“That’s life…you’re not always going to be in an environment that you know…you have to get out there,” Sopel said.

Faced with the possibility of an end to her career in competitive tennis in France, Sopel contacted numerous Division I coaches throughout the United States. After visiting the campus, she decided to move to Bloomington to play for IU.

“I made my choice because IU has a great tradition … and I fell in love with the campus,” Sopel said.

Diversity is another factor that initially drew Sopel to attend IU. She is one of six international players on the women’s tennis team. Other home nations of the team members include England, Portugal and Russia.

“I purposely came here because they didn’t have a French (player)…I wanted to talk in English, be totally immersed in the culture and not speak French,” Sopel said.

While Sopel said she has not experienced cultural differences in terms of tennis, her classes did present some challenges during her freshmen year.

“I couldn’t understand my first classes…it was different because (in France) we don’t have multiple choice (tests), we have a topic and you just write for two hours or four hours,” Sopel said.

After three years, Sopel has adjusted to learning, playing and living in America. As an upperclassman, she has also taken a leadership role within the team.

“Myriam works really hard every day and in practice, and when we’re in the weight room, she really works hard in there,” IU women’s tennis coach Lin Loring said. “She leads by example.”

Unlike the past two years, Sopel is now able to share in her experiences with a fellow French native in freshman player Leslie Hureau.

“It’s kind of nice to have a French root to my country imbedded in the American culture…we have common points and we share stories and, when we miss our country, we just talk about it…I have someone to bond with,” Sopel said.

Despite staying busy with tennis and majoring in journalism, Sopel said there are times when she misses France.

“Of course lots of times I’m homesick — I miss my family, I miss my country…you don’t realize how much you miss something unless you’re far away from it,” Sopel said.

Sopel is able to stay connected with her family through her brother, who lives in the U.S. and is an assistant tennis coach at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. She was also able to see her mother over Christmas when she visited for the first time.

Despite sacrifices, Sopel is satisfied with her decision to move to the U.S.

“I know what I am here for, I know that I am doing what I love, I’m doing my passion…I have no regrets,” Sopel said.

College basketball analyst Dick Vitale, who was providing commentary for the game, was aghast. Vitale said that Illinois did not need to rush the court for this win, because their men’s basketball program has enjoyed so much success. Former Fighting Illini standout Dee Brown, who played on the 2004-05 team that went 37-2 and fell to North Carolina in the national championship, posted a tweet on his Twitter account after the game, saying that the student section shouldn’t have rushed the court because Illini basketball is used to winning.

Many diehard Hoosier fans would take one look at the five national championship banners hanging on the wall in Assembly Hall, and say the Crimson Guard never needs to rush the floor because we are too successful for that. But given the last decade of IU basketball, where is our success?

Indiana University won national championships in 1940, 1953, 1976, 1981, and 1987. Doing the math, that would mean almost no undergraduates were born before the Hoosiers’ last national championship win. The upcoming NCAA men’s basketball tournament will mark three years since IU last made the tournament, and 23 years since the Hoosiers last cut down the nets as champions.

To put it in better perspective, Notre Dame was once a powerhouse football program. From 1924-1988, they produced eleven national championships, with undefeated records, Heisman trophy winners, and NFL stardom players to go with those titles.

But what have they done lately?  They are on now on their fourth coach in a decade, with the previous three having been fired. The Irish have collected one bowl game win since 1995. In the last three seasons, they’ve lost to Navy twice, Air Force once, and an eight-loss Syracuse team.

This means if you are a Southern California, Purdue, Michigan, or Michigan St. fan, and a Notre Dame fan tries to brag about their history of greatness, you can safely laugh and say something along the lines of, “That’s great, good luck with the next military school you have to play.”

Unfortunately, it’s the same situation for Hoosier basketball fans. If you start bragging to a Purdue basketball fan about IU’s history of national titles, they’re going to remind you that they’ve been consistently ranked in the Top-10 most of year, that they’ve beaten IU three straight times, and that IU basketball has missed the tournament four of the past seven years.

If you are currently a student, it’s been a rough tenure for you as a Hoosier basketball fan, no matter which class you are in. Here’s the breakdown:

The freshmen class has a 10-20 record.  They are the same age as our heralded freshmen recruiting class, who are the future of Indiana basketball. Their first year in the student section has been one of many growing pains, as they’ve watched each freshmen go through the learning curve of Division I basketball.

