Defend The Rock At Northwestern

Tonight Defend The Rock will be making an appearance at Northwestern University. After watching the Hoosiers lose three of their past four games Defend The Rock has decided to make an appearance at tonight's game in order to help IU get a much needed road victory. As you all know Indiana has been awful on the road this year, and the fact is IU has lost their last two games in Evanston.

A Game I'd Rather Not Have To Play

So IU (18-8/8-5) heads to East Lansing tonight to take on Michigan St. (20-8/7-6) tonight in what hopefully should be a pretty good battle. The Spartans are coming off a big win over Wisconsin and with a win can cause quite a mess in the Big Ten standings, as we've already seen some shuffling of places go on this weekend with Illinois moving into 3rd place with their win over Penn St.

Now for a nice little table courtesy of IUHoosiers.com:

Jan. 31, 2004 L, 84-72 East Lansing
Feb. 27, 2005 W, 78-74 (ot) Bloomington
Jan. 11, 2006 L, 87-73 East Lansing
Feb. 26, 2006 W, 78-71 Bloomington
Jan. 7, 2007 W, 73-51 Bloomington

That's the last five meetings between Indiana and Michigan St., the outcome, and the location. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the home team has won each time out, so the trouncing that the Hoosiers gave the Spartans earlier this year doesn't mean all that much.

All I ask is the IU holds onto the ball and doesn't commit the plethora of fouls we've been seeing of late. If they do that, we'll have a game.

Play Ball! Hoosiers Open Baseball Season!

Ahh, can you smell it? Baseball season! Yesterday not only did I buy my Cards/Cubs tickets but the Hoosiers officially opened the 2007 College Baseball season.

Down in Dothan, Alabama the Hoosiers took on the Troy Trojans, and well...lost. That may not come as a surprise to many of us who have come to know IU baseball of late, but there are some encouraging signs. First off, the Hoosiers limited the Trojans to only 4 runs which is microscopic for Indiana baseball teams of late, and pretty damn good in general considering how college ball is focused on offense due to that damn metal bat. While unable to watch the game, I do wonder how lucky the Hoosier pitchers were in this game, considering they gave up 11 hits, 4 walks (only 1 strikeout), all while the defense committed 3 errors.

Indiana's Mr. Baseball Josh Phegley had a quiet Hoosier debut, going 0-4 with a strikeout but apparently took part in a pretty nifty double play. On the whole it looks like the offense struggled a bit with only six hits, but with only 5 k's and a couple walks at least the boys are making contact.

We have a full season of IU Baseball coming up and I'm looking forward to covering this team. From reading offseason articles about all our new players, I like the direction this program is going. Go Hoosiers!

IU Football Signees in Moving Picture Form!

So this is a brilliant idea and kudos to the person who decided to implement it. On their official sports page, Indiana University has put up a compilation video of all 19 players who have signed onto IU Football for next season. It's not often you get to see HS players on TV during the year, so this is a great opportunity for all of us Hoosier fans to see who is going to be playing for us next year. Sure it's basically a highlight reel of each player's HS career so it may not be the best talent indicator but nevertheless a great resource for us fans.

Click here for the page containing the article and video.

Back In The Game

So we've had a week or so off from posting here at Defend The Rock and it's time to get back in the game. Hopefully, after two bad losses at Purdue and Michigan the Hoosiers can get back in the game as well. Rather than dwell on those two losses that occurred during our blogging break - we'll look ahead - seeing as Defend The Rock has always a forward thinking blog.

So tonight IU plays Minnesota at home (we're in the midst of a 4 out of 5 away game stretch so it'll be nice to have homecourt for once) which is good news as the Hoosiers are undefeated in Assembly Hall. The Golden Gophers come in being just dreadful (9-18/3-10) and have lost five straight. The question is this: Will Minnesota be discouraged and run down by their awful season performance and just roll over, or will they look at IU's last two losses and say, "Hey, we have a shot!"?

Let's see a win tonight boys....

Indiana - Purdue - For Real

Well, tonight - after a one evening delay- our beloved #24(AP)/#19(ESPN/USA Today Poll) Hoosiers will take on the in West Lafayette.

Over at The Goat there was a post and subsequent discussion of the IU-Purdue rivalry, the coaches, and allegiances. I'll chime in here rather than cluttering up their comment section.

IU: I liked Mike Davis and wasn't one of the fans running him out of town. At the same time, it really appeared that things just wern't going to work out no matter what, so I basically was glad to see him go. Moreso because he could (hopefully) move on to some school where people actually appreciated him. I haven't followed his career @ UAB or the reaction to him, but I hope it's positive. As for Sampson, I knew little of him other than the whole "defense first" bit and the fact that he was a coach that got teams to the tourney with regularity but never really sparkled once there. I've loved what I've seen of him this year coaching wise and I'm looking forward to having him for years to come.

Purdue: So I never really had an opinon of Matt Painter formed in my head until the last time IU & Purdue met. He seemed like a mini Bruce Weber - having hissy fits, stomping around, yelling, looking and acting like a little child. Maybe (hopefully) tonight he'll be a bit more professional. And yes, I'll acknowledge that Earl fired Painter up a bit last go around with some comments but still Coach, get your act together....please?

As for the rivalry itself I have never had a hatred for Purdue and probably never will. I was an Indiana transplant from Missouri. I found myself in this heated rivalry, and while I clearly took sides - IU - and continue to be passionate about it, I just don't get that worked up over Purdue. Sure when the two teams play eachother I put a bit more emphasis on the game than were IU to play Northwestern, but it's never been a HUGE thing for me. As long as the rivalry is healthy, I'm happy, I just don't want to see one team always crushing the other - but hey, an IU victory each time out against Purdue - I'm all for it.

Go Hoosiers! (and not the one's playing for Purdue!)

Indiana-Purdue Postponed

Today's Indiana -Purdue game has be postponed and rescheduled for tomorrow, Thursday February 15th assuming the weather allows it. We already got pummelled in Chicago, and it looks like the storm has moved on past the Midwest and to the east coast, so we should see these two teams duking it out on the court tomorrow.

So much for my opportunity to work in a "Valentine's Day Massacre" pun into a game post. Maybe next year.