good to get a win vs a team thats had our number. before yesterday, akron and indiana met 8 times since 2003. the record was akron 5:2 iu, including akron 1:0 iu in the ncaat. and they'd won the last 4. i thought that was one of our better on-the-ball games of the season, in terms of technical play. ballard and panchot especially. still, we should've put more than one on the board with the number of high-quality opportunities built. what are your guys' thoughts on lillard and gutman returning/staying?
Both will play next level. Both should stay to further refine their craft. If $millions were at stake, one should jump at the first nibble. But pro soccer in US is not that, not yet.
both are fire HG players right? that organization is a dumpster fire (*rimshot*) as far as i can tell so that has to weigh on the decision. that being said, if either can get an HG contract with a financial package they're happy with, i say go for it. do we have other players who mls teams could have HG claims on? last i heard, tanner was not an HG player for anyone. it will be interesting to see where he ends up.
this is the whole argument about developing as a pro versus playing 4 months of college soccer a year and supplementing that with a pdl-type team in the spring and summer. i mentioned the fire as an organization in my last post. i don't know how they're doing with player development, but if it's an option and your goal is to be a pro player, i think you take the chance. you can always go back and play school and get your degree later. you may not get another offer to get paid to play soccer.
I do not categorically suggest that every player should always remain in school. The question is whether the player(s) in question is an odds on choice to start on any MLS team who drafts them. If answer is affirmative, then that player should make the transition immediately. If answer is anything less than an obvious affirmative, then player should further refine their craft in a good program, with daily coaching, while earning credits toward a degree. Contrary to some popular (JK) opinions, I believe that players can improve in NCAA Soccer, even with all its shortcomings and deficiencies. Lillard and Gutman, fine collegiate players, should both return to IU next year. Each has the potential to be even more than they currently are. It is a gamble either way; I just want these guys to play the best odds. Good Luck, Hoosiers!
HG is not equivalent to being drafted. The draft is a huge risk even for first round picks unless they're GA signees. HG is different. I believe it's guaranteed money.
To be fair...GA signees aren't incredibly "successful." While they get money...it's not been wildly successful with long-term success. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Adidas
As I understand it, HG is guaranteed money, however small the offer might be. What is the average $ per HG contract?
how many four year college players are "successful"? are there fewer successful GA signees than HG players or draftees overall? most new players are going to wash out. that's just a fact. what i'm saying is that if these kids can get a guaranteed contract for a few years, making money they're happy with to play a game, why not take it? most of them will wash out after a few years anyway, whether they play four years of college soccer or just two or three. get paid to do what you love while you can. you can always go back to school, and i think a lot of their contracts will pay for them to finish their degrees. i don't know. i'm only saying the guys should take the deals if they're happy with the money offered.
This one hurt. We didn't take advantage of our home field advantage. We played poorly for quite a bit of the game. Once we went down 1-0, we started to turn up the effort and tied it up, but it took too long and we squandered too many chances. BTW, we evened the score playing almost all underclassmen, many of whom played better and with more intensity than those they replaced (except that they don't feel empowered to shoot). With the exception of McConnell, our seniors once again failed to play like seniors. Suffice it to say that we have to learn to get at least some of our shots on frame. We always have these huge shot totals but very few of them are close. We also need to figure out how to cope with counterattacks. At the very least, someone has to take a yellow in order to stop them. We are very, very vulnerable and give up a lot of goals in this manner. And, thus, we go home. Happy Holidays, BRF
i too noticed that the play picked up with the likes of thomas and buckmaster playing. thomas especially brought some creativity and spark to the attack. the shots were there, but we don't have anyone who will finish them consistently. that's been the story all season. i've noticed that we tend to get shredded when moore gets caught up field. it's like lillard and mehl don't know who's going to step when frankie isn't their to shield them. maybe creviston was more of a leader and organizer and that's what was missing? it was a weird call to switch out your keeper and a senior center back in the last quarter of the season. losing some of that leadership may have been what cost us yesterday. where do we go from here? tanner is obviously the biggest loss in the attack, but fives was a solid player for us too. we have a lot of attacking and midfield talent coming back, but still no true scorer. in the back, we could look very different next year. mcconnell, creviston, and both keepers are gone. lillard may be gone too. we don't have many players with experience in the back from what i can tell, and i don't think i've seen any of the remaining keepers play for us yet. time will tell...
at least we can still smile about maryland losing their first game as the 1-seed. not a good look for the b1g, but tuck the ferps and sasho cirovski. i dont like him even a little. idk who if any will have an immediate impact, but we have some good forward recruits arriving next year in justin rennicks, griff dorsey, and mason toye. here's to another offseason of hoping one is our next bruin/zavaleta. thomas, swartz, panchot, wedderburn, gutjahr with moore, gutman, buckmaster, mehl behind them is a heavily returned team and enough to be optimistic about making noise in the postseason again, just isnt much of a scoring threat based on what we saw this season. polazallo and hyacenth got a lot of playing time too. that 11 scored 13 of our 30 goals this season. maybe glass steps up beside mehl at cb. he was rated a top 60 recruit by topdrawersoccer.
