IU 71 Wisconsin 66

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! WOO-HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They did it! They pulled it off! What a great win for the Hoosiers! What I really like about it is that they took Wisconsin's best shot and still came out victorious. Well, maybe not Wisconsin's best game of the year, but Tucker was outstanding as always and Taylor kept hitting 3s down the stretch, but IU responded every time. Ratliffe was spectacular in the second half -- hitting 3s, taking it to the rim, hitting pull-up jumpers. He was on fire! I think he had 18 points in the second half. D.J. was solid as always and I thought Calloway had a really good game (except for one really bad turnover with about 3 1/2 minutes to go). Overall, it was a great team effort and the crowd was going crazy. What a great win. Tomorrow will be the only day of the year that I will look forward to getting to work!

Go Hoosiers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**********************

Pre-game commentary:

I must admit that I am not only concerned about tomorrow night's game against # 2 Wisconsin, but I am also concerned about this whole stretch of the schedule. After Wisconsin, the Hoosiers play 3 out of 4 games on the road and all of those games are against decent teams (@ Iowa, Illinois, @ Purdue, @ Michigan). The good news is that they finish with the bottom 3 teams in the conference within their last 4 games (Minnesota, @ MSU, @ NW, Penn State).

So, if you look at the remaining schedule in those 2 stretches….if IU can go 3-2 over the next 5 games and go 3-1 in the final 4 games, they should be in great position to be "the best of the rest", meaning 3rd place behind Wisconsin and Ohio State.

Or even if they would go 2-3 over the next 5 games and 3-1 in the final 4 games, they would would still be 10-6 in the conference and have 20 wins heading into the Big Ten tournament.

But wait, Mike Davis is no longer our coach, which means we no longer have to look at a stretch of games and think it would be OK to win 2 of the next 5 games just because we have some road games. No sir, that's a loser's mentality.

Instead, I think Sampson has this team focused on one thing and one thing only -- tomorrow night's game against Wisconsin. And if they do pull off the victory against Wisconsin, then Hoosier fans don't have to talk about "the best of the rest". Instead, we can talk about contending for a Big Ten title. Of course, the team still has to take it one game at a time, but the fans can talk about whatever they want.

Even though I wouldn't put money down in Vegas on this prediction, I do believe in the power of positive thinking. And that is why I am predicting a buzzer-beating Hoosier victory! IU 67 Wisconsin 66.

Tucker is a true star and I think he will have a good game, but I think our shooters really like Assembly Hall. The 3-point shooting will be the difference and the Hoosiers will pull out a close one. And then I get to bring donuts into work and send out an email that says "all of you Badger fans without any pride can stop over for some verbal abuse and a donut." The sad thing is that they do actually stop over (I have done this in previous years).

Go IU!


REMINDER: Eric Gordon on ESPN2 on Thursday!

IU 76 Michigan 61

So it was ugly at times, it's still a nice win. At times, they looked great and at other times, it felt a lot like the ugliness at Illinois on Tuesday.

The Hoosiers took an early 13-1 lead and pretty much controlled the game throughout. However, after being up by 20, I do have to admit that I started to get a little nervous when Michigan cut it to 8 points. I was just glad it never got any closer than that.

One item of particular concern is how many times they sent Michigan to the free throw line. They play pretty tough defense, but then commit some stupid fouls. If they wouldn't have fouled so much, they probably would have won this game by 40 points. Of course, they made up for it with their 3-point shooting, but they have to stop fouling so much.

I thought D.J. and Wilmont were the keys in building the lead, but then it was Bassett and Mike White that closed the door on this game. It was also good to see Stemler hit some shots again and Ratliffe provided some punch off the bench as well. It sounds like Ratliffe's wrist is pretty bad and will require surgery at the end of the year, but he seems to be playing pretty well through the pain.

This game was a must-win to set up the big show-down with Wisconsin on Wednesday. If they could knock off the Badgers, they would be in good position to make a run at the Big Ten title.

Go Hoosiers!

