As a fan of the team that used to win the B1G reg season and was given the bye, I have always considered it to be somewhat of a disadvantage. The other teams already have their wheels up and are in playoff mode, whereas the bye team has to reorient a little. Plus, there's a day's rest between quarters/semis now. In years prior (>3?) the quarters were played on Thursday. B1G officials are meeting now to figure out what to do w/ next year's tourney, when our numbers swell to 9. BRF
Femi has shown two things this year. One, he is a very good soccer player. Two, he is not a very good forward. He'll play at the next level, but it ain't up top. Wastes way too many chances. And the good and bad Femi was on display yesterday. He's a big reason why they dominated the MF. He's also a big reason why they had 1 shot on-goal in 110 minutes.
When the ACC had 9 teams for awhile, the 8-9 teams had a play-in the day before the QFs. It was generously called the Tarantini Invitational because NC State always played in it when George Tarantini was their coach.
The humane approach is to just eliminate #9 and tell them to go get better and try again next year. Inserting the 8/9 play-in game just makes that 8/9 vs #1 game a total joke with the 8/9 teams having the short recovery turn around .
But even in that case, it'd be hard to argue that the #8/#9 game was worth having. Rutgers (#8) won it 5-1.
Yep, ACC used to be the tournament to watch with 4 games on Wednesday, 2 games on Friday and the final on Sunday. I agree with Well Duh eliminate the 8/9 game on Tuesday. Just my opinion...
The B1G final has been rescheduled for 11am owing to severe weather forecast to move in in the afternoon. The game won't be broadcast live on BTN, but can be seen delayed at the original 2pm time.
ACC - 7 years of data #8 v #9 .... 5-2 in favor of #8, cumulative score of 24-13 Winner of 8/9 vs #1.... 7-0 in favor of #1, cumulative score of 22-4
AAC - one year of data - winner 8/9 vs #1, 1-0 in favor of #8. Kind of torn if you have 9 what's the big deal adding one game. If you have more than that, I understand eliminating the teams at 8. Big East used to do 12 when then had 16 teams.
I tell my family you have to be tough to have fun. Left at 5:30am in order to celebrate the comeback - it was worth it. B1G got it right this time. We missed the really bad weather. We're driving back in incredible wind. Tornado warnings all around. Regardless, it'll be a great bus ride back for the Hoosiers. Sandon, I tip my (8 star) hat to you once more - you called it. The team played in poor conditions like it really mattered.l Wonderful comeback story for Volmer. Wonderful comeback for a team I'd counted out. Now to sweat out the NCAA draw tomorrow at noon. At least we're able able to think about Thursday. BRF (in the middle of a severe wind advisory, tornado watch, expecting arrival of a squall line later, etc)
well that was a less than ideal ending to a less than ideal season. young mr. webb had some adventures in the goal tonight, and we just couldn't get our shots on target in the first half. with a bit of luck, we could have won this game. it really could have gone either way. i was proud to see the guys come out and fight after they gave up the third goal so early in the second half. these seniors had a good four years, and we have some exciting guys coming back for next season. on to basketball season. tip off should be coming here in the next few minutes...
For this difficult season, IU should be proud of their kids not quitting. They played some good ball (as expected) once they cleaned up their defense. Though, they had too much talent not to have had a much better season. So, I can understand their disappointment. Tough draw.
Hoosiers were better on offense. Zips were better on everything else. Zips are lucky to advance. There was a 25 minute stretch in the 2nd half where Hoosiers dominated play. Tommy Thompson was the best player on the pitch. I will be surprised if the San Jose Homegrown has a Junior year, maybe not even a Sophomore year. Which of you Hoosiers attended the match? I walked past you guys at HT, trying to guess who was who. I know I would not have wanted to speak to you had we lost, so I afforded you the same courtesy.
I really thought they were gonna tie it for about or so minutes after the 2nd. They had so much pressure going, but didn't sustain any of it long term. Well, it was a fun run to get into the big dance, so I'm glad we had that.
Sounds like this game was a microcosm of Indiana's season. It wasn't always good but it was definitely memorable. This team showed some character in turning the season around. They were 5-11-1 after the Michigan State loss in the penultimate game of the regular season and we're just now talking about the season being over. That took some toughness that the returning players should be able to draw upon. Of course, this is also the worst, in terms of W-L-T team in IU history and that can't be ignored, either. Hopefully the returning players (and the coaches) learn from the mistakes that led to the 11 losses and correct them next year.
Couldn't make the game, but I think the result was fair. As Sandon mentioned, the game was a microcosm of our season. I was hoping that we could mount the same surge in defense that we did last year, but it wasn't to be. I can't believe all the chances we had that went left/right/over. Geez. As far as talking to us, fcknbflobo, we've been through this many times and this time our exit wasn't exactly untimely. We're always happy to talk - the game ends on the field. And we are still undefeated in tailgating (altho we didn't have one last night)! BRF
i think akron deserved the win. they put the ball on target. if we had hit the goal, we would have won. i didn't go either. 5 hours was too long to make the trip solo. was planning on going to marquette sunday if we won though.
A postmortem: So where do we go from here? (I can't believe we let this thread slip down to page 3.) 2013 was a disappointing season coming off the national championship in 2012. I think most of us knew it was going to be tough to replicate 2012's success with the loss of Soffner, Konstanski, and Zavaleta, but I was surprised at just how unorganized we were in the back. Soffner and Konstanski were huge. I underestimated how much they meant to that team. In the attack, we felt the loss of Zavaleta albeit to a lesser extent than the loss of leadership in the back. Zav, and Will Bruin before him, gave us a direct option that we really lacked in 2013. It took time to adjust to not having that center forward to lead the line. As a result of those departures and our inability to figure things out over the course of the season, the 2013 season became IU's worst season ever. It was our first losing season, ending the year with an 8-12-2 record. We were 2-4-0 in the B1G regular season, finishing 5th. The lone bright spot was the B1G Tournament where the hoosiers improbably won from the 5th seed. That was the first B1G Tournament championship since 2006. Winning the B1G Tournament got us into the NCAA Tournament where we lost to Akron 3-2 in the first round. Going into 2014, we lose a bigger number of players at a different part of the field. Most of the midfield are graduating in Bushue, Corrado, Kotlov, and Petts. McKain graduates also at outside back. Who else will we have to replace? Will Tommy Thompson go pro? I haven't seen any real rumors, but you know it's a possibility. Who will transfer out? Again, I have not heard rumors, but it seems that there are always players who leave. Given the number of minutes that will be available with the loss of 4 starting midfielders, perhaps fringe players who may have left will decide to stay and fight for minutes. Another question is who will be arriving? Will we get transfers in? What about incoming freshmen? Questions abound, and it will be interesting to see how the team bounces back from a down year. There are open spots all over the field with only 5 or 6 players who I would consider to be lock starters: bradford, doody, lax, femi, mares, tommy thompson. The spring season should give us a good idea of what to expect in the fall, but that's still a long way away.
Would've been unthinkable when Jerry Yeagley was around. He dominated that tourney, but in the decade since he retired, they've only won the B1G tournament twice. Of course, it's partly due to the improvement of the rest of the Big 10. IU winning two national titles in the same timeframe is nothing to sneeze at. Kind of an interesting piece on one of your incoming recruits http://www.highschoolcubenews.com/news_article/show/318236?referrer_id=596370