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Ben Chappell
2008-03-26 03:54:00
So as we here at Defend The Rock have discussed often, we were the first Kellen Lewis fans. At any given IU game it would be us yelling "Put in the freshmen," and we started the original Kellen Lewis facebook group, "You Tell 'em Kellen, #15 For Quarterback." Needless to say with his ascension, and subsequent success we were thrilled. And needless to say, with his indefinite suspension we were extremely disappointed and disenchanted.So now as all of you know, Sophomore Ben Chappell will be starting for the Hoosiers in their new look no-huddle offense. As you may recall, Ben Chappell received the brunt of our ire last season when we attended the Northwestern game and he saw fit to throw an interception in his only play of the game, the play which in turn cost us the game.I'll be honest, I don't like Ben Chappell, I don't trust Ben Chappell, but this Hoosier fan will be rooting for him to take command of this team and put up some victories. This is very similar to my innate ...

Basketball Leaders
2008-03-26 03:45:00
So there will a complete write up on the Indiana Men's Basketball season up within the next few days. For now there is this list of team leaders in all sorts of tasty stat categories:Games Played-- D.J. White and Lance Stemler (33)Starts-- D.J. White (33)Minutes Played-- Eric Gordon (1110)Minutes Average-- Eric Gordon (34.7)Field Goals-- D.J. White (216)Field Goals Attempted-- Eric Gordon (425)Field Goal Percentage-- D.J. White (60.5%)Three-Point Field Goals-- Eric Gordon (70)Three-Point Field Goals Attempted-- Eric Gordon (208)Three-Point Field Goal Percentage-- Armon Bassett (45.4%)Free Throws-- Eric Gordon (231)Free Throws Attempted-- Eric Gordon (277)Free Throw Percentage-- Armon Bassett (83.9)Rebounds-- D.J. White (341-10.3 average)Assists-- Jamarcus Ellis (108-3.38 average)Blocks-- D.J. White (54-1.64 average)Steals-- Jamarcus Ellis (47, 1.47 average) Points-- Eric Gordon (669, 20.9 average)
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Hoosiers Grab Plenty of Awards & Honors
2008-03-10 23:51:00
The only awards and honors that truly matter (those bestowed upon players by Defend The Rock) have yet to be released, but in the meantime plenty of other awards and honors have been handed out to a bunch of IU Basketball players.Rivals.Com Big 10 Awards :D.J. White - 1st Team, Player of the YearEric Gordon - 1st Team, Freshmen Team, Freshmen of the YearJamarcus Ellis - 2nd Team Sports Illustrated All-Americans:D.J. White - 2nd TeamEric Gordon -  2nd TeamOfficial Big 10 Conference Awards:D.J. White - Big 10 Player of the Year (Coaches), Top Performer (Media), 1st Team All Big 10Eric Gordon - Big 10 Freshmen of the Year (Coaches & Media), 1st Team All Big 10 Armon Bassett - 3rd Team All Big 10Jamarcus Ellis - Honorable Mention (media)Adam Ahlfeld - Hoosier recipient of League Sportsmanship Award
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The Sunday Wrap
2008-03-10 01:03:00
I wanted to wait for the Hoosier baseball squad to get a few games out of the way before reporting on them, and with eight under their belt, it seems like now is a good time to start.The Hoosiers are currently sitting on a record of 3-5 with plenty of baseball left before conference play begins. Starting off season with three away games against LSU was obviously not the best way for the season to begin, but we managed to take the last game of the series, 7-6 with help from Defend The Rock favorites Evan Crawford (3 hits), and Kyle Leiendecker (3IP, 0ER, 3 K's)Player Highlights:So far former Indiana Mr. Baseball Josh Phegley is showing off all the tools and skills he was touted as having, but which he kept hidden during his Freshmen season. The Sophomore is hitting at an INSANE .485/.526/.697 (AVG/OBP/SLG) clip with 2 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, and 9 RBI. Andrew Means continues to put up great numbers, after a solid season last year, with a combined line of .366/.381/.463, while being 3 for ...
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Opening Day!