IU 43 Illinois 51

I always hate to lose, but I REALLY hate to lose like that. IU was winning 18-11 with 12:00 to go in the first half and then managed to score only 19 points over the next 30 minutes. I just can't....awww, screw it, I'm not talking about this crap-ass game. I will at least give the final poll results: Only 3 out of 16 voters saw this loss coming. As for the most hated Illinois player: 5 - Dee Brown 3 - Nick Anderson (damn half-court shot ruined Jay Edwards' heroics) 2 - Lucas Johnson 2 - Other 1 - Frank Williams (screwed Haston out of Big Ten MVP) 1 - Nick Smith 1- Deron Williams

IU 77 UConn 73

"UConn-not beat IU!" says Chris Harrell shortly after the Hoosiers pick up a great road win. That may not read as well as it sounded just minutes after IU picked up the big win. Of course, we were still giddy at that point. I still thought it was worthy as a lead-in to this posting. Had the Hoosiers lost this one, there would be plenty of things to complain about, such as the rebounding, the officiating, the 19-point swing in the first half, the excessive fouling, and the inability to stop the dribble-drive. But they got a big win on the road and that's all that matters. The FT shooting was outstanding at 20-21, including 2-2 by Calloway and 4-4 by Bassett in the final minute. Those were big free throws to step and knock down. Wilmont was unbelievable and D.J. continued to play at a high level. Let's hope there were not any long-term injuries -- Calloway was clearly gimpy and Ratliffe appeared to re-injure his wrist. Hopefully, they will both be available for the Illinois game. Overall Team Performance: A- Again, there are definitely some areas that were less than impressive (especially the rebounding), but anytime you go into UConn and come out with a win, that's always going to be an A- or higher. D.J. White: B+ You'd certainly like D.J. to battle for more than 3 rebounds in a physical game like this, but he was excellent on the offensive end. Even with a 7' 3" guy guarding him, D.J. was still commanding the double-team. I thought he did a nice job of passing out of the double-team -- either for an assist (like the nice one to Mike White for a dunk) or he would pass it back out and then quickly re-post and get the ball in even better post position. He's been looking back in form the last 5 games now. Mike White: B+ "40 Cent" was given his first chance for serious minutes and played pretty well. Again, a common theme on the negative side is that you would have liked to see him come away with more rebounds. But all in all, I thought he played pretty damn good -- a nice dunk, a nice block, a couple other buckets, and 2 very important free throws late in the game. Armon Bassett: B+ Started great and finished great, but the middle was a bit "iffy". Came out of the gate on fire by hitting 3 straight trifectas. Then, at the end of the game, stepped up and calmly hits all 4 free throws in the final few possessions of the game. Those were big-time free throws for a freshman to step up and hit. Roderick Wilmont: A Considering that I said I don't mind him shooting a lot as long as he is hitting around 45%....well, then I certainly don't have a problem with 73%. Led the team in scoring and rebounding with 8-11 FGs, 2-2 FTs, 5-8 3-PT FGs. Also added in 3 steals for good measure. Earl Calloway: B+ Back-to-back games with 8 assists. Pretty gutsy performance because he was clearly in pain and limping in the second half. A.J. Ratliffe: C+ Only 10 minutes and I fear that was because he re-injured his wrist when he got tackled. I was actually surprised the officials called that one a foul. Joey Shaw: B- A couple ugly turnovers late in the game, but overall he played pretty well. Lance Stemler: D Continues to struggle as of late. Bendeman: F Took him 12 seconds to come in and commit a turnover. Can we have that scholarship back please? Poll Questions: 13 out of 17 correctly predicted today's win. 12 votes for Top 25 worthy, 4 votes for maybe, and 1 vote for not just yet. Percentage chance at at least a share of the Big 10 title: the top vote receivers were 20% (6 votes), 30% (4 votes), 70% (2 votes), 0% (2 votes), 60% (1 vote), 40% (1 vote), 10% (1 vote).

