LAYIN
LAYIN -- Sophomore Matt Campbell of "The Family" puts up a shot against "U Mad" in the first half of the Men's Division I Intramural basketball final Tuesday night in Assembly Hall. "The Family" won 74-72.
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LAYIN -- Sophomore Matt Campbell of "The Family" puts up a shot against "U Mad" in the first half of the Men's Division I Intramural basketball final Tuesday night in Assembly Hall. "The Family" won 74-72.
For the first time in its young season, the IU men's lacrosse team walked off the field in defeat.\nDespite a strong second half in which it out-scored visiting No. 11 Oakland University 6-5, the squad dropped the contest 13-9 Saturday night at Mellencamp Pavillion. The Hoosiers had difficulty clearing the ball to the offense and were penalized 12 times in the contest, which led to four Golden Grizzly goals.\n"Most penalties are a lack of concentration and that's what ate us up," coach Todd Boward said. "We made some foolish penalties and had some concentration and focus issues."\nConversely, IU had eight man-up opportunities but failed to capitalize with a goal on any of them.\n"We couldn't hold onto the ball long enough on man-up," said IU attackman Matt Hof, who scored three goals in the game. "Whenever we lost the ball, we weren't able to get possession again when we had the advantage."\nAt halftime, Boward called upon the services of back-up goaltender Kyle Christie to replace starter Steve Brown who allowed eight goals coupled with only five saves in the first half.\n"I felt like Steve was missing some shots and they were making shots on him from the outside," Boward said. "I have Kyle on the side as my relief guy and he stepped up and did an excellent job and that got us back in the game a little."\nThe Oakland attackmen ripped shot after shot against Christie in the third quarter, but the junior held his ground. He had 13 saves in the contest while allowing five goals, good for a .615 save percentage.\n"Coach told me to get mentally ready right around the end of the first quarter," Christie said. "I actually like coming in cold and getting the adrenaline rush going a little more."\nAfter trailing 8-3 at halftime, the Hoosiers got some momentum going their way in the second half. Freshman Chris Allen scored two goals in the third quarter and sophomore attackman James O'Callaghan added another. \nThe Hoosiers were within two goals of the Golden Grizzlies with 8:05 to go in the game, but Oakland University's attackman Nate Reynolds proved to be too much in the fourth quarter. He netted three goals in the last frame to put the game out of reach for IU.\nHof scored two of his three goals in the first half while freshman Brian Mecsey added a goal in the second quarter.\n"They played hard and fought back," said Boward of his team's second half play. "When you consider that this is the 11th team in the nation and we were within two goals with eight minutes to play -- that's pretty phenomenal"
IU men's swimming and diving coach Ray Looze had a moment of clarity as his team worked its way to a Big Ten title Saturday afternoon at the Student Recreational Sports Center's Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatics Center, \n"Sometimes you have a competition where everything clicks," Looze said. "The team was on auto-pilot. There was a point where I put my stopwatch down and just watched."\nIt's been a long time since a men's swim coach at IU has had the ability to savor a Big Ten Championship like that.\nIf the time span between men's swimming and diving Big Ten titles was measured under societal law, its first legal beer would have been cracked this weekend. It's been 21 years since legendary IU coach James 'Doc' Counsilman led his Hoosier squad to a Big Ten title in 1985. Most students probably have no clue, but at one point IU was the school for men's swimming. Under Counsilman, the team won 20 straight Big Ten titles from 1961-1980 and six straight NCAA Championships from 1968-1973. He produced perhaps the most well-known American swimmer of all-time, Mark Spitz. Spitz's seven gold medals at the 1976 Olympics is still a record today.\nLooze inherited the program in 2002 and vowed to return the team to its prestige of yesteryear. After finishing three points behind Minnesota last season at the Big Ten Championship, this year he took the team back to the top of the mountain.\n"The guys on the team really believed in what they were doing," Looze said. "I have to give them all the credit in the world."\nAlthough Looze might point to his team as the reason for the championship, he's no stranger to success. As a swimmer at University of Southern California, he finished second in the 400-yard individual medley at the NCAA Championships in 1990 and placed in the top 10 in eight different NCAA events during his career.\nBefore coming to IU to coach, Looze helped get the University of Texas to the 1991 NCAA title as a graduate assistant and won four straight Big West Coach of the Year awards at the University of the Pacific.\nThat's a lot of years, championships and awards to swallow, but there's a reason for the list.\nIt's to emphasize that success, awards and accolades seem to follow Looze wherever he goes. Accomplishments cling to him like paparazzi snapping pictures of Hollywood socialites. He simply can't shake or avoid them.\nThis man is a winner, and he's surrounding himself with winners as well -- like another one of IU's legendary coaches, former men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley.\n"He was still coaching when I got here," Looze said of Yeagley. "He's a good mentor more than anything else and is very generous with his time speaking on the phone with me. I ask him advice on general things that cross over\nall sports like recruiting and where to focus it. If I could ever be a percent of what he was -- that's my goal."\nAfter this weekend's victory, Looze's goal might have already been reached.
