Sports

IU volleyball team loses 2 rivalry games over weekend

WEST LAFAYETTE – Postseason is still four games away, but the Hoosiers are now playing elimination games in the regular season. Sitting at 6-10 in the Big Ten after being swept during the weekend by rivals Purdue and Illinois, IU now needs a win in every one of its remaining matches down the stretch if the team hopes to make the NCAA tournament. Friday night featured a hard-fought 3-2 loss to No. 18 Purdue in front of a raucous, sold-out crowd – a portion of which was Hoosier fans – at the Intercollegiate Athletic Facility in West Lafayette.

It was a slight improvement

STATE COLLEGE, PENN. – Agitated Penn State fans had one reason to relax after their team’s first loss in 2008 – IU was next on their schedule. Unfortunately for the horrific Hoosiers, the conference clash was bad timing. The Nittany Lions were coming off a shocking loss to Iowa that essentially shattered their hopes of advancing to the BCS title game.

IU men's soccer edged by 1 goal, lose championship

MADISON, Wis. – This past week, Michigan State senior forward Doug DeMartin was named the Big Ten men’s soccer Player of the Year. He lived up to his billing Sunday afternoon, as his goal in the 58th minute gave his team a 1-0 advantage and, in the end, a conference championship. DeMartin’s goal was his Big Ten-leading 17th score of the season. “They have a kid that is a proven goal-scorer,” IU coach Mike Freitag said. “DeMartin has proven it all year. Sometimes the better team doesn’t win ... it is all about putting the ball in the net, and they did it and we didn’t.”

Lack of offense after break spells loss for Hoosiers

STATE COLLEGE, Penn. – It was a new week for the IU football team, but the same story as usual for a team now 3-8 in this lost season. In their penultimate game of the year, the Hoosiers lost to Penn State 34-7. With a minute left in the first half, the Hoosiers had the ball and were tied at seven with the Big Ten-leading Nittany Lions.

IU football offense struggles against stiff competition from Penn State

After hours of rain, the sun finally peeked out at Beaver Stadium, even though it had set on IU’s season long ago. Already eliminated from bowl eligibility, the Hoosiers set their sights on upsetting No. 8 Penn State, even though the program had never beat the Nittany Lions. What began as a tight game ended in yet another rout following a lethargic second-half outing. Entering the game, opponents had outscored the Hoosiers 163-68 in the second half this season. After Saturday, Penn State added 24 more second-half points, while holding the Hoosiers scoreless – it was the fifth time IU failed to score in the final two quarters of a game this year.

Comfortable win not quite so on paper

Saturday night proved more of the same in a season marked by anything but for the IU men’s basketball team. And yet, there existed plenty of possibility for an upset, if there is such a thing for the Hoosiers this year.

IU women's basketball splits first 2 games of season in WNIT

As IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack looked at the box score following her team’s WNIT second-round defeat at the hands of No. 22 Xavier, she didn’t immediately point to the Hoosiers’ 35.7 percent shooting or 66.7 percent free-throw shooting. Legette-Jack expressed disappointment in one number among many on the stat sheet – 506. The stat represented the attendance for the Hoosiers’ 62-59 defeat against the Musketeers in Assembly Hall on Sunday. “I look at my box scores, and the worst number I see is 506,” Legette-Jack said. “On a Sunday afternoon, when our young women are going all-out to compete for this great institution, for this great community, and this is no support.”

IU men's basketball beats Demons’ pressure in victory

After winning his first two exhibition games as coach at IU, Tom Crean took his Hoosiers to a victory in their regular-season debut against Northwestern State 83-65 on Saturday. In a spirited but sloppy game, the Hoosiers broke Northwestern State’s press often, leading to several free throws and open looks at the basket.      While the end result is exactly what IU wanted, the game was anything but flawless. Despite forcing 30 turnovers, the Hoosiers turned the ball over 23 times themselves. Seventeen of IU’s 25 made field goals came off assists, but the Hoosiers were out-rebounded by 11, allowing the Demons to grab 27 offensive rebounds. Crean acknowledged his undersized team needs to work on its rebounding, and that it needs to become one of the best box-out teams in the country, especially once IU plays teams with more size. “We’ve got to understand that we have to get into bodies,” Crean said. “We have to be aggressive with it.” Members of the team credited the less-than-capacity crowd for its energy. Fans in particular took exception to Northwestern State point guards Michael and Logan McConathy – sons of coach Mike McConathy.

IU's lame second half leads to Penn State rout

STATE COLLEGE, PENN. – It was a different week for the IU football team, but it was the same story as had been reported after seven of their 10 games this season.

Men's soccer takes Big Ten Tourney 1st round match

2 ranked teams on tap as volleyball looks to get back on track in conference play

Crean excited about ’09 recruiting class’ depth

Runners look ahead to Nationals

Women's basketball hosts 1st round of preseason WNIT Friday

Different day, different Hoosier star

What I know and what I think

Football wracked with injuries ahead of Penn State clash

Last week, both the IU and Penn State football teams had dreams dashed. IU lost its seventh game of the season, making it impossible for them to go to a bowl, while Penn State had its undefeated season busted, likely knocking the team  out of contention for the national championship.

Alvarez: Greenspan good for IU football

When Rick Greenspan cleans out his Assembly Hall office at the end of December, he’ll leave four emotional years and plenty of memories – good and bad – behind him. He’s saddened by the loss of his colleague and friend, former IU football coach Terry Hoeppner, to cancer. He’s frustrated by the IU football team’s regression in 2008, a season many expected to end with a second-straight bowl appearance. Most of all, Greenspan regrets that he won’t be a Hoosier when that program prospers and reclaims Big Ten relevancy. But he’ll also leave the foundation upon which that program must be built, something many fans have overlooked. Inundated with criticism mainly attributed to the sanctions levied on former IU men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, Greenspan announced his resignation June 26, effective at the end of the calendar year. Even with the cloud hovering over IU athletics, Greenspan’s decision to resign shocked many co-workers. “I didn’t think Rick was going to step down, and neither did a lot of us,” Mark Deal, associate director of football operations, said. “To say Rick Greenspan’s legacy is the whole Kelvin Sampson saga is about one-hundredth of all the good things he’s done here.”When Greenspan stepped foot on the Bloomington campus in 2004, he faced a struggling athletics department welcoming its third leader since 2001.Prior to his arrival, the IU football team wasn’t the primary focus of the department, despite being the top revenue-generating sport at most schools. The program was also in the midst of a lengthy postseason drought.

Internally, Hoosiers are sound

Emblazoned on a white banner, black letters proclaimed something a growing chunk of Bloomington felt. “Fire Bill Lynch.”

Crean era begins Saturday against Northwestern State

For the past seven months, Tom Crean’s life has been as frantic and high-paced as the “William Tell” overture.