IU 71 Iowa 64

The good news is that the final score of a 7-point margin was as close as this game ever was. The bad news is that IU let a 21-point lead get cut to 7 points at all. To me, the late run by Iowa is not too concerning. Yes, it would have been nice to beat them by 20, but the run to cut it to 7 points occurred too late in the game to ever really be considered a threat. I'm searching for the right word to describe how the Hoosiers played tonight....let's go with erratic. They definitely played with a lot of energy, but they were all over the place -- out of control one second, then getting a steal and knocking down a big shot the next second. It was almost like the whole team was playing like Wilmont tonight. I'm still a big believer in giving Wilmont the green light because I think he gives the team a huge lift anytime he knocks down a big shot. The last 2 games, he has definitely launched a lot of shots, but he's hitting around 45% of them and providing a spark for the team. As for the rest of the team, I'd prefer they play a little more under control. Once again, Calloway was all over the board. For the most part, I thought he played pretty crappy. However, he had about 3 "street-ball" plays that were worthy of a couple Tivo rewinds. He had 2 no-look passes to DJ on fast-breaks and then he had a great drive and pull-up jumper where he went behind-the-back, then between the legs, then pulled up and knocked down a double-pumping 12-footer (in reality, I think it was only a single-pump, but double-pump sounds a lot better). Anyway, he finished with 8 assists, 4 turnovers, and 3 steals. Like I said, all over the board. He just needs to continue to work on when is the right time to go full speed versus when ball control is more important. Then there was Stemler. Do albinos also suffer from seizures? That's what it looked like on a couple of his jumpers tonight -- he had back-to-back airballs. On to the report card.... Overall Team Performance: B+ Clearly, you have to play well do build a 21 point lead, but I was concerned with their erratic play. Whenever you are involved in a sloppy game, I think you leave the door open for big runs just like Iowa had to close out the game. Again, this was too little, too late out of Iowa, but I do think the tough defense/ball control style of play is easier to hold leads with. Nonetheless, it was still a nice win and they are now 10-0 at home under Sampson. Wouldn't it be great if they could keep that streak going! D.J. White: A Other than a few turnovers, D.J. was awesome tonight. He was controlling the glass and was finishing around the basket, including finishing on fast breaks when fouled. Definitely an improved D.J. White compared to what we were seeing earlier in the season. Lance Stemler: D+ He finished with 7 points and 7 rebounds which isn't too bad, but he also had 3 turnovers, 2 airballs, and some stupid fouls. He was agressive on the boards, but he clearly was over-the-back on several of those. I'd like to see him get back in the groove. Armon Bassett: B+ Grade is bumped up a couple notches for banking in that 30-footer at the shot clock buzzer. It was the kind of shot that causes the heads of Iowa fans to explode and splatter all over their Craig Kingsbury poster. Roderick Wilmont: B+ As long as he is hitting 40+ % of his shots, I am fine with him firing away. This team's offense has gone stale at certain times this year, but that doesn't seem to happen when Wilmont is playing aggressively. I thought he did another nice job on the boards and chasing down loose balls. I actually thought he was working on another 10-rebound night and was shocked to see the box score only had him with 5. Nonethless, he's logged 40 points and 17 rebounds in his last two games. Earl Calloway: B- The 8 assists and highlight plays help you overlook some of the stupid plays, but you still need your point guard to play smarter. A.J. Ratliffe: B Only 15 minutes due to foul trouble (and maybe a couple bad defensive plays on Haluska), but I thought Ratliffe had another solid game. It's good to see him playing well. Joey Shaw: D+ 11 minutes of action, but couldn't get anything going. Still like the way he always plays aggressively. All in all, I'm really pumped about the way this team is playing. They are in good shape at 4-1 in the Big Ten with their only loss at Ohio State. Hopefully, they can keep it going this weekend at UConn. They are actually down this year, so it is another opportunity for the Hoosiers to knock off a big-time program. If they pull off the win, it will be time to start watching for the Hoosiers to crack the Top 25. Poll Questions: You would think by now that Cook would know that I throw some of this crap out there just to get him all riled up. I've got nothing against Stevie Hoosier even though he now coaches Iowa. In fact, he is definitely one of my all-time favorite Hoosiers. My top 3 tends to change depending on my mood -- if it's toughness, then guys like Moye and Coverdale tend to be up there. If it's just based on how good they were as a Hoosier, then it's definitely guys like Alford and Cheaney. Anyway, Steve Alford IS the greatest shooter that college basketball has ever seen. Ryun - you will be pleased to know that nobody actually selected the option of "Alford is an ass just like Knight". See, nobody thinks that and I was just throwing it out there to get a reaction out of you. However, I do think you might be stuck in 1987 and might need to start an "All hail the General" blog. I was a big Knight fan when he coached IU, but I am an IU basketball fan first and foremost. So, I definitely appreciate what Knight did at IU and I think he is one of the greatest coaches of all time, but my focus is always on the current year's team. As for the results of the Alford question, most of the voters (6) still see Alford in an IU uniform knocking down jumpers. I tend to picture the '87 championship game where he came off a screen, nailed a 3 at the half-time buzzer, and trotted on into the locker room. There were also 2 votes each for Top 3 favorite Hoosier of all-time, great player/horrible coach, and makes me sick to see him in black & yellow. 5 votes correctly predicted the 4-9 point victory, while 3 voters thought it would be 10-plus (which it should have been). Go Hoosiers!

