Q & A with IU basketball's Jared Jeffries
(09/08/09 3:11am)
IDS reporter Stephanie Kuzydym talks with Jared Jeffries about his life, ambitions, and the changes that have come with being an NBA player.
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Jared Jeffries still without championship ring
(09/08/09 3:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In Indiana, where basketball is king, winning a basketball title is a young boy’s dream.The Indiana Mr. Basketball winner from 2000, a former-Hoosier superstar and townie, has yet to wear a championship ring.Jared Jeffries began as a Cougar at Bloomington North High School, became a Hoosier and moved on to be a Wizard and then a Knick.From his glory days at Bloomington North to his professional days at Madison Square Garden, Jeffries has yet to lead his team to the boyhood dream.Jeffries’ first shot was with his BNHS team in the Indiana High School Athletic Association’s final championship game against Marion High School in 2000.“We lost, man,” Jeffries said. “It was very disheartening, but at least we got there. I felt like, that year, we had the best team in the state and we didn’t play our best game at the championship game, but at least we got there and had a chance to win it.”Regardless, Jeffries’ life has always been all about basketball.“I really put a lot of effort toward making sure I could come out and be a good basketball player,” Jeffries said. “Just growing up in Bloomington, you always have basketball around you so you want to be good.”In 2000, Jeffries signed with IU and became one of the best players of his time. While wearing the Cream and Crimson, Jeffries was named Big Ten Most Valuable Player in 2002.Along with being named a second-team All-American and a finalist for the Naismith Award, awarded to the top basketball player in the country, Jeffries also broke the 1,000 career point record with 1,008 points.In his sophomore year, Jeffries ranked among IU’s top-20 in rebounds and blocked shots.“People would constantly stop you,” Jeffries said. “Everybody knew me, everybody recognized me, and just growing up here in Bloomington, I was just a bigger star here at IU.”Jeffries missed his second shot at a title when the Hoosiers lost to the Maryland Terrapins in the championship game of the NCAA tournament in 2002.But the second year of the new millennium was not all bad for Jeffries. After building up an impressive resume in just two seasons at IU, Jeffries forwent his junior and senior season for the NBA draft, where he was picked 11th overall by the Washington Wizards.“You go to school to get a job, and I went to school two years, had a chance to get a good job, so I took the opportunity (and) got a great job,” he said. “Eight years later, I’m still doing it.”But eight years later, Jeffries’ fingers are still unoccupied.Regardless, this Bloomington native does not need a championship ring for his basketball career to have an impact on his life.Jeffries recently pledged an annual donation to the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department. The money was put toward the Twin Lakes Recreation Center, formerly known as the SportsPlex, for renovations.Jeffries said he gives back because he doesn’t feel like anybody ever has.“It’s such a shame that so many people have come through Indiana, so many people have been successful that were born and raised in Bloomington, but nobody ever really came back and tried to help out the community the way they should,” he said.So year in and year out, different players take home a diamond-studded ring. But all Jeffries seems to need is a ring of Hoosier love.“It’s something I should do, something I need to do,” Jeffries said. “I’ll never forget where I came from, and I’ll always love this town.”
