For years, the Indiana men's soccer team has been overshadowed by the great money-making venture that is major college basketball.

As the media had a field day every time former Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight spoke, Indiana men's soccer coach Jerry Yeagley has quietly built one of the strongest programs in the country in his 27 years at the school.

As the Hoosiers men's basketball program has been knocked off as the top team in the Big Ten, replaced by Michigan State, the men's soccer team has owned the Big Ten with its current 33-game unbeaten streak against conference opponents and claming eight out of the nine Big Ten tournament titles.

On top of its Big Ten success, Indiana has gained national success culminating in their back-to-back National Championships in the past two seasons.

Including the two titles, the fourth and fifth of Yeagley's career, at the end of the decade, Indiana made six College Cup and four championship game appearances, accumulating a 185-33-14 record in the 90's.

In the past 10 years, the Hoosiers have produced 20 All-Americans, three of which are now playing Major League Soccer.

Though the focus on the basketball team takes away from national exposure of the soccer team, Indiana senior goalkeeper T.J. Hannig sees it as an advantage to the team to remain in the shadows.

"Rather than dealing with outside sources like people gawking at us or asking us for autographs, we can focus on our studies and soccer," Hannig said.

As the decade has changed, so have the Indiana basketball and soccer teams.

Knight has been fired as basketball coach and the soccer team is in the midst of, by Indiana soccer standards, a rebuilding year after the departure of the three All-Americans and two other starters.

"We knew that the new players would have a lot to say about what the success of the team will be this year," Yeagley said.

If the first weekend of play was any indication, the new players didn't have much to say. After being ranked No.1 in the preseason poll by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) the Hoosiers opened the season with losses against Portland, which is ranked No. 10 now, and No. 3 UCLA, currently No. 1.

The losses dropped them to 15th in the nation, and it was the first time since 1992 that Indiana started a season 0-2.

"The UCLA game was tough. It was a close game and we could have won," senior forward Matt Fundenberger said.

Since then, with the leadership from the likes of Fundenberger and Hannig, the Hoosiers have gone on to win six out of the last seven games, two against Top 10 teams, with their only loss coming at the hands of No.10 Creighton.

"I think a problem teams have is scheduling too soft and when they play the tough teams later in the season they find problems," Yeagley said.

The schedule doesn't get any softer as the Hoosiers travel to Penn State to take on the No. 2 Nittany Lions, who Yeagley says is the team to beat in the Big Ten this season, tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Although the Hoosiers may not have the caliber of the National Championship teams of the past, Hannig still thinks that this team is following in the Indiana tradition.

"This team is different than any other team I've been on," Hannig said about his Hoosiers team.

Even without Knight, the Indiana men's soccer team is still likely to be overlooked by everyone outside the soccer community.

But then again, it's been that way for 27 years and counting and they've done just fine so far.