IU 84 Penn St 74

Sorry for the late posting. I'm sure everyone has at least read about the Penn State game if they were not able to watch it on Saturday, so I'll be brief. Overall Team Performance: B- They won on the road and that's the most important thing. They didn't play particularly well especially on the defensive end, but they found a way to win. If you didn't see the game, the 10-point margin is misleading. IU did not get their first lead until mid-way through the 2nd half. Their defense was horrendous in the 1st half and allowed Penn State to build a double-digit lead. Wilmont single-handedly kept IU in the game by pouring in 20 first half points. IU made a nice run to close the lead to 1 point at halftime. In the second half, Wilmont kept shooting but unfortunately he had cooled off quite a bit. The good news was that Ratliffe came in and hit a few 3s of his own. Bassett wasn't playing very well up until he hit two big 3s during the stretch where IU finally took the lead. I thought DJ had a really solid game. Penn State's zone defense was not letting him get any good looks, but DJ was a monster on the offensive glass and got most of his points on put-backs. Stemler was a no-show, Calloway showed no brains, and Shaw barely even played. Bendeman and Mike White were solid in their limited minutes. Roderick Wilmont: A- 25 points and 12 rebounds. He took a lot of shots (some of them bad shots), but he played hard and kept the Hoosiers in the game in the 1st half. A.J. Ratliffe: A- A.J. has looked great in the last 2 games after coming back from the wrist injury. D.J. White: A- He worked hard to earn his points. 14 points and 11 rebounds is a solid effort. Earl Calloway: C- Some very poor decisions, such as pulling up for a 3 on a 1-on-4 fast break. Armon Bassett: B Struggled for most of the game, but hit a pair of big 3s during a key stretch in the 2nd half. Lance Stemler: D- No factor in the game. Joey Shaw: C- Only 3 minutes. Not sure if that was just because AJ & Rod were playing well or if he did something wrong. Mike White: B Had a nice blocked shot and a couple hoops. Ben Allen: B I can't remember what they were but I do remember Chris and I talking that Bendeman actually did a couple things right. Xavier Keeling: C+ Generally plays solid aggressive defense, but committed some stupid fouls on Saturday. Poll Results: 7 people correctly predicted a 10-19 point win, but I don't think it came as easily as anyone had hoped. 2 people had predicted a blow-out and 3 people predicted a close win. All 9 votes were for Brian Cardinal as the most hated boiler, although there was a write-in for Brad Miller. I wasn't too surprised by this -- Cardinal was pretty easy to hate. I think his little face-wipe thing he did at the FT line sealed the hatred in the eyes of IU fans. What an idiot. As for best coach in the Big Ten, no big surprise here -- 8 votes for Bo Ryan, 2 votes for Izzo, and 1 vote for Matta. Hopefully, by this time next year, Sampson will be getting some of those votes, but I think we all want to see results on the court first. Go Hoosiers!