Men's soccer falls short in Classic
(09/07/09 4:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Strong defense and an inability to capitalize on scoring opportunities resulted in a tie and a loss for No. 7 IU men’s soccer this weekend against two top-5 opponents at the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic. Hoosiers and No. 5 St. John’s ended in a scoreless tie Friday, while Sunday saw No. 3 Wake Forest edge IU 2-1. “It was a good gauge, and you’re playing two very good teams,” IU men’s soccer coach Mike Freitag said. “I don’t take anything away from my guys’ effort this weekend. They gave everything. They’re dead.” The Hoosiers were without standout senior defender Ofori Sarkodie in Friday’s tie against the Red Storm. Sarkodie served his single-game suspension on Friday for a red card in last season’s NCAA quarterfinal. His absence left a hole in the team’s lineup that Freitag said caused some difficulty. “We missed Ofori,” Freitag said. “You train and try to get ready with your starting line and one guy’s out and it kind of has a domino effect, but I think Caleb (Konstanski) did well for him.” Konstanski, a freshman defender from Bloomington, played his first game in a crimson jersey Friday after growing up watching IU soccer. “It was a dream come true, really,” Konstanski said. “To be out here was a surreal feeling at first.” The double-overtime draw was not indicative of IU’s 14-8 shot advantage, nor the Hoosier’s 8-5 lead in corner kicks. The lack of offensive execution continued Sunday against another of the nation’s elite. Wake Forest took an early lead on a self-goal in the 12th minute of Sunday’s game and outmatched IU in the first half. The Hoosiers tied the game early in the second half on a netter from senior midfielder Eric Alexander, but Sean Randolph’s header would be the ultimate deciding point for Wake Forest. The 2-1 final was IU’s first loss of the season. They are now 0-1-1. “We created chances but never put the ball away,” sophomore forward Alec Purdie said. “Defensively, especially against St. John’s, we looked great. Offense doesn’t come naturally. It takes some time to gel. As the games go, I think we’ll score a lot more goals.” Of IU’s 19 shots Sunday, nine were on goal. Wake Forest had six shots on goal.IU will travel to South Bend on Friday for the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament to take on New Mexico, followed by a match against Seattle on Sunday. “I think we defended well this weekend, but offensively we sputtered a little bit,” Freitag said. “That’s usually the case. It’s easier to destroy than create. “Hopefully games like this gets them mentally prepared. They learn from their mistakes and know how to go about their business.”
Men's Soccer Live Blog: IU vs. Wake Forest
(09/06/09 6:16pm)
Men’s Soccer: IU vs. Wake Forest
Volleyball
(09/05/09 9:30pm)
Sophomore libero Caitlin Cox makes a pass off of a serve in Saturday's noon game against Murray State. IU won the match in four sets.
No. 7 IU men's soccer ties No. 5 St. John's
(09/05/09 4:47pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Crabb band was out, the white shirts were worn and the Hoosiers were left wanting more Friday as the IU tied St. John’s at Jerry Yeagley Field after double overtime, leaving the match at a stalemate, 0-0.The No. 7 Hoosiers were unable to take revenge on No. 5 St. John’s Friday. Indiana lost their last matchup St. John’s in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament in 2008.Leading 2-1 with two minutes left in the game, then-junior Ofori Sarkodie drew a red card. St. John’s was able to capitalize and the Red Storm won the 2008 match-up, 3-2. Sardkodie served his single-game suspension during the season opener tonight.With the goalie position left open after the graduation of All-Big Ten Chay Cain, redshirt Freshman Luis Soffner was nearly untested at the net with only a single stop in the second half.The pressure was on Soffner in overtime when St. John’s Adam Himeno took a shot that was blocked by Soffner on the right side of the goal.The strong defense and sloppy passes kept both teams from scoring.Indiana will take on Wake Forest on Sunday in Bloomington at Bill Armstrong Stadium at 2:30 p.m.
IU vs. St. John's Live Blog
(09/04/09 11:39pm)
Check out the live blog for live coverage of the game. The game will start in about five minutes, as the Notre Dame vs. Wake Forest ended late with a double overtime.
Volleyball
(09/04/09 7:56pm)
Freshman outside hitter Jordan Haverly executes a back-row attack during IU's noon matchup against University of Tennessee-Martin. IU lost the match, which went into a fitfth set.
A new season, a new set of bloggers
(09/02/09 10:16pm)
Indiana soccer players will put on a crimson jersey and run Jerry Yeagley field at the point of exhaustion beginning Friday and Kevin Loughery and I will post up blogs and type until there is nothing more to say to bring Hoosier soccer to your screen.
