Purdue University at Fort Wayne and Rutgers last weekend. "That's my big concern. How will we hold up against two of the nation's best?\n"Defensively, we didn't give up much (against Rutgers). But they weren't a team that really committed a lot of people to attack. (Senior goalkeeper) T.J. (Hannig) really only had to come up with one tough save."\nHannig should get tested this weekend more than he did in preseason action. Here's a breakdown of what he and the Hoosiers will see Friday from Portland and Saturday from UCLA, as well as a preview of Butler, the fourth team participating in the Adidas/IU Credit Union Classic.\nPORTLAND\nThe Pilots return what Yeagley calls "without question, the nation's top forward" in sophomore Conor Casey. Casey, a member of the Olympic team, led the nation in scoring last season with 23 goals and is a Hermann Trophy finalist.\nYeagley expects a lot offensively from the Pilots, whose coach, Clive Charles, is also the Olympic team coach. Yeagley said the Pilots will play more direct and play plenty of balls in the air, something the Hoosiers have yet to see.\nThe Pilots aren't afraid to play on the road, either. Last season they played two of the Big East's top teams in Rutgers and St. John's and won both games on the road.\nHannig still thinks the Hoosiers have an advantage playing at home.\n"Having these games at home is a huge advantage," he said. "Hopefully we get, you know, 5,000 people sitting in the grandstands like we did last year against Maryland. I think having the fan support is what's carried us the last couple years, and the more that come out the better it is for us. It'll help our chances."\nUCLA\nThe Bruins, like the Pilots, have a potent attack. They also, like the Pilots, have a Hermann Trophy finalist in senior McKinley Tennyson, Jr., an Indiana native. The Bruins landed a loaded recruiting class to go along with their returning talent. Five of their freshman are national team players, including four that played on the U-17 national team that finished fourth at the 1999 U-17 World Cup. Three other recruits are national pool players.\nThe combination of Tennyson, other returners and a strong freshman class should spell for, as usual, a tough game. IU senior forward Matt Fundenberger, however, dismisses previous close games as making any difference on this one.\n"Against UCLA, it doesn't matter what decade it is, it's always a big game," said Fundenberger, who played high school soccer with Tennyson at Indianapolis' North Central high school. "This game, we're looking forward to it, but we have to play Portland first, get a (win) there and then worry about UCLA."\nBUTLER\nNew head coach Todd Bramble brings the Bulldogs to IU following a 7-12 season last year. Bramble faces a tough schedule in his first two games as coach. The Bulldogs play UCLA Friday night and Portland Saturday.\nNot only does Butler have a new coach, it also has to replace its top player from last season ' Stephen Armstrong. Giancarlo Barraza, who scored five goals and has seven assists last season, will pick up much of the slack. The Bulldogs also hope to get contributions from five freshmen, two of which earned all-state honors last season as seniors in high school.
(08/28/00 5:26am)
Men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley predicted a tough match Saturday between his Hoosiers and IU-Purdue University at Fort Wayne.\nThe match indeed was a tough one.\nFor IPFW.\nThe Hoosiers scored four first-half goals and coasted to a 4-0 victory Saturday in their first game of the 2000 IPFW Soccer Showcase.\nSophomore Pat Noonan and junior Ryan Mack dominated the midfield for the Hoosiers and gave the team a 2-0 lead 17 minutes into the game.\nNoonan opened the scoring 10 minutes in, when he collected a pass from junior midfielder Bobby de St. Aubin and fired a shot from 30 yards out.\nMack doubled the lead seven minutes later, receiving a ball from senior defender Justin Tauber and beating IPFW goalkeeper Jeff Richey from 10 yards out.\n"I thought we came out pretty strong," Mack said. "I was pretty surprised we scored right away. I think after Noonan scored, we realized we were playing together (well). Noonan's goal just opened doors for more goals. We got more confidence after we scored so early."\nThat confidence led to domination.\nMack created another scoring opportunity with eight minutes remaining in the first half, when two IPFW defenders got tangled up, allowing Mack to go unscathed into the penalty box. Mack beat Richey, who took Mack out while trying to get the ball.\n Freshman midfielder Sasha Barber converted the ensuing penalty kick, giving the Hoosiers a 3-0 lead, and sophomore midfielder Michael Bock scored the final goal with 23 seconds remaining in the first half.\n IPFW coach Terry Stefankiewicz used the half time to tell his players two things: Play hard. Don't worry about the fact that they're playing the defending Division I national champs.\n"I told the kids it was like deer looking into the headlights the first half," Stefankiewicz said. "We played timid. We didn't play hard. That's what we talked about at half time, and I think we played much better the second half."\nThe 'Dons did play better defensively in the second half, which lasted only 26 minutes because of lightning.\nThey did not, however, generate anything offensively.\nIPFW had only one solid shot in the game, and that shot was saved by a diving Colin Rogers, a senior, who replaced starting senior goalkeeper T.J. Hannig 22 minutes into the second half.\nThe 'Dons did get the ball into IU's defensive third on several other occasions, but none of those opportunities resulted in shots on goal, which meant IU's inexperienced defense didn't get tested much.