The sophomore class has a 16-45 record.  Their first year in the student section was Tom Crean’s first on the sideline, as they witnessed the damage that Kelvin Sampson visited on the program, as a team assembled mostly of walk-ons fought and clawed for six wins.

The junior class has a record of 41-53.  As freshmen, they enjoyed some success, as the Hoosiers were ranked for much of the season, but in February the program monumentally collapsed as Kelvin Sampson resigned after being accused of violating NCAA recruiting rules. The junior class is now on their third coach in three years, including interim coach Dan Dakich.

The seniors are 62-64 in their four years here. They have gone through just about every type of situation possible as a member of the student section. Everything from a Top-10 ranked team, to first and second round exits in March Madness, to a coach having to resign because of major recruiting violations, to the bottom of the Big Ten.

Hoosier Nation, especially the alumni and the season ticket holders from the Bobby Knight era, know what the winning tradition of Indiana basketball is, but we as students do not.  There is no doubt we’ve been informed about it, and there is no doubt we’ve seen the classic games on TV, but we haven’t witnessed it. We haven’t been a part of the continuity the program had for almost thirty years. There was one coach from 1971-2000, but there have been five since 2000 up until now.

The Hoosiers are still looking for their first win against a ranked team under Tom Crean, to say nothing of looking for their first signature win against a Top-10 team.  Over the past two years, ranked team after ranked team has come to Assembly Hall, and each time we have fallen short.

But I believe that signature win is coming. Whether it’s next season or the season after, a Top-10 ranked team is going to come to Bloomington, and we are going to knock them off.

And when that game clock strikes zero, I hope our student section storms the court.

And when you storm it, do it for the faithful season ticket holders, who for so many years enjoyed success under Bobby Knight, and have stuck with the Hoosiers through these tough years as they are rebuilding their image.

Storm it for Tom Crean, who has poured nothing short of his whole heart into this basketball program, who left a consistent contender at Marquette to rebuild a collapsed program in need of a coach who still believed in us.

Storm it for our players, who turned down scholarship offers to contending ACC, SEC, and Big East teams because they believed in Tom Crean, and were looked to the first day they set foot on campus to turn our program around.

And finally, storm it for yourselves, because you stayed with your team through their darkest hours, and sang the fight song for them at every home game as loud as you could. And as Hoosier Nation as a whole, we are showing the Big Ten and the whole country, that we are back, and never daunted, we will not falter.

Seven weeks later, on March 3^rd, I departed Bloomington to journey to Indianapolis for the tournament. I would be working with the Big Ten media relations staff, with the job of writing the postgame notes after each contest.

All the volunteers were summoned to the host arena, Conseco Fieldhouse, for a meeting the night before the tournament started. I was extremely surprised when I walked on the court and saw over 100 people gathered for the meeting. At this point, I began to appreciate that it takes a lot of people to put on a tournament of this magnitude.

The media relations group had about 10 volunteers and eight full-time staff members from the Big Ten. There were people serving in a variety of areas, including media relations director, press room coordinator, satellite contact for press conferences, press conference moderator, preview notes, quotes chief, flip card coordinator, mini-cam steward, photo marshals, and media workroom manager.

In addition to the media relations staff, there were many other people involving with the tournament. These jobs included security guards, hospitality workers, answering phones on press row, passing out stat sheets at each media timeout, microphone holders for press conferences, and setting up and cleaning the court. There were also reporters, photographers, and television broadcasters covering the tournament.

I was very excited about my duties, because it meant that I would be courtside on press row to watch all 10 games of the tournament. Ten games in four days made for a busy schedule, but it was a fun and worthwhile experience.

Before The Game

I was expected to arrive at Conseco Fieldhouse at least an hour and a half before the tip-off of the first game every day. I felt fortunate that my hotel (which the Big Ten paid for) was only two blocks away from the arena. When I arrived, my briefcase was checked by security. Following this, I headed to the media room on court level.

The first thing I did was collect the preview notes and media guides of the two competing schools and brought them to my spot on press row. I then familiarized myself with some of the storylines for the upcoming game. For example, Penn State’s Tyra Grant entered the tournament needing only 26 points to break into the 2,000 point club, so I wanted to make sure I followed her progression during their game against Minnesota.

After doing my preparation, I strolled back over to the media room to have lunch with some of my fellow workers. Lunch the first day was salad, bread, hamburgers, cookies, chips, and lots of options for drink choice. I then hung out and talked to people before going back out to the court to watch some basketball.