Hoosiers travel to Ft. Wayne for 1st exhibition game
(08/27/09 2:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU men’s soccer coach Mike Freitag can’t count the number of times his team has lost in the preseason – because it hasn’t.Under Freitag’s guidance, the team has gone 8-0-1 in the preseason since 2004. The Hoosiers’ first preseason contest of 2009 comes in the National Soccer Festival, in which 18 teams, five from the Big Ten, will kick off the season with exhibition games. The men’s soccer team will look to extend its unblemished preseason streak in Ft. Wayne against Drake University Thursday. The team will also play Depaul Saturday. Of the teams competing, six, including IU, are ranked by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The Hoosiers are slotted in the No. 4 spot in the Soccer America preseason poll and No. 7 in the NSCAA poll. The cream and crimson ended their campaign last season, going 14-7-3. IU alumnus Terry Stefankiewicz organizes the talent-heavy festival, one of the top preseason tournaments in men’s soccer.“Fort Wayne’s a soccer town, and we get some good support when we go up there,” Freitag said. “It’s been great to us.”Although seven starters return to this year’s squad, senior midfielder Lee Hagedorn said the team is still trying to find the right mix of players. “We’re going to be using different lineups to get our team to play as one,” Hagedorn said. “We’re really trying to concentrate on the defensive side and not letting goals in, too.”The Hoosiers’ solid 2009 lineup was somewhat shaken by the graduation of leaders like goalie Chay Cain and midfielder Brad Ring. Their departures created a void on the team’s roster which others will have to step up and fill.“Those two, you miss,” Freitag said. “I do think some people have stepped up. Brad was an outstanding player for us ... but I think probably the bigger fill in the hole is for Chay in goal. Chay was a very consistent performer.”Freitag said his main concern has not been scouting the Hoosiers’ first opponent.“At this point, especially with exhibition games, all I’m worried about is how we play,” he said. “I’m not worried about the opponent. In fact, I’m not really even worried about the result. I want us to play, answer questions – what our strengths are, what our weaknesses are and how we need to go forward.”Junior midfielder Andy Adlard, who led the Hoosiers in scoring in 2008 with 19 points, said he agreed with his coach on the outlook of the team’s preseason matchup.“It’s definitely more important to just click as a team and play well,” Adlard said. “Obviously, in soccer, you can play really well, but the outcome doesn’t always go your way. We like to win. We’re winners. So if we lose, we’ll be disappointed.”Drake will give IU a fight. Its team was 13-5-1 and made it to the NCAA tournament first round. “Drake had a very good year last year, one of their better years in the program,” Freitag said. “In fact, I thought in the game I saw ... On that day Drake was a better team. So it will be a real good game.”Drake only lost one starter from last year’s team. Freitag said the experienced Bulldogs will be a good early-season challenge. “That’s what we want,” Freitag said. “We want to find out what we’re all about.”