2008-02-22 17:19:00
Today is opening day for College Baseball.  The Hoosiers have been taking good steps the past few years under Tracy Smith to become a competitive team, and eventually nab an appearance in the College World Series.  It is great that Indiana has decided to broadcast ALL of their games for free online (audio online), check out the page here.Last year before the season I picked Evan Crawford as a Freshmen to watch, and he ended up shining in his first year of college ball.  With a solid Sophomore season he could begin to put himself on the map as prospect for the majors.   So without further ado, this years pick to watch:Kyle Leindecker (LHP).  So this is an easy one.  As opposed to last season where we didn't have any truly projectable players coming in, Kyle Leindecker has all the makings of a pitcher who will make an impact his freshmen year.  Drafted by the Indians in the 25th round, he opted to go to school in his home state instead, and hope to boost his draft status over ...
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Kyle Taber - A Hero Obscured By Tragedy or Come On Folks, Kyle Taber Is Pla
2008-02-21 18:04:00
An unfortunate consequence of Kelvin Sampson's recruiting violations is the fact that Kyle Taber, all 6'7", 228lbs of him is getting lost in the mayhem.It's not that he is a superstar possessing NBA potential, it's that this largely forgotten player sidelined by injuries his freshmen year has come on over the past few weeks to play an important role on this team. I went about gathering stats on his performance but have opted not to include them, as honestly, they don't do him justice, as they are fairly paltry due to his limited playing time (although I did tinker with extrapolating his stats/playing time for the equivalent playing time of White/Gordon/Ellis and he came out 3rd on the team in rebounds!).Normally I am NOT one to speak a lot about intangibles, I like looking at statistics to evaluate players, but from watching Taber the last few games it's clear he is making his time on the floor count. It's not that he is scoring tons of points, getting every rebound, or blo...
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Iu vs Wisconsin
2008-02-14 18:15:00
Surrounded in a cloud of haziness, and uhhhhhh lies, IU tried to defend assembly hall last night and failed. The zone defense was useless and as soon as we came out of it, we took a pretty commanding lead. For some reason we felt the necessity to head back to the zone in the second half, even though they were lights out from 3 point land all game.A heart wrenching loss which caps off an atrocious day (week) in IU Sports.Now onto what everyone is talking about.I was writing an email to my fellow DefendTheRock-ers about how frustrating all of this is to sit back and watch. Is this worse than the Mike Davis stuff? We are winning now right (well not against anyone with an RPI higher than 32)? We are winning but are we now the team that could start playing well and winning, but have an asterisk next to our name at the end of the season?Really we can't do anything about it either, that's the hardest part. Fans everywhere are commenting on blogs or polls and saying Sampson and Gree...
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A.J. Ratliff
2008-02-14 18:11:00
I just want to mention that I wish him the best. I will always love this:enjoy!

Time For Sampson and Greenspan To Go
2008-02-14 09:02:00
By now I am sure all of you have read and seen the reports on the latest round of recruiting violations by Coach Sampson and his staff. You can look back on this blog (just search "Sampson" ) and you will see me singing this man's praises. It's true that I didn't want to see Mike Davis go, but I welcomed Sampson with open arms, despite the violations he had at Oklahoma, and the repercussions they meant for Indiana basketball.I do not believe Coach Sampson is a stupid man, and that just means that he is arrogant and foolhardy. I can't imagine why a coach at a Big Ten school, with such a rich basketball tradition as IU would go back to his illicit recruiting methods that he used at his prior job after already being caught.As for Greenspan , he was responsible for brining in a coach that he knew violated league rules once before, so one would figure he would keep Sampson on an extra short leash, making sure he didn't repeat his previous violations and cause further harm to the I...
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A.J Ratliff Is No Longer An IU Basketball Player or A.J. Ratliff Was Still
2008-02-12 20:47:00
As reported by the Indiana Daily Student, A.J. Ratliff is as of now, no longer on the IU Basketball roster. As IU fans have probably noticed, Ratliff has been noticeably absent from the team this year. Between injuries (which have nagged him his entire IU career), academic ineligiblity, and "personal issues," Ratliff has been deprived of playing time this year.Ratliff had an impact in his Freshmen year, leading the team in 3-Point Percentage, and playing in 26 of the team's games, but never seemed to explode like it seemed like he was always set to do. His best year was last year, when he averaged 9.3 points a game, and scored himself an Adam Ahlfeld Team Player Award due to his strong performance against Purdue.As with any Hooiser who carries a good attitude and plays hard, I'm sorry to see him go. Luckily this team has plenty of guards, and his performance, or lack thereof this year, will not be sorely missed.

