Showdown for first place
Jan 18, 2002 12:45 amTwo weeks ago, Saturday's IU-Ohio State matchup seemed like a normal Big Ten game. But since the start of the conference season, the Buckeyes have bounced all four of their foes. IU has done the same.
Two weeks ago, Saturday's IU-Ohio State matchup seemed like a normal Big Ten game. But since the start of the conference season, the Buckeyes have bounced all four of their foes. IU has done the same.
There is no argument that the National Football League is full of parity. It's been that way ever since 1998, when the Atlanta Falcons came from nowhere to run off a 13-3 season and a trip to the Super Bowl. The following season, the St. Louis Rams and Indianapolis Colts went from cellar dwellers to powerhouses. Every team now knows it has a shot at the Super Bowl every year. Critics have been having a field day. This parity, they claim, has taken away one of sports' greatest phenomena -- the dynasty.
Purdue coach Kristy Curry admits she feels insecure about her No. 11 Boilermakers playing IU tonight at Assembly Hall. Why would she think this way about her 2001 NCAA runner-up and Big Ten champion squad? For one thing, Purdue (13-3, 4-2 Big Ten) has dropped two Big Ten games on the road. In fact, all three of the Boilermakers' losses have occurred away from the normally-packed Mackey Arena in West Lafayette.
Jared Jeffries was having a hard time adjusting to being IU's go-to guy. Coach Mike Davis said it, and Jeffries admitted it. That was before last week. The 6-foot-9 sophomore forward torched Michigan State and Iowa, leading the Hoosiers to back-to-back victories over ranked opponents and carrying them to the top spot in the Big Ten. His efforts earned him Big Ten Player of the Week honors, the conference announced this week. It is Jeffries' second Player of the Week award this season -- his other came Dec. 10, 2001 -- and the second of his career.
Michigan State is used to expectations. That's what four consecutive Big Ten regular season titles and three consecutive Final Four appearances will do to a program. Throw in a National Championship in 2000, and the Spartans are supposed to be on top of the Big Ten.
The men's hockey team learned some disappointing news over the winter break. The announcement was that defenseman Andy Bauermeister and forward Trent Washburn had left the team for personal reasons.
When Jenn Christy graduated from IU last spring, the IU women's swimming team lost their most accomplished swimmer of all-time in terms of awards and records. Christy is the school record holder in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle and was a ten time All-American during her career as a Hoosier. Heading into this year, head coach Dorsey Tierney knew it wouldn't be easy to fill the role in the sprint events left by Christy's departure. But after swimming behind Christy last year and participating with Christy on the IU free relay teams, junior Anne Williams has stepped up for the Hoosiers.
"Who was that guy in lane 6?" A stunned Ohio State head coach Bill Wadley asked the scorers table following sophomore Claes Andersson's second place, career-best finish in the 100-yard freestyle during Saturday's dual match against the Buckeyes. While Wadley hadn't heard of Andersson, who earlier won the 50-yard freestyle, the Hoosiers are hoping his solid performance will soon make him the talk of the Big Ten. "He is probably the fastest swimmer I have ever coached," head coach Kris Kirchner said. "He is a contender to win at Big Tens. At the national level, he should be at the NCAAs. He is a very good athlete, is very talented and he has done some amazing things in the last year."
Hard work and perseverance paid off in the end for the IU poms squad and the all-female crimson cheer squad. After learning Nov. 24 that the pom squad\'s funding for their trip to the 2002 College Nationals had been canceled, the entire IU cheer and dance program chipped in to help pay for the trip. \"The whole program had to go out and get money and get donations and sponsors," said senior and crimson squad captain Karmen McCracken.
Performing in front of their largest home crowd of the season, the men's club hockey team were faced with the difficult task of trying to outdo their previous night's 14-0 thrashing of Purdue. Luckily for the 700-plus in attendance at the Frank Southern Ice Arena Saturday night, the Hoosiers (12-3-1, 2-1-1) still had a few tricks left up their sleeve, thoroughly dominating the Boilermakers en route to a 17-1 victory.