Fenton, Mo. -- IU lacrosse coach Todd Boward challenged his team to step up its intensity and consistency Saturday night.\nSunday afternoon, it responded.\nAfter a sluggish and sloppy 13-9 win over Missouri State University Saturday, the Hoosier squad rebounded with a physical, cohesive effort to pull out an 11-5 victory against Washington University-St. Louis Sunday at Soccer Park in Fenton, Mo.\n"The captains took charge keeping the team motivated and pumped up before the game," Boward said after Sunday's win. "They were ramped up today."\nEarly on, the team's intensity didn't translate to its on-field play. Washington University attackman Miles Chan netted three goals in the first five minutes of play to put the Hoosiers in a 3-0 hole. IU attackmen Matt Hof and James O'Callaghan responded with two goals apiece in the first half to aid the Hoosier's comeback.\nBut it was IU freshman midfielder Robbie Schwartz who highlighted the team's first-half surge. Schwartz ripped two goals near the end of the second quarter, including one with 15 seconds left before half to break a 4-4 tie and put the Hoosiers up 6-4 at intermission -- a lead they never relinquished.\n"The last shot and the whole last sequence we had a set play and we worked it to perfection," said Schwartz of his goal just before the half. "Everyone got a touch on the ball."\nIn the second half, the Hoosier defense -- accented by the physical play of IU defenseman Dave Friedman -- only allowed the Bears one goal.\n"In the second half, we started communicating a lot more, got our acts together and just followed our game plan that we had from the start," Friedman said. "Everything just started clicking once we started talking as a team."\nSenior goaltender Steve Brown saved 11 of 16 shot attempts.\nThe Hoosiers were also dominant on face-offs thanks to the stick work of midfielder Ryan Furman and long pole midfielder Dan Woods' ability to pick up the ground ball.\n"It's a part of the game that a lot of people overlook, but we look at it as the start of our offense," Boward said.\nFurman won 12 of 15 face-offs and Woods had a total of eight groundball pick-ups for the contest.\nHof added three more goals in the second half while Schwartz and sophomore Nick Brown each netted one. Freshman Chris Allen scored a goal in the second quarter.\nIn Saturday's game against Missouri State, the Hoosiers used a strong second quarter to propel them to their 13-9 win. Junior midfielder Jason Bowman scored two goals during the second quarter, including a left-handed, overhand off-stick hip score.\n"They started shaking off the cobwebs in the second quarter," Boward said.\nHof and O'Callaghan added three goals apiece in the victory, while freshman Brian Mecsey netted two scores. Brown and Schwartz added one each.
Don't fret Hoosier faithful -- odds are we'll see the cream and crimson compete in the NCAA Tournament next month.\nNow before you reel off another e-mail to the Indiana Daily Student complaining about our overly optimistic stance on the basketball team, let me specify something for you.\nI'm talking about the women's team.\nStarting the Big Ten season with a pedestrian 4-3 mark, the Hoosiers found themselves smack dab in the middle of the Big Ten standings heading into a Jan. 26 matchup with Illinois.\n"A win tomorrow would separate us from the pack because there are about three or four teams that are dead center right now," IU coach Sharon Versyp told the IDS before the game. "We're just preparing to be the best that we can for the postseason tournament. We're just trying to set a precedent for a winning attitude."\nAnd that they did.\nThe Hoosiers have won six of their last eight, highlighted by an enormous overtime victory against No. 10 Purdue Sunday in West Lafayette.\nBecause of its recent winning ways, the women's basketball team is currently a No. 12 seed in the San Antonio bracket of the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN's "Women's Bracketology," compiled by Charlie Creme.\nBut like a frat boy thinking he's gonna score just because he bought a cute girl a drink, this isn't a done deal just yet. Creme has five Big Ten teams cutting a rug at the Big Dance, with the Hoosiers occupying the fifth and final spot. The women's squad has two tough road tests this week starting Thursday when it travels to Minneapolis to take on the No. 16 Minnesota Golden Gophers. Sunday, the women head to Iowa to face a Hawkeye squad that currently sits one game behind the Hoosiers in the Big Ten standings. Its overall record (15-10) is equivalent to IU's.\nCreme also knocked the Hawkeyes out of his NCAA Tournament projections this week in favor of the Hoosiers -- an extra incentive for Iowa to win the game.\nNow for a bit of history.\nThe women's team has only made the NCAA tourney four times in the last 23 seasons, with its last appearance coming during the 2001-2002 campaign -- resulting in a first-round loss to Texas Christian University.\nIn fact, the last time the Hoosiers won a game in the tourney occurred during the 1982-83 season in a first-round victory over Kentucky.\nThat's not much tradition or history to build on. But as we've learned from the men's team the past two years, history doesn't always repeat itself.
Across Indiana's eastern border, in the quaint college town of Oxford, Ohio, lies Miami University -- home to rich daddy's girls, birthplace of fraternities and former stomping grounds of mediocre Boston Celtics forward Wally Szczerbiak.\nIt's a cute little place.\nAnd IU Athletic Director Rick Greenspan seems to have fallen in love with it, or at the very least fallen in love with its coaches. He grabbed current IU football coach Terry Hoeppner from the Redhawks last January in an attempt to get the football team out of the Big Ten cellar. We all know how that one ended.\nBut in Coach Hep's defense, it's impossible to turn the Hoosier football program around in one year. That's like asking Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Mary-Kate Olsen to all put on healthy weight in a week; it's going to take more time than that. Although the team's win-loss record hasn't changed, Hoeppner made great strides with student attendance and boosting the squad's image. And if you were lucky enough to catch a leather jacket-clad Coach Hep during his WWE-style football team PR speech at halftime of the men's basketball game against Iowa this weekend, you were lucky. \nSimply put, he's the man.\nAfter the resignation of IU baseball coach Bob Morgan last June after 22 years at the helm, Greenspan again dipped into Redhawk nation, procuring the services of baseball coach Tracy Smith. In his nine years at Miami, Smith turned a basement-dwelling Mid-American Conference ball club into a competitive program by winning two MAC titles, appearing in six MAC title games and sporting a .590 winning percentage. Last season he led the Redhawks to a 45-18 season and a loss in the NCAA tournament to Texas, the eventual champions.\nSmith inherits an IU baseball team that had a woeful 9-23 record in Big Ten conference play last season. Can he turn this team around too?\n"Part of the rationale was, 'Hey, we know we can win here, it's been done,'" Smith told the IDS in a Feb. 7 article. "There's no reason to say we can't do it again."\nMuch like his football counterpart, Smith has come into the job with enthusiasm and a plan. Smith is much more media-friendly than Morgan, and two transfer players enter the mold for the Hoosiers this season -- Tad Reida, a redshirt sophomore from Wichita State University and Brett Sager, a redshirt freshman from Louisiana State University.\nThe baseball team's locker rooms are currently being remodeled, and Smith hopes to keep improving the team's facilities.\nThe jury's still out on whether Smith and Hoeppner can create winning teams here at IU. But the verdict is in on their effort, commitment and excitement for their respective squads. \nGuilty as charged.