Football is making headlines again!
2008-02-12 16:42:00
Not even a week after our #11 in the Big Ten Recruiting Class was announced, 5 IU Football Players have been arrested.James Bailey and Demetrius McCray were both arrested for disorderly conduct after failing to turn down their music on Sunday. They were both taken to Monroe County Jail that evening after the police verified they had been issued warnings previously.The others arrested were Jarrell Drane (Illegal Consumption), Ian Reeves (Illegal Consumption), Darius Johnson (resisting law enforcement, illegal consumption, public intoxication).This is disappointing news. Especially that of Ja Bailey to me. I know we have seen him sit out a game for an unspecified violation of a team rule, but I hoped as he came into his senior year that he would start acting like the leader that he needs to be. He has to be our BMOC this year. He can be a fan favorite like J-Hard was, and I would love to see that happen. I would hate to see him keep getting caught up in all of this off the field ...
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Q&A
2008-02-11 03:32:00
We here at Defend The Rock use multiple SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in order say atop the search engine rankings. Naturally the best "tool" is good, and constant writing, and I'd like to think that for the most part, we do a good job of it. One of my favorite features of one of our SEO tools is a "latest questions" section of a visitor tracking service. It lists the questions visitors of our site have typed into various search engines, that resulted in them visiting Defend The Rock. Sometimes we have the answers already up on the blog, sometimes we don't. For the times that we don't I would like to announce Defend The Rock: Q&A. So here are a few questions from the past week, with their respective answers (we do not insert the question marks, questions listed exactly as shown to us by our SEO tool):Q: "i missed last nights indiana vs illinois game?"A: I guess so? I mean, you are asking if you did, which seems to suggest that you're not certain that you saw it. S...

In Defense of My Fellow Bloggers or Wow, We Actually Had At Least One Reade
2008-02-09 23:05:00
Upon hearing the news of Bobby Knight stepping down, one of my friends and fellow bloggers here at Defend The Rock made a post which both reflected how many IU fans felt, and also reflected the exact opposite way many IU fans felt. I arrived at IU, from another state, after Knight had already left. I really have no emotional connection with him and what he did while at IU, so I cannot really get fired up about this issue.What I do have to say is this: Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I would like to hear them all, preferably through comments on the specific blog posts in order to foster some form of community, or at least start a conversation on here.A very passionate IU fan (who failed to properly grammar check his subject line) sent in an email in response to the post cited above. Below is the email we received (I have not included his name or email address, although sir, I suggest in the future you use an anonymous email address to send vitriolic emails as a sim...
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James Hardy NFL Draft Prediction or The One Where I Pretend To Have Knowled
2008-02-09 22:33:00
This year's NFL draft kicks off on my Birthday (April 26th) and will lead well into the 27th where I will be passed out on a couple or floor, surely having been unable to make it to my bed from the night before. The Hoosier's very own WR James Hardy will be looking to be drafted over the course of those two days, and now I'm going to tell him where his going to end up.I have no inside information, and I haven't been reading any draft previews. These predictions (I am choosing the 3 most likely teams) have manifested themselves through trusting my gut, poor logic/reasoning, and a and a random non-story about the Steelers I heard months ago. Without further ado, here is where you're likely to end up James:1. Pittsburgh Steelers: This offseason Ben Roethlisberger expressed his desire for a tall receiver. Well, guess who just happens to be a 6'7 tall receiver? James Hardy. Throw in the fact that James Hardy played for the Coach who made Big Ben into who is today, and you'v...
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Indiana @ Illinois - A Great Game?