The short-handed IU wrestling team didn't need any more injuries this weekend. Unfortunately, senior heavyweight D.J. Radnovich and junior Ty Matthews were lost for at least six weeks, possibly for the season.
The Big Ten studs keep coming. And the IU women's basketball team keeps on failing to contain them.
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- With not even two minutes gone by in the second half Sunday, the Hoosiers found themselves in a situation similar to the one they were in the last time they visited Iowa. A double-digit halftime lead had been cut to five, 42-37. And former Hoosier and Iowa senior guard Luke Recker was warming up after a cold first half. For a minute, IU coach Mike Davis thought he was about to relive last year's nightmare. "I thought, 'Here we go. (We'll) end up losing by three or four points late in the game,'" Davis said. "I know Luke Recker. But our guys kept their composure."
The IU wrestlers will have a tough weekend ahead of them. Not only will the Hoosiers be traveling to Norfolk, Va., for the Virginia Duals this Friday and Saturday, they will be missing three starters and compete short-handed. Injuries and academics will make the Hoosiers' chance of improving last year's third place finish more difficult. Coyte Cooper sprained knee ligaments and will not be in action at 141 pounds. He looks to return next week to start the Big Ten season. Alex LaPointe (165-pounds) dislocated his shoulder at the Midlands Classic. His return date is not known yet. Jereme Maye (165) is forced to sit out the rest of the season after not making grades.
Superficially, there isn't much significance behind the IU-Purdue hockey matchup this weekend. Since the Hoosiers (10-3-1, 2-1-1 Great Midwest Hockey League) moved from the Midwest Collegiate Hockey League to the more competitive GMHL, the two aren't even in the same league anymore, making the results of this weekend's home game without much consequence in terms of postseason positioning. But this is no ordinary non-conference match-up, and this is no ordinary rivalry.
The IU men's track team opens the indoor track season against the Michigan Wolverines tomorrow at noon in the Gladstein Fieldhouse. The Hoosiers are expecting big things this season. All-American pole vaulter Dino Efthimiou and Big Ten champion Contrell Ash, who runs the 100- and 200-meter dashes, are two of the many point-scorers who return this season for the Hoosiers.
For the IU men's swimming team, it's been all practice since Dec.1, when they closed out a second-place finish at the US Open. With Saturday's home dual meet approaching, the Hoosiers are eager to get back into competition. "Over the Christmas break, we did some tremendous training and obviously, we'd like to go fast enough to touch before Ohio State in a majority of events and win the meet," head coach Kris Kirchner said. "We're looking at seven more weeks until our Big Ten meet, and this is our first step, our first competition, in over a month. I'm looking forward to restarting the engine and getting things rolling back on track."
After intensive winter break training, the IU women's swimming and diving team is anxious to start the spring season this weekend in Big Ten competition. While the diving team ended its training with its Winter Invitational and Dive-Off last weekend, the swimming team hasn't raced in competition since Dec. 1.
How could the Iowa Hawkeyes forget last season's games against IU? In the regular season, Iowa used one of its biggest comebacks to rally from being down 43-26 at halftime to beat IU 71-66 last Jan. 27 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. Of course, that same day, former IU guard Luke Recker, who transferred to Arizona and then Iowa, led the comeback with 27 points before fracturing his kneecap. The injury knocked Recker out for the rest of the season, and the Hawkeyes lost seven of their next nine to fall out of postseason contention.
Iowa coach Lisa Bluder recruited IU point guard Heather Cassady when Bluder was the coach at Drake University. So Bluder knows to keep an eye on Cassady when the Hawkeyes visit Assembly Hall Sunday afternoon. "I have always been a Heather Cassady fan...I think she's a tremendous point guard, and I think that's what makes Indiana so scary," said Bluder, the 2001 Big Ten Coach of the Year. "They have experience at those two very important positions: the post position and the point guard position."
Solutions by The State News