Megan Gaare and Liz Atkins have ridden in horse shows all their lives. So when the IU juniors realized they needed to step up and give fellow team members lessons and coach them during competition in addition to their own training, they saddled up for challenge.\nIt paid off.\nTheir experience and coaching helped the IU Equestrian Team capture its first-ever regional championship this weekend at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Terre Haute.\n"Megan and Liz are really helpful and we're all supportive of each other," said team member Helen Reynolds. "Megan teaches lessons for a lot of girls on the team. She has the right kind of experience."\nCompeting in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association, the IU equestrians held a one-point advantage going into the regular season's final weekend. After two shows in Terre Haute, the team edged out Purdue by an unofficial margin of 15 points while the University of Notre Dame finished third.\nIn the IHSA, scoring works by tallying a team's total at each show and adding them up to determine a final regular season score. The equestrian team has competed in nine of the 10 shows it was eligible for since the season started in September -- missing only the first competition of the year. \n"We were in a 40-point deficit at the beginning of the season," Atkins said. "We were digging our way out of that the whole year." \nTo crawl out of that hole, the team used consistency as its motto -- finishing either first or second in all of the eight remaining competitions, including a first-place showing this weekend.\n"It wasn't just one or two individuals stepping up," Gaare said. "It was an overall team consistency -- everyone just kept improving."\nThe squad will have plenty of time to gear up for zones, which is the next level of team competition. Purdue University will play host to the event the second weekend of April. It will have to combat with the likes of Kansas State University, a team with varsity status. The IU team competes as a club sport and operates with self-fundraised money.\n"Just because they're a varsity team doesn't necessary mean they're better," said Gaare. "However, they do have the opportunity for more training and better facilities and horses with the money they have to work with." \nBut before the squad gallops into zones competition, it will compete in the individual regional competition at Purdue April 1 and 2. Only a handful of women will ride, including Gaare and Atkins in Open Fences (the highest level one can ride, which involves maneuvering the horse over a course of fences) and Gaare, Atkins and senior Meredith Hill in Open Flat (the highest level of competition in which a rider is judged on her control of her horse as well as her "look" and posture on the horse). Hills will compete in Intermediate Fences, while senior Julia Goodman will ride in Intermediate Flat. Reynolds and sophomore Becky Bielinski will compete in Novice Flat.\n"We have a really good chance of winning," Gaare said. "We have some of the best riders in the region and hopefully we can carry over our success to zones"
It's a familiar scene just inside the doors of Assembly Hall: Groups of zealous, underage male students storm into the stadium clad in sleeveless shirts and headbands ready to cheer on the Hoosier men's basketball team with signs in hand. But just as their tickets are scanned in, the signs are confiscated and their excitement quickly dwindles to frustration and anger. Chances of getting on TV have dwindled to a near impossibility. \n"We've always had a policy of no signs inside the stadium," said Director of Game Management Kit Klingelhoffer. "We try to screen at the door, but some people put them under their coat. Our enforcement inside the stadium is at our discretion -- we're lenient on letting signs remain depending on their message."\nThis policy might seem lame to some, but for every Hoosier-supporting "I Love Ben Allen!" or "In Rod We Trust" sign, there are 10 times as many unsportsmanlike or derogatory signs that might fly with the drunk kids in the stands who created them, but aren't viewed in the same light by the University, alumni or the general public. And sure, it's cool to try and come up with ways to fill out ESPN or CBS so you can get on TV -- but its so cliché. Do you want to be labeled as that guy? No, you don't.\nSign-toting fans can also block the view of people behind them. Complaints are sometimes filed to ushers and their signs are quickly confiscated.\nBut sometimes the complainers are large men with a short fuse and they don't act like girly men and complain to an usher. They complain to your face with a swift and accurate right hook.\nOne possible solution could be ushers allowing positive signs through at the gates and screening out the unsportsmanlike ones, but where is the line drawn between acceptable and offensive?\nSo if you're dead set on expressing yourself through a 42-cent Wal-Mart poster board and a set of Crayola markers, it's best to scribble 'Go Hoosiers' on it. That way, there will at least be some chance of it surviving past the first stoppage of play.\nAlthough this is a college town where students should be free to exercise their First Amendment rights, there are plenty of other ways to show your support for the home team or disdain for the opposing squad. Chanting in unison with thousands of other fans does more to distract or intimidate the opposing squad than a cardboard sign ever will. \nSo stand up, clap your hands, boo, chant and cheer with all your heart. That's something no usher can take away from you.
The biggest American football game of the year is Sunday. Big freakin' deal. Let's face it -- the real entertainment lies in the commercials, half-time show and the opposing coach's mustaches.\nCommercial-wise, it looks like Burger King is aiming to do it real big this year. It plans to run a commercial with Brooke Burke and 92 dancing and singing "Whopperettes" dressed as tomatoes, lettuce and burgers. Now, I'm never going to complain about a commercial with Brooke Burke in it, even if she's dressed in three overcoats and a ski-mask, but if Burger King doesn't feature a new commercial with 'The King' superimposed over famous football players on the field, it is stupid. Those are really, really, really funny and I want to see more of them. \nThe game on the field doesn't quite compare to the battle of coach and player facial hair.\nSeahawks coach Mike Holmgren's 'stache is white and much thicker than Steelers coach Bill Cowher, giving him a more refined, dignified and walrus-sy look. Cowher's mustache is straight out the '80s. All he needs is a mullet, a flowery shirt and short white shorts and he would be the second coming of Tom Selleck's Magnum P.I.\nAs far as the players' facial hair goes, 'Big' Ben Roethlisberger pulls off the playoff beard better than any hockey player could. It seems to have increased his already astronomical luck with the ladies. (Google 'Ben Roethlisberger party pictures' to see what I'm talking about. Note the 'Drink like a champion shirt today' he's sporting.) Although Steeler defensive back Troy Polamalu doesn't sport any facial hair, his long, flowing locks deserve a special mention. There's really not much to say about his hair other than it's dead sexy.\nUnless you've been living under a large boulder in an underground cave in Sri Lanka, chances are you've heard that Steeler running back Jerome 'the Bus' Bettis is from Detroit, home to Super Bowl XL. Man, this is pretty unbelievable. What are the chances of someone from Detroit playing in the NFL? Yeah, pretty much zero. So because of this, his parents are going to get a lot of airtime while they are in the stands rooting on their son. Get ready for it folks.\nAnd, of course, this grand American gala wouldn't be complete without a jaw-dropping performance for the greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time, the Rolling Stones. Well, except for the fact that they're British. Oh well. To be politically correct, the Stones should avoid playing 'Paint it Black' which would show an obvious bias toward the Steelers. But, in the end, for either the Steelers or the Seahawks, it's going to be 'You Can't Always Get What You Want.' I'll be too busy watching my favorite commercials on the Internet to notice.