2008-02-08 08:15:00
Before I get to the Indiana @ Illinois game I'd like to make a brief comment on posting. Just as I resurrected Defend The Rock from it's hiatus I entered Graduate School. While at first I was posting frequently, I have noticed that both my post count, and quality has gone down drastically of late. I am hoping that as I get back into the groove of being in school I will be able to better manage my time, and thus make more frequent, and substantive posts. In the meantime, I'd like to thank my fellow Defend The Rockers who have been picking up the slack for me of late.---Tonight after class TITTLE500 and myself watched the game. I DVR'd it as I would not have been able to make tipoff. We isolated ourselves from the internet and ignored various calls and texts that might've clued us into the outcome of the game. I had a conversation with a classmate about the game that went something like this:Her: Good luck, I hope Indiana wins tonight, what do you think their chances are?M...
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Signing Day
2008-02-06 15:58:00
Head over to IUHoosiers.com to see what is going on with signing day today. As of right now 14 players have sent in their written commitment to Bill Lynch's Hoosiers. Be sure to check out the videos also, I know what I will be doing for most of my work day.I mean I guess really they are all a bunch of 2 or 3 star prospects, but I am liking that we are getting a lot of guys from outside of Indiana. Always love learning the new names and faces, looking forward to seeing what happens with the future of Indiana Football!Have fun following the recruits today! Here is hoping we don't finish last this year in Big Ten recruiting.
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Bob Knight
2008-02-05 17:21:00
Good fucking riddance.News regarding other past IU coaches: Mike Davis is sitting at 15-6 with the Blazers. Tied for 2nd place in C-USA. He doesn't appear to be walking out on a team that is on the bubble and has a couple shots at bringing down Memphis (maybe not realistic shots, but shots) before the season is over. Also Robert Vaden is having an outstanding year down there avevraging almost 21 ppg.Now let's get ready for Thursday!*the thoughts in this post may not reflect the other posters on defendtherock.blogspot.com
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Kyle Taber
2008-02-03 18:40:00
Kyle Taber is receiving regular rotation minutes in the game against Northwestern today.I'm listening to the game on WIUX online radio so its hard to get a good feel for minutes, but he seems to be getting more than Mike White or Fatty McMissLayups (DeAndre Thomas).Why did we unredshirt Mike White again? The Hoosiers are shooting terribly, minus DJ and EG of course.Also, there's a rumor floating around that DeAndre Thomas used to be skinny. Here's photographic proof.Now:In 2002:Also, as you might be noticing, DeAndre used to wear #1.
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Football Schedule
2008-02-02 18:20:00
Here is the 2008 football schedule for our Hoosiers (home games in bold). I have to be honest and say that I have a hard time envisioning us doing any better than we did this past season, if even matching our win total. Granted we should be able to beat Northwestern this time around (as long as you know who doesn't come in for one play).8/30 Western Kentucky 9/6 Murray State 9/20 Ball State 9/27 Michigan State 10/4 at Minnesota10/11 Iowa 10/18 at Illinois10/25 Northwestern (Homecoming) 11/1 Central Michigan 11/8 Wisconsin 11/15 at Penn State11/22 at Purdue
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Censorship and lousy Basketball
2008-02-01 17:30:00
Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!Just playing. Swear if you want. Sometimes the refs deserve it, but the other teams probably don't. And maybe it does sound stupid or make us look bad...Last night was disappointing, and this morning is even worse. As I sit here at work, un-showered and feeling like I reek of Budlight and wings, I am trying to pull from my brain some of the animosity I had for Eric Gordon last night. I remember going on long rants about the freshman, which in turn caused me to miss many a trivia question (damnit EJ!), but now it's all gone. I've got nothing. So I will just say this...Fuck Eric Gordon. Okay I am over it. I bet you will continue to wow me starting sunday against Northwestern. If you can't drop 20+ points on those Wildcats, I think it might jog my memory a bit.In non Eric Gordon news, 8 games at the Rock this coming football season. Can't wait!