What was the reason for switching out the keeper Webb. Seemed kind of odd. Something happened in the Ohio State game or maybe something was brewing that pushed the coach to make that change.
Of more immediate concern, this is the fourth straight year the Big Ten hasn't had a team in the Final Four, the longest suck streak in 40 years. The Big Ten teams have too many resources and too much tradition so that it will always be a power conference in soccer. But it's not good for recruiting conference-wide if no one in the entire conference has played in a Final Four, at least as a member of the Big Ten.
dont agree with any of that. typical fanspeak, generalized statement in an attempt to make a seemingly sensible point but in reality lacks substance. provide proof though and i'll chow down on the crow.
2015-Stanford, Akron, Clemson, Syracuse 2014-Providence, UCLA, UMBC, Virginia 2013-Notre Dame, New Mexico, Virginia, Maryland (ACC) 2012- Indiana, Georgetown, Creighton, Maryland 2012 was the last time the Big Ten was represented in the college cup. National Champs as well.
Between 1976 and 2004, Indiana made the Final Four 17 times, meaning they missed it just 12 times in 29 years. Since 2005, the Hoosiers have made the Final Four once and missed it 11 times. For 30 years, IU made the Final Four more times than they missed it and won seven titles. It's a run that I think most of us didn't appreciate enough at the time and tended to take for granted. But it's also true that IU is a program that, with the exception of the great run in 2012, is nowhere close to the dominance the past dozen years that IU and college soccer fans have come to expect. While still a very good program, are they still an elite one, based on the past 12 seasons? My instinct, having seen them play, is to say they are. But I also think they need a couple of good tournament runs the next couple of years or else they'll start to be viewed as a former power.
i don't like the terps or sasho at all either (or juan dixon or gary williams for that matter). i was happy to see them lose, but it doesn't take any of the sting out of our loss to me. if other iu fans feel the same as you, perhaps sandon is right, and we've fallen further than i thought. has the game left us behind since jerry left, or are we not getting the most out of our resources? no team is ever going to be as dominant as iu was in the past, but there are teams who still legitimately compete almost every year. i think we are still one of the top 10-ish programs, but are we still on the tippy top tier? it doesn't seem like it. we struggle in conference against teams we should beat, and we under-achieve in the post season. ultimately, it's hard to replace a coach who won 6 national championships. what will duke basketball or alabama football look like after coach k or nick saban leave? that's where we are. at this point, i think iu is passing by on reputation to a certain extent. i do wonder if todd was the best choice when freitag left. could another coach do more with all the advantages that come with the iu brand? i don't know the answers, but i do wonder.
4 of the 8 were done in a 7 year window. That will never happen again. Two teams have won two championships in the last 10 years. Maryland and Virginia. Virginia did it without scoring a goal in the championship. Maryland won their championships before the days of homegrown signings. Maryland lost in the round of 32, Virginia in the round of 16. The days of a dominant team are over. One championship every ten years puts you in the elite category.... Much better coaching and universities investing much more in the game than in Jerry's day... The elite level player has not gotten much better (see our national teams) but the number of good players certainly has meaning every team has a chance to win any one game.
dorsey and rennicks, the two incoming forward recruits i mentioned earlier, were named all-americans: http://www.nscaa.com/web/web/News/A...th_All-Americans_and_Players_of_the_Year.aspx i was only being half-serious. of course it doesnt take sting out of the loss. just a noteworthy and preferred result. it does kinda feel like indiana soccer is gravitating toward becoming something like ucla basketball. like a parent and their kid though, we're biased and tougher on our program than others. of course, we're also spoiled by one of the greatest eras of dominance in the history of college sports, which i think affects how our fanbase reacts to our season progress in two opposing ways. sandon made the point that we dont quite appreciate and fully comprehend the sheer dominance of jerry yeagley's dynasty, which i agree with, but when you hear fans speak now about not winning the b1g regular season crown and not advancing to the college cup since 2010 and 2012 respectively, that suggests some of our fanbase still expects, because of our program's history, a contemporary form of dominance. i wrote this reply in october in another forum to some fans saying other top teams in the region have passed us and doubting our place in the top tier of college soccer: "the notre dame-indiana rivalry has met every year since 2001, and it's notable that nd won the last two matches. however, the 18 games they've played in that span is basically even at nd 9:8 iu, which includes nd 1:2 iu in the ncaa tournament. since 2004, iu's first year without jerry yeagley at the helm, the two programs' postseason success looks like this: quarterfinals-- nd 3, iu 3... college cups-- nd 1, iu 2... national championships-- nd 1, iu 2. notre dame's national championship in 2013 is also their only college cup appearance in program history. meanwhile, indiana is 28-10-2 in the all-time series record and has 18 college cups and 8 national championships. so i disagree that they've passed us in any