Jeff Sagarin is unconventional. While most mathematicians use C++ and Microsoft Excel to work with algorithms, the Bloomington resident still uses Fortran, an MS-DOS based computer program he first learned in the fall of 1966 as an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But don't let the ancient computer program fool you -- what Sagarin creates within it is on the cutting edge of math in the sports world.\n"Real old guys like me -- we like Fortran and we're not going to change," said Sagarin, whose love for sports statistics started when he was a kid growing up in New York. \nSince 1985, the 57-year-old's NCAA football and basketball rankings have graced the pages of USA Today. His football rankings are one of six in the nation used by the Bowl Championship Series to compute its standings each week. \nSagarin also has developed ratings systems for a host of other sports, including boys' and girls' Indiana high school basketball, NASCAR, MLB, individual baseball players, men's and women's college golf and MLS. Sagarin has also teamed up with fellow MIT grad and IU business professor Wayne Winston to create Winval, an individual basketball player rating system used exclusively by IU business school graduate and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.\nThe story of Winval goes back to spring 2000, when Winston took his son, Gregory, an Indiana Pacers fan, to see the team play in Dallas during spring break. He ran into Cuban, a former student of his in the business school, in the stands and Cuban asked if there was any way Winston could help the team through mathematics. After Winston and Sagarin bounced ideas back and forth, they came up with Winval, short for "winning \nvalue."\nSagarin said Winval evaluates players based on the "rows" they play in during a basketball game. A row consists of a time frame a player participates in within a game -- his time on the court in between timeouts, a break at half time, or player substitutions during free throws. Play-by-play data is supplied to Winston and Sagarin by the Elias Sports Bureau.\n"Each one of these rows is a little mini-game," Sagarin said. "A typical NBA game has about 30 rows."\nSagarin said during the first year of Winval, Cuban would be up at 2 or 3 in the morning e-mailing back and forth with him on specific features of the program.\n"We've evolved towards a better routine," Sagarin said in regards to the duo's relationship with the Mavericks. "We understand what they want now and what's useful to them. We didn't know that when we started because they're coaches and we're math guys."\n"Jeff is your typical eccentric genius," Cuban said via e-mail. "He locks himself away for months at a time with no human contact just to come up with great formulas for evaluating sports. It's fun to work with him, and his stuff is amazing."\nCurrently, Winval rates Lebron James as the best overall player in the league, with Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Tracy McGrady and Andre Iguodala rounding out the top five. Although he ranks first offensively, Kobe Bryant ranks a surprising 27th in the overall category.\n"A lot of people think Kobe Bryant is good defensively, but he's really not," Winston said. "When's he's in the game, they give up a lot of points, so that's why he isn't higher.\nIn addition to providing Cuban and the Mavericks coaching staff with Winval, Winston gives them scouting reports of opposing teams as well as which lineups and player combinations have worked best and worst for the Mavericks during the year. He can easily mix and match player names in Microsoft Excel to see point-margin differentials and ratings when a certain lineup is on the court.\nThe Seattle Supersonics and Toronto Raptors have both used Sagarin and Winston's services for a short period of time, but Winston says they would rather not help out another Western Conference team because it creates a conflict of interest with the Mavericks. The New Jersey Nets is one Eastern Conference team that has expressed interest in Winval. Winston added that both he and Sagarin would like to help out the IU basketball team, but because Big Ten stat sheets don't supply substitutions, the key ingredient to their system, they are unable to do so.\nSagarin's newest endeavor involves using simulation to predict the percent chance a baseball team has of winning a game. The percentage changes depending upon the numerous factors within a baseball game such as the current batter's count, the inning and who is pitching. The program assumes average play and takes into account the ballpark in which the game is taking place. The idea behind the system is similar to the system used to determine winning a Texas hold 'em hand seen during the World Series of Poker on ESPN. Sagarin said he hopes this summer to see the percentage on TV amongst other commonly used statistics like the graphics of runners on base, pitch count and score.\n"In a sense, it's a completion for me," Sagarin said. "It's something I first started when I was 21 years old as a senior \nat MIT."\nSagarin credits Eldon and Harlan Mills, the authors of one of his favorite books, "Player Win Averages," as his inspiration for the idea.\n"Those guys are my idols. Their book inspired me," Sagarin said. "You recognize the people who gave you thoughts.\n"About 20 years ago, I was complaining to my mother about taxes and she said to me, 'You ought to be on your knees every day thanking God you live in a country that lets you make a living doing what you did for free when you were 11 years old.' And I thought about it, and those are words of greatness to me. I never thought I'd make a living doing this"
When I told some of my friends I'd be writing about the group of IU guys who practice with the women's basketball team, most responded with an excited 'I want to do that!' \nThere seems to be something encoded into a man's DNA that screams for us to want to pummel members of the opposite sex in any and every athletic contest. Let's face it, any guy with even mediocre basketball talent would jump at the chance to stuff a female NCAA Division I athlete's jumper on a regular basis, and most would think they can. But the members of the practice squad know better than to buy into that stereotype. \n"I laugh at guys that say that," said junior Beau Hobson, who has been on the women's practice team since the end of his freshman year. "There are girls on the team as good as any guys I play against at the HPER." \nAnother member of the squad, senior Brad Hauger, echoes Hobson's sentiments. \n"People think these girls aren't very good," he said. "I was a four-year player in high school and, let me tell you, these girls are the real deal."