This offers a good overview on several fronts.
by Chris Goff
BLOOMINGTON – Fred Glass is more than eight years into his tenure as Indiana's athletic director and one aspect of the job never gets old.
Glass' favorite part of overseeing his alma mater's 24 athletic programs is getting to know the Hoosiers' student-athletes and watching them compete and grow.
“Our kids are just so outstanding,” Glass said. “It's a great blessing to be able to work with these kids every day, because they're pretty amazing.”
During a Q-and-A session this month, Glass reflected on the past year in IU athletics and looked ahead to a few issues affecting the Hoosiers' sports teams in the future.
Question: How important are the recently approved renovations to IU's golf course as well as the forthcoming 3,000-seat arena, of which designs were finalized June 16, for volleyball and wrestling? Where do those fall under the larger umbrella of facility upgrades?
Glass: Those were two of the main parts of our Bicentennial Capital Planning Campaign (which helped fund) facility projects including the renovation of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, which is, of course, complete. We're really excited those final two projects are taking off.
We will solve the golf course problem, which has been a multidecade problem. Even though it's in a very beautiful site, it was never set up the way a championship-quality golf course should be. It doesn't have any of the modern turf management and other sustainability programs to make it as environmentally friendly as it should be. We've had trouble on the economics because people, frankly, don't want to play it. It will make a new destination course worthy of the IU brand.
In terms of the indoor arena, the main feature is it will finally bring on campus our final two off-campus sports. (The new arena) will be a very beautiful facility. I think it'll be very accessible, near the dormitories on the north side of campus, for fan support, and it will also provide a multipurpose training facility for our other sports to use in inclement weather, which will help relieve pressure from Mellencamp Pavilion.
When the dust clears at our bicentennial in 2020, we'll have invested over a quarter of a billion dollars in new facilities, which I think positions us for another generation.
Q: A few years ago, IU implemented its Student Athlete Bill of Rights. How much do you see the Excellence Academy, which broke ground in April on a $53 million facility covering 66,575 square feet and enclosing the south end zone at Memorial Stadium, being another trend-setter and changing the student-athlete experience?
Glass: We really view the development of our student-athletes in three buckets: No. 1 academically, No. 2 athletically and No. 3 the development of the whole person. Importantly, the heart of the athletics campus, Memorial Stadium, will administer all three of those in a one-stop shop area.
We've got the Jay and Nancy Wilkinson Performance Center, one of the largest strength and conditioning centers in the country, right next to the D. Ames Shuel Academic Center and now the Excellence Academy will round out the third leg of that three-legged stool to focus on student-athlete development, wellness, nutrition, career counseling, leadership and life skills. The program will have a physical home and will put in concrete, both literally and figuratively, this innovative program that I think will give our students one of, if not the, best experiences you can have in intercollegiate athletics.
Q: What are the latest developments to come out of the Cuban Center and have IU athletes begun to see a competitive edge from some of the 3-D and virtual reality technologies?
Glass: With Mark Cuban's money but also his cachet and name, he's given us access to technologies way before the average bear school is getting them. The 3-D technology is already in Assembly Hall. It will be in Memorial Stadium. We'll be the only school in the country to have that in our two major venues. Most schools don't have it in any venues.
Our students created a virtual reality game where people can put on the goggles and actually feel like they're walking out on the Assembly Hall court and shooting baskets in a 360-degree environment. Our recruits love it. Not just our basketball recruits, but we take our swimming recruits in there and softball recruits and so forth. They're working on a similar one for football. We're also working on what they call augmented reality. Virtual reality is sort of made up. Augmented reality is stuff like the batter's box being outlined when you're watching a baseball game or the first-down line which has become obsequious in following football. We can offer training devices that kids can wear to improve their training and preparation for competition.
Q: Men's soccer is a program closely associated with the tradition of IU athletics and one that fans closely follow beyond the so-called revenue sports. Two straight years the men's soccer team has lost in the third round of the NCAA tournament after bowing out in the second round the year prior. How close is men's soccer to competing for its next national championship?
Glass: Men's soccer is one of our premier programs. The consistent excellence almost lulls people into taking things for granted. I think we've set records for the number of NCAA appearances and Sweet 16 appearances. Won the national title in 2012, so we're pursuing the ninth star. We've got most of our players returning from a really strong team that was one of the nation's leaders defensively. Our recruiting class (adds) sterling potential. Coach (Todd) Yeagley plays the toughest schedule in the country.
Q: What was it about Shonda Stanton, who won 560 games at Marshall, that led to you hiring her as softball coach earlier this month?