IU 85 Purdue 58

Let me start by apologizing for any typing errors as I am typing this without a pinky finger on my left hand. Yep, that's what I had to give up in order to watch this game on TV -- a pinky finger plus $11 for the Sports Pack on DirectTV. I think it is an absolute travesty that a majority of people in the state of Indiana did not get to watch this game because it was on ESPNU. We are talking about people that have watched every IU/Purdue game for the last 30 years in the comfort of their own living room. This ESPNU and NFL Network stuff is a bunch of crap. Anyway, on to bigger and better things such as IU's blowout win over arch rival Purdue tonight! But before we get to that, I want to give a shout-out to Troy Fields and that shout-out goes something like this: Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HAAAAA!!!!! Purdue Loser!!!! Sorry, sometimes my immaturity becomes an overwhelming force. As always, much love to the brother-in-law even though he is a PU grad. Now, on to the game.... This was just a good old-fashioned butt-whippin'. I am all sorts of fired up about how the Hoosiers have played in their last 2 games -- back-to-back 20-plus point wins in conference play. Outstanding. Now, they need to take the show on the road. IU is 0-3 on the road, so they need to get on the winning track when they head to Penn State this weekend. Of course, the 3 road losses are @ Duke, @ Kentucky, and @ OSU so it hasn't exactly been an easy road scheduled. In fact, the Hoosiers road schedule for the entire year is incredibly difficult -- at Duke, Kentucky, Ohio State, Penn St, UConn, Illinois, Iowa, Purdue, Michigan, & Michigan State. In reality, the upcoming Penn State game is the only game on that list where you would say that the Hoosiers should definitely win that one. Even so, Penn State is playing improved basketball this year so IU better be ready to take care of business. On to the report card..... Overall Team Performance: A Started sloppy in the first 10 minutes, but when you overcome that by playing solid in the final 30 minutes and demolishing your rival by 30 points, that earns you an A. What I really like about the last 2 games is that they built a lead and just kept adding to it. In today's game of college basketball, an 11 point lead with 1 minute to play is not safe (see last night's near comeback by OSU), but the Hoosiers have managed to build leads and never look back. Two areas that have shown major improvements from the start of the year -- turnovers and FT shooting. Tonight, 14 turnovers is more than we would like to see, but lately IU has been around 10-12 per game which compares very favorably to the 18-22 per game we were seeing earlier in the year. Also, FT shooting was really bad early on, but the Hoosiers have been lights out from the stripe thus far in Big Ten play. Kelvin Sampson: A As we all wishfully predicted, it does seem that this team is starting to come together. Sampson has stuck with his philosophy and it looks like it is starting to pay-off. Sampson has denied all my interview requests so I am just guessing at his philosophy, but it appears that you either play defense and play hard or you don't play. I'm still not a huge fan of the Sampson offense, but the offense definitely gets fueled when he gets what he wants out of his defense. Thus, by sticking with his philosophy, the defense continues to get better and it looks like the offense is benefiting from that. I think we have a really good coach and IU basketball is back. D.J. White: B+ Defense was terrific in the first half with 5 blocked shots. Heading into this game, I thought if D.J. could neutralize Landry, then the rest of our players were better than the rest of their players. Landry got a few more points by getting to the FT line, but all in all, I thought D.J. and Landry were pretty much a wash and the rest of our guys were about 30 points better than the rest of their guys. Lance Stemler: B For a couple minutes there, I thought that maybe he had suffered another concussion because he had back-to-back plays where he looked like he was having a seizure. If you didn't see the game, he tried a jump-hook from about 14 feet that didn't draw iron. Then, on the next defensive play, some PU schlep gave him a minor move and his knees buckled. Other than those 2 plays, he was pretty solid. Armon Bassett: A- Maybe a surprising grade if you look at his stat line, but I have my reasons. 2 of Armon's 3 turnovers were early in the game where it looked like he was anxious to school some Purdue scum. The good doctor and I watched the game together and both really like Bassett. Here's why: I am a HUGE believer in the importance of penetration on the offensive end. If you can penetrate and get into (or even near) the lane, that puts pressure on the defense. Once you get into the lane, usually another defender has a choice to make -- leave his man to help or stay with his man and give an open shot. In addition, a vast majority of fouls are drawn when driving to the basket -- something that IU needs to do more of! Tonight, even when Bassett or Calloway missed a floater after penetrating, it still led to a positive result for the Hoosiers -- there were a couple offensive rebounds and put-backs on those plays because the defender had stepped up and could no longer block out. So, Bassett gets the A- because I think he has been the key to making this offense work the last couple of games. Every time he gets the ball, he probes. If something is there, he goes. If not, he backs out, but he is always putting pressure on the defense. Unfortunately, our fan-favorite Wilmont just simply is not getting it done in this category. Roderick Wilmont: B Hmmm....I thought this team needed D.J. and Wilmont to score about 30-35 a game for this team to have a chance. Well, tonight, it was