\nAbout three times a week, Hobson, Hauger and five other IU male students suit up and practice with the women's team. Showing up about a half-hour into practice after the women have finished warm-ups and stretching, they participate in drills and scrimmages and fill in for injurwed team members to even out odd-numbered matchups. And of course, there's those sweet perks -- which include free practice gear, shoes and access to team trainers.\nOn top of practicing with the women's squad, both Hauger and Hobson participate on the same intramural basketball team.\n"(The women on the team) prefer it if we're there," Hauger said. "They get to see a different look and different athleticism. When the guys step in, the girls try even harder."\nWhat about the matchup problem with 6-foot-7 women's basketball player Sarah McKay?\n"When Sarah gets out there, there isn't much we can do," Hobson said. "There's not many times we blow them out, it's usually a pretty good game."\nHobson latched onto the team after a graduating senior he had class with offered him his spot. Hauger joined the squad after his intramural team made the championship game a few years ago and played against members of the women's practice team. The women's coaches attended and after the game, the coaches and practice squad players invited him to come out for the team.\nAnyone ever make fun of you guys for playing against women?\n"Actually, everyone's pretty interested in it," Hauger said.\nAfter listening to these two talk about the women's skills, that's exactly the way it should be.
As the ink dried on the 'Conditions of Participation and Release' form I signed to try my hand at dueling with the IU Fencing Club, I was already ridiculously out of place. Blue corduroys might be the right call if you're trying to score scene points, but they don't fly if you're fencing -- a sport centered on maximizing your agility. \nThe club started out practice with a series of footwork drills. A fencing stance compares to most athletic stances; bent knees and a low center of gravity, but differs in that you turn your feet at a 90-degree angle from each other. It's like standing in a batter's box and pointing your front foot directly at the pitcher -- sort of the "anti-triple threat position." It's about as awkward as walking in on your grandma naked, but in fencing it's the only way to stand if you want to protect your backside from an opponent's attack.\nAny typical fencing injuries?\n"Ankles and knees are susceptible because you're starting and stopping a lot and moving very quickly," said freshman club member Ethan Cirmo.\nThe club practices on the second floor basketball courts at the School of Health Physical Education and Recreation, a place most have only ventured to if all the courts downstairs are full.\nAn even lesser known area of the HPER is where club President Robert Gradeless took me to choose from the foil, epee or saber, the three weapons used in fencing. \nBehind 'The Fort' (that wooden castle-looking structure) on the second floor courts lies a stairway up to another floor. And once up the stairs, a narrow hallway leads to the IU Fencing Club armory. Foils, epees, sabers, helmets and fencing jackets are filed away neatly in a closet. In an attached room, yellowed newspaper clippings of past fencing clubs line the walls and a blank chalkboard rests unused towards the back of the room. \n"Not many people know it's up there," club Vice President Brian Wilson said with a smile. \nNo kidding. It's kind of like finding the door to Narnia in your closet or pulling the candle to reveal the stairway behind the bookcase.\nIn the end, I went with the saber because it had the coolest and toughest name. Each weapon has a different set of rules in regards to where and how you can attack your opponent to score a point.\nThe club is gearing up for the Midwest Fencing Conference team competition this weekend at Purdue. \n"We have an interesting rivalry with Purdue," Wilson said. \nLaw student Matt Bruno cut him off mid-statement. \n"I'm gonna destroy them Saturday," he said. \nIt turns out Bruno fenced for the Purdue club team during his undergrad years. \nIn a weekend filled with various IU vs. Purdue sports matches, it is Bruno who will perhaps get the biggest kick out of sticking it to the Boilermakers.
The free throw. It's a major emphasis of just about every college and professional basketball coach across the country. But no matter how many 15-foot uncontested shots a coach requires his or her athletes to make before they're allowed to hit the showers after practice, nothing can prepare them for the screaming, sign-waving fans behind the basket at an away game, or the mental or physical fatigue they'll face near the end of the game. Make most of your free throws in a close game and you're likely assured a victory. Miss the front end of two foul shots and your mind starts to worry about missing the next one. \nAnd it's for these reasons that the free throw is perhaps the most important part of a basketball game. More than a few hoops greats never mastered the art. Shaquille O'Neal has an entire defensive strategy named after him because of his poor foul shooting -- the 'hack-a-Shaq.' Wilt Chamberlain might have scored 100 points in one game, but only made 51 percent of his 11,862 free throws taken over his career.\nThen there's the case of former Orlando Magic guard Nick Anderson in the 1995 NBA Finals against the Houston Rockets. He missed four consecutive free throws in the final 10 seconds that would have all but locked up Game 1 for the Magic. The Rockets went on to win the series 4-0, and Anderson sought the help of a sports psychologist after he found his free throw percentage drop sharply from 70.4 percent in the 1994-95 season to 40.4 percent in his 1996-97 campaign. \nBut there are those athletes who rise above the pressure cooker that is the free-throw line and make it look as easy as it should be. \nIU women's basketball senior guard Cyndi Valentin is one of these athletes. Valentin nailed 61 consecutive foul shots this season, a streak that included two straight 9-9 efforts in two straight games. This gave her the women's NCAA Division 1 record for consecutive foul shots made in a season, a record previously held by Ginny Doyle of the University of Richmond during the 1991-92 season.\nOn her way to the record, Valentin amassed a near-perfect 78-80 from the line this season, good for 97.4 percent on the year. This number sounds more like Homer Simpson's percent of body fat or Nerdy McNerdelson's last rocket science test score than a basketball player's free throw percentage. \nValentin's foul shooting routine is rather simple.\n"I dribble six times and put my index finger on the insertion hole," she said. "When I play, I try to block out the crowd so they don't bother me."\nWith the crowd out of her mind, there's only one sound Valentin hears on the court. Swish.