More About: Basketball , Censorship

Baseball - There's Hope
2008-01-28 19:53:00
So some of you may be aware but I devoted a TON of time last season to covering the IU Baseball Squad. No one else covered them all that much, so I thought I was filling a void, but it seems not too many people were all that interested. Well, just when my resolve was fading to cover them this season, I asked BP Prospect Guru Bryan Smith "Whatever should a IU Baseball Blogger Do?" And his response tells me that not only should I keep blogging, but maybe people will actually start taking a look at IU baseball.Kellen (Indiana): I (wasted?) an entire summer blogging about and analyzing the Hoosier baseball squad. Any reason for me to cover these guys again, or just more obscurity? Would love to see my boy Evan Crawford get some attention.Bryan Smith: No, you should continue to cover them, Tracy Smith is doing some good things with that program. They have a good freshman left-hander coming in named Kyle Leiendecker, and I think their sophomore catcher Josh Phegley is going to have an ...
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Happy Birthday Kellen! And Fuck Off Big Ten Network!
2008-01-25 19:42:00
Today is Kellen Lewis' 21st Birthday . We'd like to give him a hearty Defend The Rock Happy Birthday! Go out, have a beer (I'm sure you're excited and intrigued to try alcohol for the first time as certainly IU's and Bloomington's no-drinking for minors policies are 100% effective), have some fun, and then get prepping for next year! ---In other news:The latest comment spam from the Big 10 Network on here (see the post below this one) really pissed me off. I find it hard to support EITHER or Comcast or The Big Ten Network in their ongoing feud, but shit like this makes an already bad image worse (and let's not forget the "Big Ten Network Spinners" that "performed" at the IU @ Northwestern game last year, ugh, thought I have erased that from my memory).One of these days I'll put up a longer post on this topic but currently I am burdened with too many other obligations to successfully channel my fury.
More About: Fuck Off , Happy Birthday

IU vs Iowa
2008-01-23 21:19:00
Indiana vs. Iowa Let's go Hoosiers!

NFL Hoosiers
2008-01-23 18:09:00
Well with the college football season over, and the NFL season winding down, I wanted to give a shout out to all of those Hoosiers that played (or DNP) this season in the National Football League.Let's start with the NFC Hoosiers:Adewale Oguleye - DE for the Chicago Bears ended the season with 58 tackles, 9 sacks and 6 forced fumbles.Victor Adeyanju - This second year Rams Defensive End had 29 tackles this season.Antwaan Randle El - Antwaan had 51 receptions this season (his second for the Redskins) and 728 yards with 1 touchdown. He had an impressive game against the Seahawks in the NFC Wildcard game, bringing in 10 catches for 94 yards and a touchdown as the Redskins fell short of Seattle 14-35.Now on to the AFC Hoosiers:Gibran Hamdan - Buffalo Bills QB - DNPIsaac Sowells - Cleveland Browns G - DNPCourtney Roby - Cincinnati Bengals WR - DNPHerana-Daze Jones - Cincinnati Bengals DB played in 9 games this season and had 18 tackles, 15 of which were solo tackles. He is now on inju...

Liveblogging Illinois @ Indiana 1/13/08
2008-01-13 22:14:00
In honor of our triumphant return to the blogosphere I shall be liveblogging today's game versus Illinois . What will we see? Eric Gordon spitting in the faces of visiting Illinois fans - acting out physically what he did to them symbolically by brushing them off to go to IU? DeAndre Thomas taking off on a fast break culminating in an alley oop to himself? Only time will tell, and if you're unable to watch the game, all the highlights and lowlights will be here (unless I'm predisposed by letting my body try to digest the poison what was the Chinese food I just ate).So without further ado, here we go! (And be sure to check out the debut posting by our latest poster, HARDYPARTY, below this liveblogging entry)3:32: Why is football still on? The game was supposed to start at 3:30 but instead we still have football coverage. And no, we're not on the wrong channel like the one time we spent 10 mintues watching an infomercial waiting for a Wildcard game to start.3:34: Why is Foge...