A return to the racket
(08/12/09 11:48pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A little more than 10 years ago, Scott Lippitt spent hours at the tennis courts on North Fee Lane.Now, Lippitt is starting to reunite with the game of tennis.The 1999 alumnus studied in the Kelley School of Business, passing time with his brothers of Sigma Chi and playing for then-coach Ken Hydinger’s IU tennis team.A 0-for-15 challenge record during his freshman year left Lippitt out of the lineup, but he said he never felt wrong turning down tennis scholarships to other universities.“I think it was the right decision,” Lippitt said. “It was a good-size school. It was a good program. It wasn’t top-five, so I had a good chance to move up in the lineup, and that’s what happened.”Lippitt eventually played as high as No. 2 in singles by his junior year.The California native said he never trained as hard as other tennis players he grew up with, but the consistency of daily practices at IU improved his play. Instead of giving up on tennis after his rough start at IU, Lippitt worked hard that summer and came back confident he would be a sophomore starter for the Hoosiers.“I was getting a lot better my freshman year,” Lippitt said. “The guys that had all beat me at the beginning of the year, I was beating a lot of them at the end.”But by the end of his junior year, Lippitt was looking to transfer to University of California-Berkeley.“Basically, the coach at the time wanted to drop my scholarship down in order to bring in another foreigner, and that was not really OK with me, considering I should have been on a higher scholarship because I was going to be playing No. 2 or No. 1 on the team,” Lippitt said. “But I only had one year of eligibility left.”So Lippitt decided to stay.During his last year at IU, he did not play for the Hoosiers. Lippitt spent his time being, as he said, “a college kid.”Now, the former IU tennis player spends his days as a partner in an investment management firm and, after only playing about three times a year for the past five years, is beginning to hit a tennis ball a few times a week.“I was kind of burnt-out a little bit after college, and I had a bit of a bitter taste after how it all ended, so I didn’t play for a little while,” Lippitt said.With a fresh look at the tennis scene, Lippitt offered IU tennis players a piece of experienced advice.“Enjoy it first, unless it’s going to be a career,” he said. “Put it in the right perspective and do a little bit of everything and have a balanced life there. Make good friends because a lot of the people they’re playing tennis with are probably going to end up being lifelong friends, and lifelong contacts are pretty important.”For Lippitt, tennis was not going to be his career, but he still wonders what life would have been like if he would have played his senior year.“I’ve gone back and forth on that,” he said. “I guess I regret it in the sense of I’ll never know how good I would have ever been. But on the other hand, my life goal wasn’t to be a professional tennis player anyway. ... I can’t say that I don’t think about what might have happened.”
Hoosiers continue play in summer
(08/02/09 11:19pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Stephen Vogl and Maxime Armengaud were newcomers to the Hoosier tennis squad last summer.A year later, these sophomores are winning singles and doubles titles during their Intercollegiate Tennis Association Summer Circuit matches.As if 29 matches in four months were not enough, members of the men’s tennis team are hitting the courts for match play this summer with the summer circuit, a group of organized matches in separate regions developed by Indiana’s women’s tennis coach Lin Loring.Juniors Santiago Gruter and J. Julis Bolock along with sophomores Jeremy Langer, Jonathon Schroeder, Vogl and Armengaud have been competing in the Midwest Region.“The more matches over summer, the better you are for season,” Vogl said.From July 11-14, the Hoosiers played at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich.Langer, the No. 2 seed in singles, beat Schroeder in the opening round 7-6 (7-6), 6-4. Langer lost three rounds later, in the quarterfinals, to Michael Sicora of Kalamazoo College 7-5, 6-2.Bolock lost to Purdue’s Billy Heuer in the second round, while Vogl lost to University of Michigan’s Christopher Madden in the third round.The No. 3-seeded Gruter was put away 6-4, 6-2 by a familiar face, teammate Armengaud, in the finals. Armengaud did not drop a set throughout the tournament.“You’re playing against college students, and hopefully if you keep winning, it helps you build up your confidence,” Gruter said. “I think that’s important.”But Gruter got his revenge against Armengaud when Gruter teamed up with Langer to beat Armengaud and Vogl 8-6 in the doubles final.For a doubles duo that is playing its first matches together, Vogl said he felt confident about his and Armengaud’s performance.“Max and I, we were able to figure it out by the second match, so it didn’t take too long,” he said. “He has things that I lack and I have things that he lacks, so it’s a good combination.”Just four days later, some of the Cream and Crimson players returned to their turf. Bolock lost 6-4, 6-3 in the first round to Toledo’s Leo Sarris. Armengaud lost in the third round 6-3, 6-4 to Tariq Ismail of Youngstown. Losing in the semifinals, Gruter knocked off three opponents before withdrawing in the third set of his quarterfinals match. Schroeder withdrew in the third set of his quarterfinals match against George Navas from the University of Michigan.Vogl, who went 6-5 in solo play during the spring season, dropped only one set on his way to the singles title, beating Devin McCarthy of Ohio State 7-6, 6-2.“In Michigan I think Stephen had a pretty good tournament,” Gruter said. “I think that was huge for him.” Vogl’s winning ways carried over to doubles when he and Armengaud defeated teammates Bolock and Gruter in the semifinal before defeating the Wolverines’ Mike DePietro and Navas 9-7.“I’ve been trying to play as much as I can, just trying to get better,” Vogl said. “It’s not all about practicing. You have to play matches, too.”