somewhere around 10 and they won big. Wilmont seems to be struggling with the "J" lately, but I think the reason he ranks so highly in the eyes of the fans.....yep, 10 more rebounds tonight. I believe this is the 3rd game of the year that he had pulled down 10 boards. Unfortunately, it seems that they are never in double-double fashion. Instead, it always seems to be on a night he is struggling offensively. But hey, if you can't hit the jump-shot, you better help out in other ways or you will be grabbing some splinters. I still see a big game out of Wilmont in the very near future. After all, "In Rod We Trust". Earl Calloway: B Always a struggle to grade Earl. He does some really questionable things but then he does some great things. As long as the team is winning big, we can live with the questionable things and give Earl a B. Just checked the box score and couldn't believe he only had 2 turnovers. I would call it: Actual turnovers = 2 Near turnovers = 9 A.J. Ratliffe: A+ Game-time decision with the wrist injury, but he came in and blew this game wide open. 6-6 from the field, including 4-4 from the arc and a dunk plus a couple of blocked shots and a couple of steals. When he went down with the injury, I was saying it was the one position that we could afford it because we have Wilmont, Bassett, and Shaw. However, if he can play like this, Wilmont may become the odd man out if he doesn't step it up soon. Joey Shaw: A Granted, his defense is suspect and he picks up fouls faster than Nik Heynen picks up party fouls. But the object of basketball is to put the biscuit in the basket and this kid can surely do that. He came in tonight and poured in 19. Sometimes he looks unorthodox doing it, but it goes in the basket. A couple more things that I really like about Shaw -- he was solid as a "late in the shot clock" guy tonight. I think you need to have that guy if you are going to be successful in some of these ugly defensive-minded Big Ten games. And what I liked even more was how he did it....remember when Bracey would just jack up a 25-footer....that's not what Shaw was doing. Instead, Shaw was penetrating (see above notes) and was drawing fouls or converting with only a couple seconds on the shot clock. X-Man: B+ Maybe a little raw, but I am really starting to like this freshman class of Bassett, Shaw, and Keeling. The future is bright for IU basketball. Mike White: C- I guess we saw why "40 cent" isn't getting a whole lot of PT and it wasn't his FT shooting. Two things stood out tonight when "40" was in the game -- one, you just had this feeling of 'we need D.J. back in there to guard Landry' and two, he has the hands of da Brick House (which I believe was also a nickname option). One series of plays that has to be pointed out if you did not get to see the game. On one possession, "40" got a nice feed for a wide-open dunk, he went up and realized he may not be high enough so he tried to just lay it over the rim, but it caught the rim, bounced on the rim 3 or 4 times and then bounced out. It literally looked like all he had to do was drop the ball in the basket and he missed it. It was the kind of miss that you could hear the crowd gasp. As a player, you can only hope that you get a chance to redeem yourself at some point in the future. Fortunately for "40 cent", his opportunity for redemption came about 15 seconds later. IU got the ball back and someone gave "40" another great feed just inside the FT line. This time, he took a quick dribble, built up some momentum, and gave it a monster dunk. The players on the bench, including D.J., went wild. Ben Allen: not worthy of a grade Was pretty convinced that he had quit the team until there was a Bendeman citing in the final 5 minutes of this blow-out game. It should be noted that he was in there at the same time as Kyle Taber and it was difficult to tell the two of them apart. If this trend continues, there may be a need for a Ben Allen/Kyle Taber mixed nick-name -- perhaps Ken or Byle? Or if you put it all together, it could be Kendeman. Kyle Taber: F It seems impossible to get an F in a blow-out win over PU and Taber had been grading well previously in garbage minutes, but it was not his night tonight. It all started when he had an apparent easy save under IU's basket. However, after he had leaped in the air, grabbed the ball (again, this was all easy, it wasn't like he was diving or anything), turned to throw it back in, and then proceeded to hurl it off the back of the backboard. Now, I know that it is clear glass and you can see through it, but anybody that has been playing basketball for more than 3 minutes in their life should know it's there. Then, he had another horrible play that I don't care to describle and a couple fouls and some other crap-ass plays. In the end, he was an embarrassment to the uniform. Errek Suhr: B Average in 9 minutes of play. Adam Ahlfeld: C Not as embarrassing as Taber. Poll Results 3 people correctly predicted a 13-plus point victory over Purdue, but they were in the minority. 4 people predicted a 6-12 point win and 4 people predicted a win by 5 or less. As for the rivaly, the majority (6 votes) limited the rivaly to the Top 3 in the Big Ten. 3 people gave it the credibility of Top 3 in college hoops, and 1 person puts in the Top 3 of all sports. My personal opinion is that the IU/Purdue rivalry currently stands as a great Big 10 rivalry, but nobody else in the country will care much about it until the teams are top ranked teams in the country again. However, I have a feeling that the rivalry may get back to the status of the glory years in the very near future -- both IU and Purdue have excellent recruiting classes coming in next year and I think they both have very good new coaches. As early as next year, I think the IU/Purdue game may have implications on the Big Ten title. Go Hoosiers!