Glass: We didn't know whether we'd be able to dislodge her from Marshall. She'd been there for 18 seasons and had built a tremendous program. She won 42 games this most recent year, Conference USA Coach of the Year. She's very highly regarded around the country, and, oh, just great academics. The young women who have been in her program hold her in high regard, so it's really the whole package. Proven recruiter, able to get to the NCAA as a non-Power 5 school, which is very challenging in and of itself. You meet her, and she's very, very dynamic, so she was at the top of our list from the very beginning.
Q: Two more new coaches are Tom Allen in football and Archie Miller in men's basketball. If someone were to say their teams will enter seasons of transition this fall, with tempered expectations, would that be fair to say, given change and personnel losses?
Glass: I do think, notwithstanding the well-earned enthusiasm Archie's garnered, he's still a first-year coach with guys he's inherited. In football, the credo is breakthrough, and everyone wants a breakthrough, but we need to remember it's Tom Allen's first year, too. We need to be careful of not putting a little too much expectation on him to break through in his very first year. I think there are a lot of pieces there (in men's basketball) that should hopefully enable us to be competitive. My expectation and hope is the Miller era will be a long one and will not be disproportionately judged on what happens his first year.
Q: It seemed as if the rise of IU's football and baseball teams coincided with the revival of men's basketball from 2011-16. Does the momentum of other sports feed off the success of the men's basketball program?
Glass: I think all our programs feed off each other. Soccer wins a national championship in '13, and that same year we go to the College World Series, and men's basketball is ranked No. 1 for 15 weeks or something like that. Success breeds success. Men's and women's swimming and diving has been very successful in the Rio Olympics and so forth. Having said all that, men's basketball is our highest-profile sport and has our most intense fan interest, so that may be true disproportionately for men's basketball.
Q: Miller has been on the job three months now. He's no stranger to the business, but as he settled in how much did you help him become acclimated to certain aspects of being the coach at IU?
Glass: Archie and I have a great relationship. I sort of leave him alone when there's nothing in particular to talk about. We meet once a week and probably talk more than that. He's very self-sufficient, mature beyond his years. I don't think he needs a lot of guidance from me.
Q: In terms of the search process that led to Miller's hiring, you made a point of saying anyone with IU ties would be interviewed. Miller was the only face-to-face interview. How many candidates did you end up interviewing?
Glass: I would say probably about a half a dozen people (as far as) a telephone interview. Archie was the only non-former IU player that I talked to on the telephone interviews. I felt everybody sort of had that shot. I thought it was really important to talk to all the former IU players who were interested.
Q: What are the next few items on your agenda as athletic director?
Glass: It always comes back to our five priorities. No. 1, we want to play by the rules. No. 2, we want to achieve academically and support our kids that way. No. 3, we want to be well in mind, body and spirit. No. 4, we want to win championships. No. 5, we want to be integrated with the university and be part of something bigger than ourselves. We'll finish these facilities, but we're really focused on the programming that can produce graduates of whom all our alums can be proud.
Indiana year in review
Men
Baseball: 34-24-2, advanced to NCAA tournament
Football: 6-7, advanced to Foster Farms Bowl
Basketball: 18-16, advanced to NIT
Soccer: 12-2-7, advanced to third round of NCAA tournament
Wrestling: 10-9, earned first-ever series win in the NWCA National Dual Series
Tennis: 13-13, first-round exit at Big Ten tourney
Golf: 11th at Big Ten championship match
Cross country: 3rd at Big Ten championship meet
Indoor track: 1st Big Ten championship
Outdoor track: 8th at Big Ten championship meet
Swimming and diving: 11-0, 1st Big Ten championship, 7th at NCAA championships
Women
Basketball: 23-11, advanced to WNIT quarterfinals
Soccer: 7-9-4, advanced to quarterfinals of Big Ten tournament
Softball: 23-31, first-round exit at Big Ten tourney
Volleyball: 17-16, 6-14 in Big Ten play
Tennis: 14-14, 4-7 in Big Ten play
Outdoor track: 8th at Big Ten championship meet
Indoor track: 5th at Big Ten championship meet
Golf: 13th at Big Ten championship event
Swimming and diving: 7-4, runner-up for Big Ten championship, 8th at NCAA championships
Cross country: 8th at Big Ten championship meet
Field hockey: 8-12, 3-5 in Big Ten play
Rowing: 12th at NCAA Championships
Water polo: 21-10, won CWPA Championship fifth-place Game
http://www.journalgazette.net/sports/colleges/iu/20170625/ads-bullish-on-schools-future
Go Hoosiers!
by Chris Goff
BLOOMINGTON – Fred Glass is more than eight years into his tenure as Indiana's athletic director and one aspect of the job never gets old.