More About: Indiana , Liveblogging

Gordon In Progress
2008-01-13 20:04:00
It's a mythology in Indiana.  Bird and a rundown hoop at dawn, endless freethrows.  Bobby Knight's disruptive passion and an undefeated season.  "Hoosier" bears a weight, resonates with a storied history of victory and loss on the court and off.  And the story of Indiana Basketball continues, with Eric Gordon writing himself into the next chapter.In the four years I spent in Bloomington ('02-'06) the basketball was secondary.  I just missed the Mike Davis NCAA Finals squad that caused that memorable eruption of drunken euphoria and pole-climbing on Kirkwood.  The subsequent downward spiral of Men's basketball left me not disappointed, but ambivalent.  I saw some games, got pumped in 2006, but focused on the Colts and the X on my calendar marking Little 5 weekend.That's all changed now.  Eric Gordon is in Bloomington, Indiana wearing the cream and crimson.  Maybe it's just a year, but with his presence, as well as some strong help inside from a veteran D.J. White, Gor...
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We're Back? Yes. You're back? Face it, you never left.
2008-01-10 18:31:00
So those of us here at Defend The Rock took a short (6 month long), unannounced break, but all of you kept clamoring for more. We got emails, we got comments on months old posts. Well, due to overwhelming pressure, we're back!In our time off we missed the entire football season, but really, did we miss anything? It's not like IU made it to their first bowl game in ages, oh wait, damn! Or like an incredible incoming freshmen basketball class has been brought into IU, double damn!A little later on we'll have a retrospective on the Football season and get into full swing covering Basketball, but first we have something important to do:Disclose who won the Adam Ahlfeld Team Player Award for the Insight Bowl Appearing Indiana Hoosiers!With a team that had so much heart, so much talent, so much athleticism, and whatever the hell Ben Chapel supposedly brings (Seriously, we made the trip to the Northwestern game and what does he do to honor our appearance? Comes in and gives up what ...
More About: Back , Left , Face

Baseball Bits
2007-06-30 06:17:00
Here's a quick catchup on all the IU Baseball news of the last month:Defend The Rock favorite Evan Crawford has been named to the Ping!Baseball Freshmen Team. (Second Team, Second Base). Congratulations Evan!IU Baseball adds Jeff Caldwell (1b, FL), to the roster for the fall of 2007. Stats for this past season: .400AVG/.495OBP/.716SLG/6HR/102B/35RBI (95 AB).IU Players Drafted: Jon Fixler (Astros, 19th Round). The Hoosiers lost a couple signees in Brock Huntzinger (Red Sox, 3rd Round) and Kyle Leindecker (Indians, 25th Round)More than a dozen Hoosiers are playing summer ball. IUHoosiers will have a continuing series covering their progress. The latest brings good news on Josh Pegley, more stellar play from Evan Crawford, and fine pitching from Joe Vicini and Eric Arnett.
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You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello
2007-06-28 04:54:00
Lost in the tragic death of Coach Hep was the fact that on the very same day IU got to work on new projects to enhance facilities on campus. Quick run down:1. Memorial Stadium North End Zone Project: Additional offices and strength and conditioning facility. And oh yeah "The Hall of Champions". One day Defend The Rock's boy Evan Crawford will be in there.2. Basketball Development Center: Alternative practice site, strength and conditioning facility, offices and meeting rooms.3. New stadiums for the baseball and softball teams north of Mellencamp Pavilion. This is a biggie as any former or current IU baseball fan knows the stadium is barely above little league standards. Full article w/ quotes from IU officials, coaches, and players here.Overall it seems like at the very least IU's players will be that much more conditioned and strong once all these upgrades are complete...
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Assembly Hall To Be....Disassembled
2007-06-25 07:36:00
Well, they've gone and done it, the Board of Trustees has agreed to replace Assembly Hall . My favorite parts of this story are right at the beginning, namely "at some point in the future" and "IU currently lacks the funding to construct it." I've always been a bit cynical when it comes to Universities, especially public ones, financing massive new sports complexes that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. I'd rather see that $ going to the academic/research fields but at this point universities make so much money off of their athletics programs that in some ways you have to fund athletics to be able to fund everything else. Assembly Hall definitely isn't the best arena in the collegiate world, and boy oh boy are there some terrible seats/viewing angles, but it doesn't need to be replaced ASAP. So I guess I can go along with this agreement that the trustees have come come to: Yeah, replace Assembly Hall, but don't make it the #1 priority at IU.
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