During The Game

My main responsibility during each game was to follow statistics and interesting storylines, so that I could include them in my postgame notes. My friend from IU, sophomore Scott Agness, who is a ball boy for the Indiana Pacers and aspiring sports broadcaster, brought me a stat sheet at each media timeout, so that I could keep up with everything going on in the game.

In addition to statistics and storylines on various players, I also had to be on the lookout for Big Ten Tournament records that might be broken. In Illinois’ win over Indiana on the first day of the tournament, Illini center Jenna Smith set a tournament record with 19 rebounds. On Saturday, I was at the arena until almost 12:00 AM, because in the Ohio State win over Wisconsin there were four records set and many more near record-breaking performances.

After The Game

As the final buzzer sounded in each game, I was already furiously typing away my game notes, to have them ready as soon as possible. I double-checked records in the tournament media guide, and scanned the final stat sheet for anything interesting. After the Ohio State vs. Wisconsin semifinal game, I discovered a record that had been broken on my own: Junior center Jantel Lavender (27 points) and sophomore guard Samantha Prahalis (29 points) combined for the most points (56) two players have scored in any game played by a Big Ten team this season.

After I completed the notes, I took them to the Big Ten communications room to print out a copy. I then delivered them to Valerie so that she could proof them. After she returned them to me, I made the appropriate corrections, and then ran off 200 copies for media personnel. If there was another game later, I started the process all over again. There were four games on Friday, so that was quite a busy day.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience working at the Big Ten Tournament. I got to meet some great people, made plenty of job contacts for the future, watched lots of basketball at a great arena, and gained valuable practical experience in the field I would like to work in professionally.

One piece of advice I would offer to students wanting to pursue careers in sports is to get out and volunteer for as many things as you can. Gaining practical experience and meeting people in the industry is a great way to get your foot in the door. It’s also a lot of fun.

In the end, it was the Ohio State Buckeyes that claimed the championship for the second straight year, with a 66-64 victory over Iowa. As I typed my postgame notes, which included a record setting performance of 35 points scored by Jantel Lavender the confetti from the celebration kept on collecting on my computer. The tournament was over, but it was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.

McLeod, who was hired in April of 2008 as part of coach Tom Crean’s initial Indiana University staff, was not present on the bench for Indiana’s overtime victory this past weekend over Northwestern.

Stay tuned to IUSC for developing news and details on this story.

This year that road leads to Indianapolis, Indiana and Lucas Oil Stadium. But before the tournament even begins, each team must fight and struggle all season to prove to the tournament selection committee that they are worthy of such an honor. With the regular season coming to an end, many teams are searching franticly for a last minute quality win to help strengthen their tournament resume. And for those teams who cannot finish their season strong, they in the end will be a part of the teams on the outside looking in.

At this point in the season, there are some teams which have had a somewhat successful season, but may have not done enough in the eyes of the selection committee. Three of these “bubble” teams are Notre Dame, Mississippi State, and Xavier.

Going into the last two games of the regular season against Marquette and Connecticut, Notre Dame knew what they had to do to prove they deserve to dance in March. By winning both games, Notre Dame greatly increased the value of their tournament resume.

Now, going into the Big East tournament, they stand at 21-10 and 10-8 in the Big East, with quality wins against West Virginia, Pittsburgh, and Georgetown. Not only have they reached the 10-win threshold in the Big East, they have achieved this feat without the help of their star player, Luke Harangody, which ultimately proves that they have what it takes to dance in March.

With a pretty intense weekend of college basketball in the books, Mississippi State may have sealed their own fate with a defeat at the hands of Auburn, coupled with another blowout loss to Tennessee. As it stands now, Mississippi State is 21-10 and 9-7 in the SEC with only a semi-quality win coming against Mississippi.

On top of that, they have several bad losses which include Western Kentucky, Auburn, and Arkansas which have really dwindled their chances of making the tournament. If it were selection Sunday today, Mississippi State would be left on the outside looking in. The only way they will be playing in late March is if they win the SEC Tournament.

As Championship Week 2010 is starting, Xavier is in the driver’s seat and headed in the right direction. Standing 23-7 and 14-2 in the Atlantic 10, Xavier has compiled a pretty strong resume for the tournament committee to review. With strong wins against Florida, Dayton, and Rhode Island, Xavier has emerged as a powerhouse in the Atlantic 10 conference, and one that deserves to be dancing in March. In addition, they are currently the 25^th ranked team in the nation, with a good possibility of moving up.