IU 73 MSU 51

Overall Team Performance: A Wow, what a performance by the Hoosiers! I think this was their best game of the year. MSU's defense was only giving up 55 points a game until today. I thought IU's offense finally had some rhythm and they really attacked the offensive glass. Even though MSU shot a good FG %, IU easily won the turnover battle and turned those turnovers into points. D.J. White: A- Do you think D.J. enjoyed getting the ball and not seeing The Chief behind him. Today, D.J. got the ball, made his move, and converted. Lance Stemler: B+ Stemler was ice cold from the arc, but he did a lot of other things well. He had a nice driving 3-point play and two tip-ins. Also, the one 3 he hit was a big one. After IU quickly built the lead to 15 in the 2nd half, MSU went on an 8-0 run to cut it to 7. But then Stemler hit a 3 to push it right back to 10 and never looked back. Roderick Wilmont: B Had a solid game. Armon Bassett: B Also a solid game. Earl Calloway: B+ As always with Earl, a couple bonehead plays, but overall he played really well. Did a nice job on Neitzel and did a nice job running the offense. Errek Suhr: A This is exactly what we want out of Suhr -- come in and give the team a spark. In his last 2 games, he had played 18 minutes and literally had zeroes in the box score. Today, he came in and was everywhere. Nicely done. Joey Shaw: C Really kind of struggled today. Mike White: A Finally saw some minutes today and he made the most of it. I really like this guy -- he is a boulder down there on the block. He even made some free throws today. Xavier Keeling: A- Known today as "Wheeling" to Verne Lundquist. Really does a nice job on defense by getting into the passing lanes, etc. Poll Results The final results are in on the Knight question -- everyone agrees he's a great coach, but 12 people think he's a great coach while being a tremendous asshole, while 10 people can look past his "assholedness" to appreciate the great coaching as a huge fan of The General. Judging strickly by votes, your starting 5 would be Calloway (12), Ratliffe or Bassett (6 each), Wilmont (8), Stemler (11), and D.J. (12). Also receiving votes were Shaw (3), and Bendeman (2). As for predicting the Hoosiers Big 10 record: 9 votes for 10-6 4 votes for 9-7 1 vote each for 12-4, 11-5, and 8-8 Against MSU, everyone predicted a tight game with 7 votes predicting a win and 3 a loss. As for the biggest factor in the OSU loss, 5 votes for bad defense, 4 votes for inferior talent, and 1 vote for bad officiating. Go Hoosiers!

