Sports

Disappointing season marred by inconsistency, injury, comes to close

WEST LAFAYETTE – No player, no game plan, not even a little prayer to the football gods could reverse the 180-degree turn IU football has taken in the past 12 months. At Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday, that sentiment was as evident as any of the other low points this season. SLIDESHOW: IU at Purdue

Tourney Time

Born in St. Louis and having played soccer for St. Louis University High School, IU defender Tommy Meyer knows what to expect in his first NCAA tournament game more than most freshmen typically would. “Luis (Soffner), Chris (Haffner) and I were all recruited by St. Louis University,” Meyer said. “There is one kid from my club team that is on SLU and a bunch of older kids on that team that are on SLU too, so I know most of them. Ever since coming here I looked forward to playing St. Louis because it has always been such a big game. I’m not really nervous yet, but we’ll see.” Seeded No. 6 in the tournament, the Hoosiers (12-6-3) will face the Billikens (12-4-5) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bill Armstrong Stadium. The matchup against St. Louis is especially intriguing for a couple of reasons. For one, IU coach Mike Freitag and five players hail from the Gateway City. In addition, the Hoosiers have competed against the Billikens 30 times, posting a 17-9-4 advantage. SLU senior midfielder Kyle Patterson, a MAC Hermann Trophy candidate for the nation’s top college soccer player, is the best offensive threat for the Billikens. He leads the team with 29 points on the season, including five game-winning goals. Another player the Hoosiers will need to focus on is SLU senior defender Calum Angus, who returned for the final 12 games after being injured earlier in the season. Last year, Angus was named second-team All-America by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and the Atlantic-10 Defensive Player of the Year.

Senior weekend triumphs keep IU volleyball's NCAA dreams alive

The 2004-06 seasons saw five combined Big Ten wins for the IU volleyball team. The 2007 season saw an improvement with six Big Ten wins. Now in 2008, in IU coach Sherry Dunbar’s second year, IU sits at eight wins and in NCAA Tournament contention with a week to go in the season. Thanks to two huge 3-1 victories on senior weekend against Wisconsin and Northwestern, IU sits at 8-10 in the Big Ten and possibly in the driver’s seat for a berth to postseason play.

IU women's basketball team stumbles in the preseason WNIT

A tale of two halves is the best way to describe the IU women’s basketball team’s 65-59 loss Saturday night against Middle Tennessee State. Despite out-shooting the Blue Raiders from the floor 52.1 percent to 37.5 percent and going on a 19-0 run in the first half to gain a 30-10 margin at one point, the Hoosiers (1-2) were not able to hold their 36-22 halftime lead. In the second half, the Hoosiers were out-scored 43-23 and only shot 37.5 percent from the floor, which contributed to the disappointing six-point loss.

IU men's swimming posts strong weekend showing at home Hoosierland Invitational

The IU men’s swimming and diving team hosted six other teams for the Hoosierland Invitational this weekend at the Councilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center. IU welcomed the swimming teams of Cincinnati, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Truman State, while the diving team hosted Cincinnati, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Wright State and IU-Purdue University Indianapolis. Several Hoosiers posted personal bests and made NCAA B Cuts.

Story doesn’t end for IU football yet

Even Hollywood’s award-winning writers could not have scripted a better ending to Purdue coach Joe Tiller’s career. For a guy who has spent 12 seasons pouring his heart and soul into a seesawing program, it was fitting his finale was a drubbing of IU. The 2008 Old Oaken Bucket game was so pain-free Saturday it was over in the first quarter. Somehow, some way, the Boilermakers scored on every offensive drive until late in the fourth as if they were trouncing on a peewee team.

Learning with a lei on

Even a little rain can’t damper the feeling that Maui’s got to be a great place to spend Thanksgiving. So it wasn’t what the pilgrims had in mind – you can’t sleep on highs above 80 and beaches within spitting distance. You also can’t spit in the face of the competition the Hoosiers will ween themselves against this holiday week. Tom Crean’s team is going to have to learn itself against some of the toughest teams it will face all year, and yes, they will likely get beaten up in the process. But Crean has said so often you can’t say “no” to Maui, and it’s true. The tournament-level experience gained from flying halfway around the world to play three games in three days against three quality opponents can’t be duplicated.

