IU men’s soccer assistant coach Todd Yeagley is interviewing for the head coaching job at Wisconsin, IU coach Mike Freitag confirmed today.
INDIANAPOLIS – Whew. That was almost embarrassing. The Colts squeaked past the hapless Lions 31-21 in a game closer than the score indicated. Maybe the Colts forgot just because the Lions were 0-13 doesn’t mean they don’t get paid to play, too.
Senior guard Kim Roberson only played 22 minutes due to foul trouble, but she made them count, scoring 15 points and pulling down six rebounds to help IU (7-2) beat the West Virginia Mountaineers (7-2) on the road on Dec. 13, 77-73.
Forget this one. Seriously, just move on. Games like this happen. They are unavoidable, and I’m not even sure last year’s Hoosiers would have won that game.
LEXINGTON, Ky – IU coach Tom Crean can prepare his young Hoosiers to the best of his abilities and have them ready for anything. But as IU has found out this season, you can’t prepare for height. Or athleticism. Kentucky jumped out to a 32-6 run and never looked back, crushing the Hoosiers 72-54. IU, now 5-5, never brought the game to single digits after Kentucky’s, now 7-3, initial spurt and could only muster 13 first-half points – its fewest total since its second-round NCAA Tournament loss to UCLA in 2007.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Devan Dumes knows “hate” is a strong word, which is why he chose his words carefully.The Hoosiers’ most experienced player was down. One of IU’s most bitter rivals had just finished torching the Hoosiers for 40 minutes, and the fire inside Dumes still had a few embers aglow.SLIDESHOW: Kentucky 72, IU 54
LEXINGTON, KY — Kentucky started the game on a 22-4 run and never looked back, crushing the IU men's basketball team 72-54. As they have all season long, IU grappled with turnovers. In all, the Hoosiers turned the ball over 15 times in the first half and were unable to recover from the run Kentucky generated from the mistakes.IU never brought the Wildcats' lead within single digits after their initial run.The rout is IU's second in as many road games this season. The Hoosiers lost to then-No. 15 Wake Forest 83-58 on Dec. 3 in Winston-Salem, N.C.
The times, they have a-changed for the Hoosiers. Aside from candy-striped pants and Branch McCracken Court, almost everything is different about the men’s basketball team since it last played its border rival, Kentucky.
Imagine the IU basketball team or football team without Tom Crean or Bill Lynch. Imagine no head coach to guide a team through its ups and downs.
Last season, playing on the road plagued the IU women’s basketball team, which only won five games. This year, the Hoosiers have already won four road games in a row and are looking to extend their total winning streak to six games. The Hoosiers compete against West Virginia at 2 p.m. Saturday in Morgantown, W. Va. After posting a 25-8 record last year and an NCAA Tournament berth, the Mountaineers came in 7-1.
This one means a little bit more. Games like these always do. Players and coaches yarn on about how truthfully, every game is the same, none is taken more seriously than another, etc. But IU-Kentucky isn’t just a rivalry – it’s a tradition. Need proof? Turn CBS on at 4 p.m. Saturday and see if you don’t hear everything you need to hear from what Tom Crean called “one of the great atmospheres in the country.”Games like this are circled in red. Games like this are the reason Tom Crean left a successful, well-built program at Marquette for a team in tatters. Games like this define seasons – and often careers.
On a team that IU coach Tom Crean calls “thin,” Malik Story has been a valuable commodity. Coming off the bench or starting, playing power forward or point guard – wherever Crean has been lacking, he’s turned to Story to fill the gap. No wonder Story has an open mind on what his role is for the Hoosiers. “(I do) whatever needs to be done,” he said. “Pass the ball, score the ball, whatever needs to be done.” While the whole season is a learning experience, perhaps no Hoosier has had to learn as much or adjust to as many different roles as Story. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound freshman came to Bloomington as a guard. He quickly learned he would need to fill the position of power forward, due to the lack of size on the squad.
Everyday, it seems, the Hoosiers face a new challenge. At halftime Wednesday, Tom Crean added one more to the staggering heap: come out with the best start to a second half as they’ve had all season. He described the team’s play following halftime as a “glaring” weakness, and with the Hoosiers coming off of a particularly sloppy first half, it wasn’t clear if they would be up to the challenge.
It had been months, but it really seemed more like years. This hall – as it’s purported – wasn’t close to capacity, but when those flags hit the parque surface, the floor rumbled like it hadn’t since that dead winter of nine months ago.
Maybe it was freshman Malik Story’s buzzer-beating 3 to end the first half. Maybe it was learning from their last two games against highly ranked opponents. Whatever the reason, the Hoosiers uncharacteristically came out in the second half on fire, turning a four-point halftime lead into a second half laughter against TCU. “The first four minutes of the second half were really crucial in burying a team,” said freshman forward Tom Pritchard. “That’s what we had to do, and we did it.” In their four losses this season, the Hoosiers have been the ones buried and playing flat in the second half – they were outscored 167-109 in those games. But Wednesday night was a different story.
Join basketball reporters Matt Dollinger and Tom Kirby along with columnist Zachary Osterman as they live blog the Hoosiers showdown with the TCU Horned Frogs. Basketblog
Fresh off games against two nationally ranked opponents and on the cusp of a nationally televised game against rival Kentucky, the Hoosiers’ seemingly easier contest tonight against TCU could be considered a dangerous game for the typical IU basketball team. But as IU men’s basketball coach Tom Crean has reiterated throughout the season, this year’s team is anything but typical.BLOG: Basketblog