IU 67 OSU 74

I still contend that there is no freakin' way that Greg Oden is 18 years old. You know that feeling when something is just not right. Well, I finally figured it out and as the old saying goes, "where there's smoke, there's fire". You just won't believe where I found the smoke. Let me take you back to the playing days of Robert "The Chief" Parrish. You see, The Chief did not leave the game on his own terms. If you recall, late in his career, he was busted for receiving some wacky tobacky in the mail. Although, I don't know how you can really fault a Chief for taking a few hits on the peace pipe. Anyway, while smoking some of that doobage, he dreamed up a grand scheme to get back in the game. What was that grand scheme, you ask? GROW A BEARD AND ENROLL AT LAWRENCE NORTH HIGH SCHOOL UNDER THE NAME OF GREGORY ODEN. ************ There is a lot of parity these days in college basketball, but you know what still separates the great teams from the pretty good teams? It's how often they win the big games. Sure, there are plenty of upsets to go around this year in college hoops, but the great teams win the big games more often than not. I don't know about you, but I am tired of IU competing in these games but still losing them. Granted, this year's schedule has all of these big games on the road -- @ Duke (without Stemler), @ Kentucky, @ UConn, and @ Ohio State (without Ratliffe and without OSU making a return trip to Bloomington). Even so, I'm tired of losing these games -- it's been going on at IU for the last 12 years and that is why IU has fallen from elite to bubble. What a great opportunity the Hoosiers had tonight. If they pull off the win tonight, they then have 15 games remaining in the Big Ten with none of those games against Ohio State and only playing Wisconsin once and that game is at Assembly Hall. Instead, they competed their asses off to keep it a close game throughout but just couldn't get it done in the end. Now, you're 0-1 in the Big Ten and you've got another tough game against Michigan State this week that feels like a must win (Note: I feel like all IU games are must wins). You do have to give credit to Ohio State. Robert Parrish (aka Greg Oden) is a phenomonal talent and their other freshman can flat out play as well. Add in some solid experienced players, that other tall dude that was dunking all night, a good coach, and you have a team that will be very tough to beat. Overall Team Performance: C+ Hey, it was a great effort and their were times that they bounced right back when it looked like OSU was getting ready to deliver the knock-out blow, but it's still a loss. It's concerning when you hit over 50% of your 3s and 100% of your free throws and you still lose by 7 points. That tells me that even with a hot shooting night, you got outplayed in every other aspect of the game. I thought the defense was pretty crappy tonight. I know Greg Oden is a freak of nature and he's going to get about 4 dunks in every game. But their whole team was dunking on us after severe defensive breakdowns. D.J. White: somewhere between an A- and D+ I'm really struggling with this grade. On the one hand, he was clearly outplayed by Oden. That, in of itself, is not too concerning, but I really didn't like the plays where he just out-hustled him down the floor or missed a block-out on a free throw (even though that tip-in was definitely goal-tending). On the offensive end, 3-14 just ain't gonna cut it. He either needs to be more convincing that he is getting fouled or he needs to convert on those shots. Now, on the other hand, I thought D.J. worked his ass off tonight. And I thought he did exactly what IU needed him to do and that was go right after Oden. I liked that he didn't back down and he did eventually get Oden into foul trouble. I'll give Oden the credit of great defense on many of D.J.'s misses. However (and I hate to do this because I've really been trying not to let officiating get under my skin), I really thought that Oden and Hunter definitely fouled him on 3 or 4 of those. One of them really made me mad because D.J. got hammered, no call, and OSU goes down and hits a 3 in transition. What looked like could have been a tie game was now a 5 point lead. Anyway, that's over and done with. But if we meet Ohio State in the Big Ten Tourney, I will want D.J. to play the same way. Take it right at him. Unfortunately, by the time Oden picked up his 4th foul, D.J. was on empty. Now that I've talked it out, I really liked the way D.J. played and attacked. If he continues to play that way, I think he will get some of those calls, but more importantly, I think he'll knock down a lot of those shots. So, we're going to go with a B for D.J. tonight. Lance Stemler: C+ Foul trouble again cost him some minutes tonight. Glad to see the shooting stroke is definitely back. Earl Calloway: C- His defense on Conley was horrible on several possessions. It was usually Conley's penetration that led to the dunks. Armon Bassett: B Similar to D.J. in that the results weren't always there but I did like the way he played. He seems to dribble with a purpose -- he makes the defense work. Roderick Wilmont: C- They could've really used some of his steals for easy layups or something like that to get over the hump. Other than hitting a couple jumpers, it didn't seem like he did a whole lot. Ben Allen: C- I'm not wasting my time talking about Bendeman anymore this year until he does something good. Joey Shaw: A- I know that his defense was horrendous and he did miss a couple open shots, but he single-handedly came in the game in the first half and kept the Hoosiers in the game. Without him coming in and knocking down his first 4 shots in only a few minutes, this game may have been over at halftime. You have to like a freshman that comes into his first Big Ten game on the road against the # 6 team in the country and he comes out guns blazin'. Xavier Keeling: B Came in and did exactly what he was asked to do. Mike White: did not play 2 theories on why Mike White does not play -- either he is the worst practice player ever or it's Doc Pearce's theory that maybe he's sleeping with Sampson's daughter. Kelvin Sampson: C- Winless in big games. I wasn't sure about the 1-3-1 at the end of the game -- they lucked out on the first possession because Ohio State missed a wide-open 3. But the very next possession, they got another wide-open 3 and delivered the dagger by knocking it down. Poll Results As for the % chance of beating OSU, 4 votes at 20% was the most popular choice, with 10%, 30%, 40%, and 60% each receiving 1 vote. I've left the other poll questions up for now in case people have not had a chance to way in yet. Go Hoosiers!