Glass' favorite part of overseeing his alma mater's 24 athletic programs is getting to know the Hoosiers' student-athletes and watching them compete and grow.
“Our kids are just so outstanding,” Glass said. “It's a great blessing to be able to work with these kids every day, because they're pretty amazing.”
During a Q-and-A session this month, Glass reflected on the past year in IU athletics and looked ahead to a few issues affecting the Hoosiers' sports teams in the future.
Question: How important are the recently approved renovations to IU's golf course as well as the forthcoming 3,000-seat arena, of which designs were finalized June 16, for volleyball and wrestling? Where do those fall under the larger umbrella of facility upgrades?
Glass: Those were two of the main parts of our Bicentennial Capital Planning Campaign (which helped fund) facility projects including the renovation of Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall, which is, of course, complete. We're really excited those final two projects are taking off.
We will solve the golf course problem, which has been a multidecade problem. Even though it's in a very beautiful site, it was never set up the way a championship-quality golf course should be. It doesn't have any of the modern turf management and other sustainability programs to make it as environmentally friendly as it should be. We've had trouble on the economics because people, frankly, don't want to play it. It will make a new destination course worthy of the IU brand.
In terms of the indoor arena, the main feature is it will finally bring on campus our final two off-campus sports. (The new arena) will be a very beautiful facility. I think it'll be very accessible, near the dormitories on the north side of campus, for fan support, and it will also provide a multipurpose training facility for our other sports to use in inclement weather, which will help relieve pressure from Mellencamp Pavilion.
When the dust clears at our bicentennial in 2020, we'll have invested over a quarter of a billion dollars in new facilities, which I think positions us for another generation.
Q: A few years ago, IU implemented its Student Athlete Bill of Rights. How much do you see the Excellence Academy, which broke ground in April on a $53 million facility covering 66,575 square feet and enclosing the south end zone at Memorial Stadium, being another trend-setter and changing the student-athlete experience?
Glass: We really view the development of our student-athletes in three buckets: No. 1 academically, No. 2 athletically and No. 3 the development of the whole person. Importantly, the heart of the athletics campus, Memorial Stadium, will administer all three of those in a one-stop shop area.
We've got the Jay and Nancy Wilkinson Performance Center, one of the largest strength and conditioning centers in the country, right next to the D. Ames Shuel Academic Center and now the Excellence Academy will round out the third leg of that three-legged stool to focus on student-athlete development, wellness, nutrition, career counseling, leadership and life skills. The program will have a physical home and will put in concrete, both literally and figuratively, this innovative program that I think will give our students one of, if not the, best experiences you can have in intercollegiate athletics.
Q: What are the latest developments to come out of the Cuban Center and have IU athletes begun to see a competitive edge from some of the 3-D and virtual reality technologies?
Glass: With Mark Cuban's money but also his cachet and name, he's given us access to technologies way before the average bear school is getting them. The 3-D technology is already in Assembly Hall. It will be in Memorial Stadium. We'll be the only school in the country to have that in our two major venues. Most schools don't have it in any venues.
Our students created a virtual reality game where people can put on the goggles and actually feel like they're walking out on the Assembly Hall court and shooting baskets in a 360-degree environment. Our recruits love it. Not just our basketball recruits, but we take our swimming recruits in there and softball recruits and so forth. They're working on a similar one for football. We're also working on what they call augmented reality. Virtual reality is sort of made up. Augmented reality is stuff like the batter's box being outlined when you're watching a baseball game or the first-down line which has become obsequious in following football. We can offer training devices that kids can wear to improve their training and preparation for competition.
Q: Men's soccer is a program closely associated with the tradition of IU athletics and one that fans closely follow beyond the so-called revenue sports. Two straight years the men's soccer team has lost in the third round of the NCAA tournament after bowing out in the second round the year prior. How close is men's soccer to competing for its next national championship?
Glass: Men's soccer is one of our premier programs. The consistent excellence almost lulls people into taking things for granted. I think we've set records for the number of NCAA appearances and Sweet 16 appearances. Won the national title in 2012, so we're pursuing the ninth star. We've got most of our players returning from a really strong team that was one of the nation's leaders defensively. Our recruiting class (adds) sterling potential. Coach (Todd) Yeagley plays the toughest schedule in the country.
Q: What was it about Shonda Stanton, who won 560 games at Marshall, that led to you hiring her as softball coach earlier this month?
