Sports

Dunbar leads team to best season it has had in 6 years

The IU volleyball team made a 179-degree turn in two years under Coach Sherry Dunbar.The only last degree left to 180 is to make postseason play.

Soccer team prepares for national quarterfinals

IU senior midfielder John Mellencamp has waited his entire life for a chance to play in the College Cup. That chance might almost be here. “I think about it every night,” he said jokingly. “I have had a couple of dreams about it already. I want to end on that high note with a championship. With the characters of the guys on this team, I wouldn’t want anything less for these guys other than to win that championship.” The No. 6-seeded Hoosiers (14-6-3) will face the No. 3-seeded St. John’s Red Storm (18-2-3) at 5 p.m. Saturday in Queens, N.Y., in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.

Pritchard getting ‘star treatment’

During seven games, IU’s offense has gone through freshman forward Tom Pritchard. As a result, Pritchard is leading Big Ten freshmen in scoring and rebounding – averaging 14.1 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. His success has not gone unnoticed.

A LOOK AT THE ROCK: Glass and I agree: Keep Lynch

RUNNING THE FLOOR: Closer than the experts think?

Risk and reward: Sommer goes from unknown to the World Cup

Momentum carries women's basketball into clash of conferences

Men's basketball faces another tough challenge in No. 5 Gonzaga

Gonzaga’s glass slipper no longer fits. Once an annual Cinderella story, the Zags have evolved into one of the top programs in the country. The northwest school that used to be regarded as the feel-good story of college basketball now has opponents worried sick about playing them. “There really is not anything that doesn’t concern us (about Gonzaga),” IU coach Tom Crean said in a Thursday teleconference. With a balanced scoring attack, talent at every position and “tremendous” chemistry, Crean said he thinks the Bulldogs have been one of the best teams in the nation for more than a decade. “I don’t think you’ll find any college basketball coach or player that has competed against them that wouldn’t refer to them as one of the best programs in the country,” Crean said. On Saturday, the Hoosiers (4-3) will try and create a feel-good story of their own when they face No. 5 Gonzaga at 1:30 p.m. in the Hartford Hall of Fame Classic in Indianapolis.

Club volleyball team’s history ranks among top

The IU men’s club volleyball team might not have the same record of dominance as the men’s soccer and men’s basketball programs, but its history ranks among the top of all IU sports. “Our alumni list is very long, and men’s volleyball is a club sport that goes back to the late ’70s, early ’80s,” said John McSorley, club president and senior. With history dating back four decades, the 2008-09 IU men’s club volleyball team is looking to carry on the tradition into the spring season.

Born to coach: Long career leads Orr to IU

For Tom Orr, hockey was part of growing up. As a small child on a farm in Ypsilanti, N.D., Orr watched his uncle play hockey, which was the spark that began his life in the sport. By the age of 3, he was playing in a youth league. He played other sports in high school, including baseball, football and tennis. Still, he always seemed to come back to hockey.

RUNNING THE FLOOR: BLOGus

Last night, as with every other night the IU basketball team has played, we intrepid Indiana Daily Student folk teamed up with friends at HoosierNation.com, the Herald-Times and InsideTheHall.com to live blog/live chat the IU-Wake Forest basketball game with interested fans.

Ready for Miami

Hockey fans looking for an intense rivalry are sure to find one at the Frank Southern Ice Arena on Friday night. The IU club hockey team is looking to build off the success of its big win before Thanksgiving break when the team beat Grand Valley State in a high-scoring 7-5 match. This weekend, the Hoosiers will take on the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks, a team that has a lot of history with IU. Back during 2001-2002 season, current IU coach Tom Orr was a player on the Hoosier team that season when it faced Miami for the Great Midwest Hockey League championship. Orr scored the game-winning goal, handing the league trophy to the Hoosiers.

STRAIGHT BIDNESS: Plax’s new name: Cheddar Bob

I was sitting in my media ethics class on Tuesday, though I wasn’t really all that awake. You can’t expect a column titled “Straight Bidness” to really embody media ethics, so I generally don’t give the most insightful input in the class. Rather than trying to figure out whether decisions are a means to an end or vice versa, (or something like that – I still don’t understand that lecture) I decided to daydream in hopes of coming up with a column idea. And then it hit me. I heard it, and it was like the angels were telling me to write this story. Someone in my class was speaking, and I heard it.

MILLER'S LAP AROUND NASCAR: Time to dine

For the second straight year, NASCAR’s most popular driver won’t be taking the stage when the sport hands out the big checks and celebrates its 60th anniversary Friday night in New York City. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has been voted the most popular driver by fans each season since 2003, finished 12th in the final standings of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, and per NASCAR rules, only the top 10 drivers are recognized at the Sprint Cup Awards Banquet. The banquet is held annually in the New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria to culminate NASCAR’s “Champions Week,” which sees its top drivers awarded at the banquet on television shows and other media outlets.

Frustrations turned over in N.C.

Even with all the warnings and premonitions of a stressful season, IU coach Tom Crean and the team’s exuberance at the start the season was contagious. But after their 83-58 thrashing at the hands of No. 15 Wake Forest, that exuberance turned to frustration. When asked how he felt his team handled playing in their first true road game, Crean responded, “I think 26 turnovers tell the story.” The 26 turnovers, along with the Demon Deacons’ 20 fast-break points compared to IU’s four, could be a result of the team’s lack of communication, Crean said. “Before we can learn to compete, we’ve got to learn to talk more to one another,” the coach added. “We’ve got to learn to listen better.” 

IU bested 83-58 by Wake Forest Demon Deacons

WINSTON SALEM, N.C. – In a season of firsts, the Hoosiers set the wrong kind of milestone Wednesday. First road loss. For the third time in 10 days, the Hoosiers suffered a blowout loss, falling to No. 15 Wake Forest (7-0), 83-58, in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge.

Baby Hoosiers face challenging road trial

IU travels to Winston-Salem, N.C., Wednesday for the first road test of the season, taking on No. 15 Wake Forest in the annual Big Ten-ACC Challenge. The Hoosiers (4-2) will be facing a red-hot Demon Deacon squad coming into tonight’s contest at a perfect 6-0 and fresh off being crowned champions of the 76 Classic Tournament in California.

Hoosiers will advance to College Cup with win against St. John’s

Thanksgiving week was very good to IU men’s soccer coach Mike Freitag and his team, as the Hoosiers notched two impressive home victories in the NCAA Tournament and received a commitment from one of the top high school soccer players in the nation.

Running the Floor: Demon Deacons too much for young Hoosiers

Now the fun begins.

IU preps for talented point guards

On Wednesday, the Hoosiers will face one of the best floor generals in the country. Without an All-American in the backcourt, IU plans to use a point guard by committee approach to run its offense. In search of size and depth, IU coach Tom Crean played freshman Malik Story at the point position for the first time Sunday. Story, a 6-foot-5, 222-pound freshman from Los Angeles, has primarily played frontcourt positions this season, splitting time with freshman Nick Williams at power forward. But Crean said the Hoosiers would take advantage of Story’s versatility, playing him at as many as four positions this season.