Now that the time has come to prepare for conference tournaments, Notre Dame, Mississippi State, and Xavier will be forced to reveal their true colors. Out of these three bubble teams, Mississippi State has the most left to do. They will be forced to win the SEC Tournament if they want to keep playing basketball come late March.

Most NFL fans do not watch the whole combine, but a majority can tell you who the fastest player was in the 40-yard dash. In this one event, your draft stock can rise significantly or free-fall to the bottom.

Last year was a good example of a player whose stock rose dramatically due to their 40 time. WR Darrius Heyward-Bey was considered by many to be a late 1st-round pick at best.  But after running a time of 4.30, the fastest of anyone at the combine, the result was a big payday due to being drafted 7th overall by the Oakland Raiders.

But while Heyward-Bey’s 40 time dazzled the scouts and caused them to ignore an average-at-best college resume, his combine performance did not translate to on-field production in the NFL. Heyward-Bey’s rookie season saw him finish with only 9 catches for 124 yards and one touchdown.

Though the 40-yard dash may be king at the combine, a player’s 40 time alone should not completely overrule the player’s production in the past. That is how draft busts happen, because teams end up reaching for players who need to be coached more.

This year saw a very deep draft class come in to the combine in Indianapolis, and once again, the 40-yard dash was the hot topic at almost every position. So who were the winners of the combine?

Jacoby Ford, WR, Clemson

Ford ran the fastest 40 at the combine, with an official time of 4.28. Speed like this will obviously draw attention to him come draft day, but teams should still be aware of Ford’s potential limitations. He is only 5′9″, which is very short for the NFL However, I see a team taking him in the early 3^rd to late 2^nd round, due to his ability to spread the field.

A.J Jefferson, CB, Fresno State

Probably the biggest winner at the combine, he stole the spotlight in three different areas. He was the best out of everybody in the vertical jump, the 20 yard shuttle, and the 60 yard shuttle. I originally had not seen much on this kid, and I doubt a lot of scouts had, either. Expect his stock to skyrocket as he brings a lot of great athletic ability. He just needs the right coach to unlock his potential.

Dorin Dickerson, TE, Pittsburgh

His weight came in at 226 lbs., which is very small for a TE, but the athletic ability he exhibited was outstanding. He ran the 40 in 4.40, which was one of the fastest times at the combine. Not only did he excel there, but he also finished first among TEs in both the broad jump and the vertical jump. If he can bulk up, he could get picked somewhere in the 2^nd or 3^rd rounds.

Tim Tebow, QB, Florida

Everybody knows who he is, and he did not disappoint at the combine.  His interview was great, naturally, and he showed superior athletic ability over all the other QBs. His stock as a QB did not rise much, as he refused to throw at the combine (claiming he working on his technique), but his ability to play other positions was proved.

Taylor Mays, S, Southern Cal

Mays may have seen his workout shoot him straight into the top 15 overall. When you watch the tape on Mays, you see a tall and strong defensive back who gets lost in coverage, lacks good hands, and ALWAYS goes for the big hit. However, this player is what most people will label as a “freak” in the NFL.

Mays stands 6′3″ and weighs 230 lbs. Most safeties in the league are three inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter than him, but he ran the fastest time at the combine for all DBs, finished second in the bench, second in the vertical jump, and second in the broad jump. He is a pure athlete and should get called earlier then his production would normally indicate.

Ndamukong Suh, DT, Nebraska

Suh and Gerald McCoy (DT, Oklahoma) are considered the two best players in the draft. So naturally, they were going to be compared at the combine against one another. In the end, I believe Suh was the victor over McCoy.

The main area in which Suh was supposed to do better than McCoy was the bench press. McCoy failed to even reach 25 bench reps, while Suh finished with 32.

The area that McCoy was supposed to dominate over Suh was the 40 yard dash. However, after Suh trained with former Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson leading up to the combine, McCoy barely beat Suh, with both coming in right under 5 seconds flat. Suh proved that he is stronger than McCoy, and just as fast. His draft stock can’t really rise as he is already considered number one overall, but I believe he widened the gap between them.

The combine effect should increase the draft stock of all these players. Sleepers, such as A.J Jefferson, Dorin Dickerson, and Jacoby Ford, demonstrated enough to make sure they are indeed drafted this year. Meanwhile, likely first-round picks such as Tebow, Mays, and Suh helped to solidify their draft stock, and may have improved a spot or two in the pecking order.