Welcome to the United States of America, where no phrase or single word is safe from a less hostile, more politically correct expression. We learned in December if you want to use the term 'Merry Christmas' as an employee at Wal-Mart, you'll most likely be labeled an insensitive imbecile -- it's 'Happy Holidays' and don't you forget it. Even the most famous American Christian, George W. Bush, cracked a beer at the politically correct party by using the phrase 'Holiday Season' in his annual White House Christmas card. \nThe arena of collegiate sports is no stranger to our nation's obsession with political correctness.\nIn August, the NCAA banned 18 schools with American Indian nicknames from displaying their logos and/or mascots on their uniforms during post-season play, starting Feb. 1. Although the NCAA decided it couldn't tell the universities to get rid of their mascots for good, this is one step in a possible few that may lead to that someday. \nSo what's next on the NCAA's agenda? Our own IU mascot, the Hoosier. Think about it. It's ridiculously offensive to the residents of this fine Midwestern state. Do you like when somebody uses that derogatory term to describe you? No, you sure don't. And does anyone actually know what a Hoosier is? That's right -- no one actually knows for sure its true definition or where it comes from -- even further reason to get rid of it. So where do we go from here? We need a new nickname and it needs to be something that brings out the true spirit of this town.\nHow about the IU 'Indiana Residents'? It sticks to the tradition of the original name, while not nearly being as offensive as that ugly word 'Hoosier.' Can't you hear the nickname echoing off the walls of Assembly Hall, inside Mellencamp Pavilion or Memorial Stadium? RES-I-DENTS! RES-I-DENTS! Introducing your Indiana University INDIANA RESIDENTS!\nOK, so Hoosiers isn't actually on the NCAA list of tradition squashing and probably never will be. And heck, it's not even actually a mascot because we don't even have a student who dresses up in a sweaty, smelly, oversized suit, unless you count Harry the Hoosier from the '70s. But it's always fun to pretend no matter how old you are, and who knows, sometime in the near future this might actually become a developing problem for the University.\nSo for now, hold onto what we have as a nickname, because it's unique. Not unique in the cliché way, but actually unique, because there are plenty of teams named the eagles, tigers and bulldogs -- but there's only one named the Hoosiers.
On Aug. 1, the Chicago White Sox assumed the role of the rabbit in the fable of the tortoise and the hare. \nFifteen games ahead of the Cleveland Indians (the tortoise), most thought they would be the first team to clinch its division. But just as the story goes, the Sox took a nap on a park bench, and let the tortoise make up its 13 1/2 game deficit. People called them chokers, said their luck had run out and they were about to become the first team in MLB history to squander a 15-game division lead this late in the season.\nAnd for a moment, just about every Sox fan, baseball analyst and anyone with a functioning brain believed what was being said about the South Siders. Even manager Ozzie Guillen told the Chicago Tribune, "We flat out stink." Their hitting was absolutely horrid. Not that swinging the sticks was or is this team's forte, but stranded runners and pop-ups started to be the defining characteristics of the squad. Mark Buehrle and John Garland were both strong candidates for the Cy Young award the first half of the season. But after a string of bad starts in the closing months, they put themselves out of contention for the award.\nThe worst part of it all was it appeared the tortoise would pass up the hare in the last series of the season, as the Indians and White Sox met during the weekend in Cleveland.\nTravis Hafner had been tearing the cover off the ball for the Tribe, and Cleveland went a rock solid 38-14 from Aug. 1 up until its eventual meeting with the Sox. \nBut it never came to that.\nChicago woke up from its nap and won eight of its last 10 and sealed the division title before it traveled to Cleveland. The Indians lost six of their final seven games, including being swept by the Sox in that all-important season-ending series. Cleveland still had a chance to grab the Wild Card on the final day of the season, but it needed to beat the White Sox and for the Boston Red Sox to lose Sunday. \nIt didn't happen. There is no postseason for the Indians.\nSo the team that, just a week ago, was doomed to be on the couch watching the playoffs, won its division by six games and found themselves 14-2 winners over the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox Tuesday evening. These so-called chokers also ended up with 99 wins -- good enough for the best record in the American League, which ensures them home field advantage throughout the playoffs.\nChicago is a city filled with years of its baseball teams coming up short. The Sox haven't won the World Series since 1917. The Cubs haven't won it all since 1908. That's 185 total years without a crown. History gave Sox fans every right to cast the team aside as their lead started to crumble.\nBut as bad as things got during mid-September for the Sox, they found a way to win and come up big in their first game of the postseason. Their pitching staff is arguably the best of any team in the postseason. In games decided by one run, the Sox are a fantastic 35-18. In games decided by two runs or less they are a decisive 61-33. That seems to be the story of the White Sox's regular season -- finding a way to win the close ones. \nThe White Sox will have their hands full during the rest of the series with the champs, but hopefully for Chicago fans, their feel-good season will carry through the playoffs. Eighty-eight years of disappointment are riding on it.