Media meets with coaches, players
(07/29/09 10:53pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In a little more than a month, fans in all shades of school colors will fill the bleachers in the heat of a big-action play.The words of coaches and players from the month before will mean next to nothing. All that will matter is that winning touchdown, that in-the-moment play.But right now, those “we’re-going-to-a-bowl-game” preseason words are all most fans want to hear.“A perfect season would be what I’m thinking of,” senior defensive lineman Will Patterson said, when asked what he thinks realistically IU’s team record will be this season. “That’s as realistic as I know how to be.”Patterson’s “nothing less than the best” mind-set carried over to his teammate and fellow senior defensive lineman Jammie Kirlew.“My goal is to trump my stats from last year and to lead us to a bowl game,” Kirlew said. “This season I know we’ve made a lot of changes in the offseason. We stepped up our workouts. We stepped up our leadership, and I expect all that to transfer over on the field.“I expect us to have a lot of success. I expect us to fight harder. We’re bigger. We’re stronger. We’re smarter.”On the field, junior Ben Chappell has clinched the starting quarterback spot. Although coach Bill Lynch picked former Hoosiers player Kellen Lewis to start instead of Chappell all but three times last year, Chappell said he and his coach’s trust in each other is unwavering.“I’ve known Coach Lynch for a long time,” Chappell said. “He’s a great coach, and he’s been good to me ever since I’ve been here. It’s one of those things that I feel great about what he’s doing with the program, and I’m just excited to get a chance to start.”As for a repeat season, Chappell said this entire season will more resemble the Homecoming upset.“I think that game last year was really the blueprint for what we need to do as a football team to win games,” he said. “You know, we didn’t turn the ball over, our defense played great, and that’s what we need to do to win. We have a football team that is going to be able to compete, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go out there every game and compete.”Patterson said the team has connected well this summer.“I think we’re all on the same page,” Patterson said. “That was one focus we had going in – get everybody to believe in the same thing.”Other media days chatter around the Big Ten included the stumbling Michigan team and its ever-changing roster.“I think you probably lose a few more players in a transition year,” Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez said. “But you don’t really worry about them, even though you wish everybody was doing all the right things and you could move forward.”Purdue coach Danny Hope talked about the Old Oaken Bucket rivalry.“We don’t like them, they don’t like us, and that’s what makes it fun,” he said of IU.
Big Ten Media Days
(07/29/09 9:30pm)
IU Director of Athletic Fred Glass answers questions from the media during Big Ten Football Media Days on Monday morning in downtown Chicago.
Big Ten Media Days
(07/29/09 9:29pm)
Mascots from around the Big Ten pose with a patron during Big Ten Football Media Days on Tuesday morning in downtown Chicago. Every school in the Big Ten has a mascot except Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.
Lynch jokes about Greeks on campus at Big Ten Media Days
(07/29/09 6:15pm)
Bill Lynch never went Greek, but he experienced sororities and fraternities throughout the spring when he visited the Greek houses around campus with a few of his players.
Kirlew makes movie
(07/29/09 4:10am)
Spring Break-Up (IU 2009)
Bill "the Tweetin'" Lynch
(07/28/09 3:12pm)
Tom Crean's latest tweet:
Illini's Zook talks about Homecoming
(07/28/09 2:49pm)
21-19. Homecoming. We win. Ben Chappell throws for an upset.
Word from around the conference
(07/28/09 3:35am)
The media asked and the coaches answered.
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