Among the nation's best: IU in line for top-10 finish in Sears Cup standings

IU is currently eighth in the Sears Directors' Cup standings, according to the latest release. If IU were to finish the 2001-02 sports season at the current ranking, it would be IU's highest finish since the overall collegiate sports award -- which is given to one NAIA school and one from each of the three NCAA divisions -- was introduced eight years ago.\nTwo main reasons IU is closer to the coveted Waterford crystal this year than in years past are the tournament runs of the men's soccer and basketball teams. Both finished second nationally. \nJerry Yeagley's club added another finals appearance to a program that dominated NCAA Division I soccer in the '90s, and Coach Mike Davis' team put together a Cinderella run that ended in Atlanta just 10 minutes before the final buzzer of the year. Both teams contributed heavily to the 467 total points amassed in Sears Directors' Cup competition so far this year, with basketball and soccer chipping in 90 points each.\n"I think that what you are seeing this year is that we had a few programs with breakthrough seasons," athletics director Michael McNeely said. "We have a number of programs that score well in the Sears Cup every year, and then usually you see a program breakthrough. And this year we had a few programs breakthrough."\nOther breakthrough contributors included the women's indoor track and field and swim and dive teams finishing eighth and 10th in the nation, respectively. The wrestling, men's swim and dive and women's basketball teams also pitched in, each finishing top 35 nationally. Men's indoor track and field also finished 42nd.\nStanford -- a seven-time Sears Directors' Cup defending champion -- leads this year's race with 1004 points, dwarfing the distantly second North Carolina, which has 680.5 points. Notre Dame is currently sixth in the standings.\nIU's best previous finish was 29th in the inaugural year of the award in 1993-94, the last time an IU men's basketball team made it to the Elite Eight before this year. Since then IU has not placed better than 32nd, which it did last year. \nOne major reason is that IU's men's basketball team -- a national power at the beginning and middle of former coach Bob Knight's reign -- did not make it out of the first round of the NCAA tournament in any of its last seven seasons prior to this one. That said, IU has never finished worse than 51st in a field of more than 200 D-I schools.\nIU will likely depend on strong performances from its baseball and men's and women's track and field teams this spring to hold or improve its current rankings in the Sears Directors' Cup standings. As all points are based on team's finishes in the NCAA championships, tournament runs -- good or bad -- will determine IU's final rank in Sears Directors' Cup competition.\n"Our goal is to be the top Division I public institution in the country," McNeely said. "The Sears Cup is a barometer of how well your program performs across the board"