way, and i certainly disagree with the notion some iums fans have that notre dame has suddenly made us their *****. in regard to akron and louisville, here is their postseason success since 2004: quarterfinals-- akron 4, lville 3... college cups-- akron 3, lville 1... national championships-- akron 1, lville 0. louisville and indiana have met every year except one since 1999, which is as far back as iuhoosiers.com schedules will go. the 17-game record in that span is lville 4:12 iu, which includes lville 0:1 iu in the ncaat. so louisville isnt quite on our level, but akron is definitely on our level in the 21st century. akron and indiana have met 8 times since 2003. the record is akron 5:2 iu, including akron 1:0 iu in the ncaat, and they've won the last 4. zips have our number. it's fine to argue that perhaps college soccer's most prestigious program should have a better postseason record in the last decade, that it seems like we're declining, that we're no longer elite. without doing the research, just keep in mind that as the the sport of soccer has become more and more popular in this country, college soccer has steadily become more and more competitive since the godfather's reign. lets be honest, a lot of his games were like barcelona vs indy eleven. i expect iums to contend for a b1g title and get to the ncaat every year, play one of the most brutal schedules in the country, and prove to be a tough out by avoiding letdowns and upsets in the ncaat. we've consistently done that for the most part, 2014 being the standout year we didnt. how are we defining 'elite'? because i doubt (again, without doing research) you're going to find more than a handful of programs in the country that have a better resume in the last decade. akron could be one of them. i'd bet that if you talk to college soccer experts and coaches nationwide, the general opinion would be that indiana is either still elite or on the edge of it."
i wasnt questioning the facts of where we and other big ten teams have finished in the ncaa tournament in recent years. i was questioning the validity of your claim that there's a correlation between the conference's success in the ncaat and conference-wide recruiting. also in that quote, i dont agree that the b1g has been and will always be a power conference, with its 'too many resources and too much tradition.' excluding indiana, only 3 big ten teams have ever been to a college cup (osu '07, michigan '10, psu '79). the acc and pac12 are the power conferences in college soccer. while the b1g is formidable, i dont think having a couple top-tier and a few mid-tier teams in your conference of 9 makes it a power conference. lets be honest, college sports is essentially all about football and mens basketball. i'd say those are the only two sports where there's a prevalent and prominent correlation between conference-wide recruiting and ncaat success. in the other sports, academics, weather and other campus-related factors are generally a bigger focus in recruiting.
A few facts need to be addressed here. Wisconsin won the national title in 1995. Penn State wasn't part of the Big Ten when they made the Final Four. Michigan State went to the Final Four multiple times in the 60s and won a pair of (co) national titles in 67 and 68. Prior to joining the Big Ten, Rutgers and, obviously, Maryland were Final Four teams. There are nine Big Ten men's soccer programs. Northwestern is the only that has never made the Final Four. Between 1990 and 2013, Rutgers, Indiana, Maryland, Wisconsin and Ohio State all played in the championship game. Those sports provide revenues that provide facilities and brand recognition that allow non-revenue sports from the SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and Big 12 to be dominant in the likes of track, swimming, women's hoops, baseball, softball, lacrosse, field hockey and, yes, men's and women's soccer. And in the case of some of the Big Ten teams (and Notre Dame and BC), ice hockey.
thats what i get for researching wikipedia and obscure media guides, ha! think i even forgot to check msu. doesnt change my opinion though. it's not a power conference. maryland, rutgers and psu in their non-b1g years are hardly relevant if at all when talking b1g conference history, what the b1g has done. total brainfart from me including psu pre-91. msu's titles in the 60s are like purdue basketball fans boasting their helms title in '32. the second half takes the discussion in another direction, but only aids my point about lack of correlation.
I do believe that both are Fire HGs. As a long time CF97 fan I can assure you that your assumptions of the organization are absolutely on point. Our owner doesn't have the money to compete in this league and only seems concerned with selling assets for MLS funny money (TAM/GAM) which is then used to acquire cheap, no name players from low tier leagues in eastern Europe. Our GM has an overall MLS record of 40-93-33 (shootouts converted to ties), .92 PPG with the few franchises he's run and is known to give up a lot for a little transaction-wise. He does seem to have a fantastic tailor though... Our coach has no business coaching a professional team as he's one of those guys that has no qualms starting a guy that practices well over superior talent, benched a USMNT alternate GK for a career USL level talent/MLS backup type for about half of last season and regularly played/started Harrington and Labrocca (who would never see the field on 75% of MLS clubs) all while very, very rarely playing our promising homegrown talent... That said Paunovich is a rookie professional coach so maybe he will learn from his mistakes? So naturally I really hope they make the jump and take HG contracts, as HGs and draft picks are our best bet as a club to acquire any sort of promising talent...