I've been more than a little detached from American sports for the past three weeks. Before arriving in London to study for the semester, I traveled to Italy and France, where the best I could muster up were some highlights of a baseball game or two on CNN World.\nI have 999 channels on the TV in the lounge on my floor. Unfortunately, the only channel with 24-hour American sports coverage, the North American Sports Network (channel 417), is not available with our cable package -- son of a bee sting!\nSo I did what any sensible American student in London would do: I watched cricket. \nBut it wasn't just your normal cricket match; it was The Ashes, perhaps the most storied and tradition-laden contest in all of cricket. Every two years (with a few exceptions here and there) since the early 1880s, the series pits the Australian national team against the English national team. England won the Ashes back from the Aussies Monday, its first win in 16 years.\nAt first glance, the sport presents itself as a more boring (scratch that -- much more boring) version of baseball, or rather, a sport that vaguely resembles baseball. One batter can be up for hours, and sometimes, though rare, days at a time. Can you imagine watching a three-hour Curt Schilling versus Derek Jeter at bat? Yeah, me neither. \nThe ball is in play no matter where the batter hits it, so what would be considered a foul ball behind home plate in baseball, could result in four runs in a cricket match. It's weird, I know.\nA day of cricket (the test match form played in most international matches) lasts from 10 a.m. till about 6:30 p.m. or so. \n On top of that, each test match lasts five days (Thursday through Monday) in a best of five series. So a full series could last up to 25 days in the span of a month and a half. Not quite the seven game championship series U.S. sports fans are accustomed to viewing.\nWatching the match alone in the lounge, I couldn't fully comprehend the action taking place. I knew some of the general rules of the game, but terminology such as "wicket" and "over" were lost on me.\nI had just about given up on watching when a man who works in my building stepped into the lounge and started putting together some bed posts. He seemed interested in what was on the screen, so I started quizzing him with question after question about cricket. After an hour or so, he cleared up all my confusion and told me he grew up playing the sport in Jamaica and works a few months a year in London. \nWatching the game with him -- Donald is his name -- and having more knowledge after our chat, gave me a new appreciation for the sport. Heck, I even started to enjoy it. The game requires an insane amount of mental toughness to last all day at such a high level of competition, and batting and fielding cannot be done without excellent hand-eye coordination and reflexes. Cricket players are flat out athletes.\nThat afternoon, it didn't matter that I didn't get to see a linebacker sack a quarterback or a baseball player go yard.\nIt was about learning and enjoying a sport I knew very little about, and in the process making friends with someone I would have otherwise never talked to. If you ever need proof that sports can bring people together, look no further than a white kid from the States and a black man from Jamaica watching cricket together in London.
If the first half of 2005 is any indication, Death Cab for Cutie is on the crest of becoming the coolest and most recognizable indie rock band on the planet. Seth Cohen of Fox's "The O.C." dubs the foursome his favorite band. DCFC played the show this spring, plexifilm recently \n released a DVD documenting their 2004 spring tour and the four boys from Bellingham, Wash., currently grace the covers of Spin, Paste and Under the Radar. But it is their decision to ditch their long-time partnership with indie label Barsuk earlier this year and record their fifth album Plans on major label Atlantic that will perhaps bring them the most attention in the long run.\nDeath Cab cut Plans from much the same wood as 2003's critically-acclaimed Transatlantacism, with its sharply-produced layered sound and nifty looped beats (both discs are produced by DCFC's guitarist Chris Walla). Plans comes off as a less cohesive effort than its 2003 predecessor and although it features many hits, they don't quite strike the same emotional chord as those on Transatlanticism. \nDeath Cab's horn-rimmed glasses and cardigan-wearing frontman Ben Gibbard (perhaps best known for lending his somber voice to his electronic-pop side project the Postal Service) employs smart, descriptive lyrics ranging in topic from the frustration of being abroad in "Different Names for the Same Thing" to the predictable songs about love lost in "Summer Skin" and "Someday You Will be Loved." But the theme most prominent on the album seems to be death, both coming to terms with the fact that someday someone you care about will die and seeing it first hand.\nDCFC's layered sound drops out halfway through the album on "I Will Follow You into the Dark," a Gibbard solo acoustic track in which he croons "love of mine/someday you will die/but I'll be close behind/I'll follow you into the dark." It's a wonderfully melodic tune fit for the end credits of a romantic drama to make the audience feel as if everything is going to be okay.\nIn "What Sarah Said," a piano ballad near the end of the disc, Gibbard cleverly describes the anxiety of watching a loved one near death in the hospital. "Each descending peak on the LCD took you a little further away from me/amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines/in a place where we only say goodbye," he sings. \nThe disc's first two tracks, "Marching Bands of Manhattan" and single "Soul Meets Body," flow in classic Death Cab fashion -- building up from the start until they crash into a repeated lyric at their finish. The upbeat "Crooked Teeth" bumbles around a sharp Nick Harmer bass line. \nSomewhere in Southern California, Seth Cohen is smiling.
If the first half of 2005 is any indication, Death Cab for Cutie is on the crest of becoming the coolest and most recognizable indie rock band on the planet. Seth Cohen of Fox's "The O.C." dubs the foursome his favorite band. DCFC played the show this spring, plexifilm recently \n released a DVD documenting their 2004 spring tour and the four boys from Bellingham, Wash., currently grace the covers of Spin, Paste and Under the Radar. But it is their decision to ditch their long-time partnership with indie label Barsuk earlier this year and record their fifth album Plans on major label Atlantic that will perhaps bring them the most attention in the long run.\nDeath Cab cut Plans from much the same wood as 2003's critically-acclaimed Transatlantacism, with its sharply-produced layered sound and nifty looped beats (both discs are produced by DCFC's guitarist Chris Walla). Plans comes off as a less cohesive effort than its 2003 predecessor and although it features many hits, they don't quite strike the same emotional chord as those on Transatlanticism. \nDeath Cab's horn-rimmed glasses and cardigan-wearing frontman Ben Gibbard (perhaps best known for lending his somber voice to his electronic-pop side project the Postal Service) employs smart, descriptive lyrics ranging in topic from the frustration of being abroad in "Different Names for the Same Thing" to the predictable songs about love lost in "Summer Skin" and "Someday You Will be Loved." But the theme most prominent on the album seems to be death, both coming to terms with the fact that someday someone you care about will die and seeing it first hand.\nDCFC's layered sound drops out halfway through the album on "I Will Follow You into the Dark," a Gibbard solo acoustic track in which he croons "love of mine/someday you will die/but I'll be close behind/I'll follow you into the dark." It's a wonderfully melodic tune fit for the end credits of a romantic drama to make the audience feel as if everything is going to be okay.\nIn "What Sarah Said," a piano ballad near the end of the disc, Gibbard cleverly describes the anxiety of watching a loved one near death in the hospital. "Each descending peak on the LCD took you a little further away from me/amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines/in a place where we only say goodbye," he sings. \nThe disc's first two tracks, "Marching Bands of Manhattan" and single "Soul Meets Body," flow in classic Death Cab fashion -- building up from the start until they crash into a repeated lyric at their finish. The upbeat "Crooked Teeth" bumbles around a sharp Nick Harmer bass line. \nSomewhere in Southern California, Seth Cohen is smiling.