\nWhile Yeagley didn't get to evaluate his defense, he did get a chance to see his freshmen players perform in a game situation. He liked what he saw.\n"I thought Lucas (Christian) had a quiet game for his first game," Yeagley said. "He got a little tired, maybe a little nervous. He did some good things, but he's capable of giving us a lot more. I liked what I saw from Vijay (Dias). He came in, made some things happen, got involved and didn't just stand as a supporting player. I also felt that Sasha came in, did a nice job in the midfield, took the (penalty kick) and scored it, which is good to see. So I was pleased.\n"But I don't want to get a false sense of security with this team, because (IPFW) is a Division II team. They're a good team, but their talent level isn't what we're going to see in a lot of matches"
(08/25/00 5:56am)
Every coach uses preseason games to evaluate players and answer questions. Who should play where? Who will excel in game situations?\nWho's ready to play the nation's best teams before the season even starts?\nIU soccer coach Jerry Yeagley will get a chance to answer such questions this weekend, when his Hoosiers travel to Fort Wayne to play in the Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne Soccer Showcase.\nThe showcase features seven NCAA Division I teams and Division II host IPFW. Of the seven Division I teams, four are ranked in the NSCAA's preseason top 20. IU heads that list at No. 1.\nYeagley knows the showcase will give his team a chance to see how they stack up against the nation's premier teams.\nWe're excited about the showcase because it's the first time there's been anything like it, sort of like the basketball NIT," he said. "It's very important to have tough competition early, because you can play weaker teams and have weaker exhibitions and get a false sense of security with your team and feel you don't have any problems.\n"Then you come up later against a top team and realize you've got a lot of things to fix. I'd rather know what I have to fix early and which players can notch it up against top teams, because anybody can look good against average to below-average competition if you're a top level team."\nThe Hoosiers will get two opportunities this weekend to see what needs fixed.\nOn Saturday, they play IPFW in the final game of the day. The Mastodons may be a Division II team, but they're a good one. They're ranked eighth in the NSCAA preseason poll and made it to the elite eight of the NCAA Division II tournament last season.\nShould the Hoosiers win Saturday, they'd play the winner of the No. 7 Duke'No. 20 Rutgers match on Sunday. Should they lose, they'll play the loser of that game.\nYeagley expects both games to be tough.\n"We're going to have a very hard time with (IPFW)," he said. "They're a very strong team, one of the top Division II teams, and they're playing at home. I think that's going to be a very tough game. Then we play the winner of Duke and Rutgers. Both those teams are loaded with talent.\n"Duke, in my opinion, is one of the preseason favorites. They have the nation's top player from last year in Ali Curtis leading their attack. And they return I think seven seniors. It's a very, very strong team. I'd like to get a chance to play them." \nWhile the Blue Devils return several seniors, the Hoosiers are loaded with freshmen, several of whom will see playing time. Five of IU's 10 starting field players from last season are gone, leaving Yeagley with some holes to fill. \nSeveral freshmen have impressed coaches in practice, but they've yet to do so in a game.\n"We have a lot of young players, and we like what we see so far, but we need to see them in a game situation to really be able to judge what they can do," said assistant coach Caleb Porter. "You know, it's a bit inconsistent (right now). We've got a long way to go before we gel, start playing our best soccer. We've got a young team."\nThe Hoosiers may have a young team, but they do not lack veterans. Senior goalkeeper T.J. Hannig is one of them. Hannig has already earned preseason All-American honors, and he's a Hermann Trophy finalist. Like Yeagley, Hannig hopes the Hoosiers benefit from this weekend. \n"(The showcase) is going to be beneficial in a number of ways," Hannig said. "We're going to see top-ranked teams in the country and be able to get a good gauge of how far we've come so far in the preseason and how far we need to go.\n"Second, it's going to give us a chance to test our fitness, see how we do over a weekend in a tournament situation, he added."\nNo matter how the Hoosiers fare this weekend, they'll come away with a better idea of how they stack up against tough competition. Yeagley hopes they'll get a chance to do the same next season.\nIn fact, Yeagley thinks the IPFW Soccer Showcase has the potential to become college soccer's version of basketball's preseason NIT tournament. He knows IPFW coach Terry Stefankiewicz well and encouraged him throughout the process of putting the showcase together.\n"He played for me (at IU)," Yeagley said. "We talk all the time. I did what I could to encourage him and help him in any way I could. I give him a heck of a lot of credit for pulling this off. It was his hard work really. You know, behind every event there's one person basically.\n"Other people have to help, but it was his brainchild and dream. He got it going, and it can be a permanent thing. If Fort Wayne gets behind it and supports it ' I mean, they have a beautiful facility. If the community embraces it and supports it, it could be an annual event"