Glass: We didn't know whether we'd be able to dislodge her from Marshall. She'd been there for 18 seasons and had built a tremendous program. She won 42 games this most recent year, Conference USA Coach of the Year. She's very highly regarded around the country, and, oh, just great academics. The young women who have been in her program hold her in high regard, so it's really the whole package. Proven recruiter, able to get to the NCAA as a non-Power 5 school, which is very challenging in and of itself. You meet her, and she's very, very dynamic, so she was at the top of our list from the very beginning.
Q: Two more new coaches are Tom Allen in football and Archie Miller in men's basketball. If someone were to say their teams will enter seasons of transition this fall, with tempered expectations, would that be fair to say, given change and personnel losses?
Glass: I do think, notwithstanding the well-earned enthusiasm Archie's garnered, he's still a first-year coach with guys he's inherited. In football, the credo is breakthrough, and everyone wants a breakthrough, but we need to remember it's Tom Allen's first year, too. We need to be careful of not putting a little too much expectation on him to break through in his very first year. I think there are a lot of pieces there (in men's basketball) that should hopefully enable us to be competitive. My expectation and hope is the Miller era will be a long one and will not be disproportionately judged on what happens his first year.
Q: It seemed as if the rise of IU's football and baseball teams coincided with the revival of men's basketball from 2011-16. Does the momentum of other sports feed off the success of the men's basketball program?
Glass: I think all our programs feed off each other. Soccer wins a national championship in '13, and that same year we go to the College World Series, and men's basketball is ranked No. 1 for 15 weeks or something like that. Success breeds success. Men's and women's swimming and diving has been very successful in the Rio Olympics and so forth. Having said all that, men's basketball is our highest-profile sport and has our most intense fan interest, so that may be true disproportionately for men's basketball.
Q: Miller has been on the job three months now. He's no stranger to the business, but as he settled in how much did you help him become acclimated to certain aspects of being the coach at IU?
Glass: Archie and I have a great relationship. I sort of leave him alone when there's nothing in particular to talk about. We meet once a week and probably talk more than that. He's very self-sufficient, mature beyond his years. I don't think he needs a lot of guidance from me.
Q: In terms of the search process that led to Miller's hiring, you made a point of saying anyone with IU ties would be interviewed. Miller was the only face-to-face interview. How many candidates did you end up interviewing?
Glass: I would say probably about a half a dozen people (as far as) a telephone interview. Archie was the only non-former IU player that I talked to on the telephone interviews. I felt everybody sort of had that shot. I thought it was really important to talk to all the former IU players who were interested.
Q: What are the next few items on your agenda as athletic director?
Glass: It always comes back to our five priorities. No. 1, we want to play by the rules. No. 2, we want to achieve academically and support our kids that way. No. 3, we want to be well in mind, body and spirit. No. 4, we want to win championships. No. 5, we want to be integrated with the university and be part of something bigger than ourselves. We'll finish these facilities, but we're really focused on the programming that can produce graduates of whom all our alums can be proud.
Indiana year in review
Men
Baseball: 34-24-2, advanced to NCAA tournament
Football: 6-7, advanced to Foster Farms Bowl
Basketball: 18-16, advanced to NIT
Soccer: 12-2-7, advanced to third round of NCAA tournament
Wrestling: 10-9, earned first-ever series win in the NWCA National Dual Series
Tennis: 13-13, first-round exit at Big Ten tourney
Golf: 11th at Big Ten championship match
Cross country: 3rd at Big Ten championship meet
Indoor track: 1st Big Ten championship
Outdoor track: 8th at Big Ten championship meet
Swimming and diving: 11-0, 1st Big Ten championship, 7th at NCAA championships
Women
Basketball: 23-11, advanced to WNIT quarterfinals
Soccer: 7-9-4, advanced to quarterfinals of Big Ten tournament
Softball: 23-31, first-round exit at Big Ten tourney
Volleyball: 17-16, 6-14 in Big Ten play
Tennis: 14-14, 4-7 in Big Ten play
Outdoor track: 8th at Big Ten championship meet
Indoor track: 5th at Big Ten championship meet
Golf: 13th at Big Ten championship event
Swimming and diving: 7-4, runner-up for Big Ten championship, 8th at NCAA championships
Cross country: 8th at Big Ten championship meet
Field hockey: 8-12, 3-5 in Big Ten play
Rowing: 12th at NCAA Championships
Water polo: 21-10, won CWPA Championship fifth-place Game
http://www.journalgazette.net/sports/colleges/iu/20170625/ads-bullish-on-schools-future
Go Hoosiers!