Something's happening on the south side of Chicago -- and it's making me happy.\nSome dub it 'Ozzieball' or 'smartball;' others think 'luck' might be a more accurate description for it.\nBut whatever you want to call the brand of ball the White Sox are playing so far, it's working. In its 104-year existence, the team has never begun a season as well as the 2005 campaign. \nBut I don't know if I can call them 'for real' just yet. It's early. \nThough they have led every game so far at some point, received solid pitching from all five starters and seem to get clutch hitting whenever it's been needed, it's only April.\nThat's the thing with these White Sox. The last few years they seem to drive the ball far off the tee and put themselves in the American League Central lead at and for a month or so after the All-Star Break. But when it really matters at the end of the season, they miss the gimme putt, bogey the last hole and give up their lead to the Minnesota Twins.\nEven with their 16-5 start, the Sox have been far from perfect. Too many errors, closer Shingo Takatsu's 7.94 ERA doesn't exactly exude confidence and their .300 team on-base percentage ranks among the lowest in the big leagues. \nAnd then there's that pesky Frank Thomas. Without a doubt the greatest player in White Sox history, his imminent return to the team from ankle injury should bring a smile to most Sox fans' faces. But Thomas' so-called 'bad attitude' could be the glass on the road to give Chicago's cruise down the highway a flat tire. \nIt's not that Thomas can't contribute to the team when he returns, but it appears as if he will surface in more of a platoon role, splitting time at designated hitter with Carl Everett. \nIf Thomas whines about playing time (which he likes to do), it could bring down team morale. \nManager Ozzie Guillen certainly didn't give Thomas much of a warm welcome home when he arrived back in Chicago on April 16. \n"It is good to have him here because now he can see a winning attitude, because he was part of the bad attitude," Guillen told the Chicago Tribune. "Frank was a big part of the bad attitude." \nDid he just mention Thomas was a big part of the bad attitude?\nHopefully, Thomas will keep his mouth shut and not worry about his own personal stats, Guillen's comments or playing time. This is a team built on pitching and defense, not the long ball. The new additions of catcher A.J. Pierzynski and outfielder Scott Podsednik fit well among the squad comprised of solid players with no true 'star' leading the way.\nThomas should realize that at his age and after a host of injuries the last couple seasons, he is no longer a big-name star in the league.\nHe will fit into the team rather nicely if he grasps this fact.\nThe Red Sox erased their 86-year-old World Series title drought last season, winning their first since 1918. The White Sox haven't won the World Series since 1917. Best start in 104 years, first World Series title in 87 years?\nIt's too early to tell, but something good is happening on the south side of Chicago. Here's to hoping it continues past April and the Big Hurt doesn't blow it.
At a press conference Monday, cancer survivor Lance Armstrong announced that win or lose, he will end his prolific cycling career after this July's Tour De France. Armstrong cited wanting to spend more time with his three kids as the biggest reason for deciding to retire.\nThe 33-year old Armstrong became a national icon the past few years, gaining popularity with each of his six straight Tour De France wins.\nBut whether or not Armstrong rides to another first-place finish for his seventh title, where will he rank in America's eyes on the list of all-time greatest athletes?\nWhen we talk about great American athletes, Jordan, Ruth and Montana come to mind. A cyclist from Texas most likely won't be mentioned among those names.\nTo most of the red, white and blue, cycling is about as cool as a Wiffle-ball helmet. We are a basketball, football and baseball kind of country. The U.S. leaves soccer and cycling to the Europeans.\nPlain and simple, America really doesn't care about men in spandex and dorky helmets. Lance participates in a sport that is not team-oriented enough for our tastes.\nHe has also succumbed to a whole host of steroid and performance-enhancing drug allegations, most recently from former assistant Mike Anderson. This certainly has tarnished his legacy, even if the allegations prove false. But in an era where steroids are used as regularly as aspirin, it makes it hard to feel 100 percent certain with anything. For as many people who love everything Lance, (including those trendy LIVESTRONG bracelets), there are just as many who despise him. But hate him or love him, or rather hate the yellow bracelet or love it, you have to respect what he is trying to do. \nWith more than 40 million LIVESTRONG bracelets sold to date, millions of dollars have been donated to the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research. Though the bracelets turned into more of a trendy fashion statement than a reason to donate money to a good cause, I'm sure the foundation gladly took all the money it received.\nAlthough his organization helps victims live with and try and survive the disease more than look for a cure, Armstrong could use his notoriety and dedication to raising money for cancer to one day aid in finding a cure for cancer.\nTuesday's USA Today hailed Armstrong as a 'global hero' in regards to his 'back-from-cancer story'. \nThis probably isn't the best title to describe him, but his future work with cancer research may help this title come to fruition. \nWhat if sometime in the next 20 years, a cure was found, thanks in a large part to Armstrong's effort? \nHe most certainly would become a figurehead around the globe for his efforts.\nBut for now, Armstrong seems to be more preoccupied with training for his seventh title. Shortly after last year's Tour De France, Armstrong cut ties with sponsorship with the U.S. Postal Service and now rides for Discovery Channel.\nAn omen for a guy who is helping to discover more about cancer? That is probably something both the United States and Europe can agree on.