Dumes beats Notre Dame’s Harangody ... in video games

KA’ANAPALI, Hawaii – On paper, it might look like a mismatch, but junior guard Devan Dumes was dominating Notre Dame standout Luke Harangody.Each basket Dumes scored seemed to humble the 6-foot-8, 255-pound All-American more and more. By the time the final horn sounded, the Hoosiers had already begun celebrating. IU pulled off the huge upset with ease, coasting to a 33-20 victory.The win didn’t come in the first round of the EA Sports Maui Invitational, but instead the Xbox 360 Players’ Party hosted by the Maui Sheraton on Saturday night. Click here for a photo slideshow from the event in Maui All eight teams playing in the preseason tournament gathered in the ballroom to play EA Sports’ March Madness ’09 against one another. Two players participated in the tournament from each team, with North Carolina’s Mike Copeland beating out teammate Ty Lawson in the final to win the tourney championship.

IU suffers worst loss to Purdue in more than a century

With more than nine seconds remaining the game, IU made its first defensive stop of the day. In the 84th annual battle for the Old Oaken Bucket, IU was dominated in every facet of football en route to a 62-10 pounding. The Hoosiers managed just 214 total yards as their defense let up 596.

At stake: pride

This year’s 84th annual battle for the Old Oaken Bucket won’t feature any bowl-bound teams. Instead, pride will be the only thing at stake for IU (3-8, 1-6), something that is just fine with IU coach Bill Lynch. “Any time you have a rivalry game like this the last week of the season, no matter what has gone on before it, it’s a big football game,” the second-year coach said during his weekly press conference.

No longer winless: Club hockey looks for more conference ‘Ws’

Men's swimming hosts Hoosierland Invite

‘Heavy load’ awaits home squad in multi-team meet

Women's basketball looks to rebound from loss

Volleyball preps for big matches

IU-Purdue rivalry more than just a game

Coming to the end

One year ago, senior Austin Starr was Bloomington’s hero. Back then, Hoosiers everywhere rejoiced when the then-junior sent a 49-yard field goal through the uprights in the season’s penultimate moment. His celebrated kick sent the Hoosiers to their first bowl berth since 1993 and seemingly revitalized the program. But now, in a downtrodden year marked by disappointment, Starr and his team have sunk back to the bottom of the Big Ten. But they’ll get one last shot at redemption Saturday. “It is kind of surreal, but it hasn’t gone too fast,” Starr said, reflecting on his upcoming final game. “I’ve been taking it in.” Injuries and inconsistencies have plagued the 2008 Hoosiers, and Starr is no exception. A nagging hip injury prohibited him from putting up the same performance throughout his senior campaign that he displayed as a junior. A year ago, Starr kicked 21-of-23 field goals, hit all 48 extra points and, at one point, nailed 15 field goals in a row.

Manning finds his groove as season hits midpoint

INDIANAPOLIS – Peyton Manning watches the last three games and sees progress. Not perfection, but at least he and the Colts are beginning to play like their old selves. Manning is throwing more touchdowns, fewer interceptions, avoiding sacks and winning games with his masterful play-calling. He’s spreading the ball around, opening up running lanes with passes and, yes, he’s finally in sync with the receivers. Memo to the NFL: Manning is back. “The way they’ve played the last three weeks, it looks like Indianapolis to me,” San Diego coach Norv Turner said Wednesday. “To do what they did against Pittsburgh, I was awfully impressed with that.” The Colts’ recent turnabout has forced critics, who not long ago were immersed in finding faults, to reassess their viewpoints. Suddenly, Manning is playing like a two-time league MVP and his team has taken the cue.

Bowl slate might be tapped

NEW YORK – After years of relentless expansion, college football’s nearly monthlong holiday party – the bowl season – finally seems to have maxed out. Those involved in the bowl business say that, with the national economy flailing, events which are as much about tourism and corporate sponsorship as football now are staring at a set of challenges that will level off the number of second-tier bowls, if not reduce them. There are a lot of second-tier bowls to choose from. “We’re talking about disposable income, and that’s drying up as fast as water in the desert,” said Paul Hoolahan, chairman of the Football Bowl Association and CEO of the Sugar Bowl. The bowl roster now stands at 34, giving 68 teams the opportunity to play a nationally televised game and be pampered by the host community. That’s more than half of the 119 schools playing college football at its highest level. The NCAA has been liberally licensing new bowls in recent years. Since 2002, 11 new bowl games have been established, while only three have closed up shop. Two games will debut this season, the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C., and the St. Petersburg Bowl in central Florida.

NFL drops the ball

The NFL has dropped the ball this season more times than Colts receivers did in their first quarter last week. This NFL season has been in shambles and none of it has to do with the players. Fines have turned the game soft, officials have made wrong calls and Vegas is suffering because of it all. This past Sunday, the second big officiating botch of the season (the first being Ed Hochuli’s forward pass mistake in Week 2) caused hundreds of thousands of dollars to change hands.