Hoosiers Rejoice in Kentucky Loss

If you are a life-long Indiana Hoosier fan, then you were born with an innate hatred of the Kentucky Wildcats. My mom always told me that I should not revel in other's misfortunes, but I couldn't help myself last night as Kentucky was getting throttled by Gardner-Webb. And I do mean throttled. The final score was 84-68 and it included Gardner-Webb starting the game with a 14-0 run. So, let's take a closer look at this Kentucky debacle. I'll give you that there is much more parity in today's college basketball and the mid-majors like Butler and George Mason have shown that they are more than capable of playing with the big boys. But this is Gardner-Webb. This is not a senior-laden team that has been on the cusp of breaking through for the last few years. This isn't even Grand Valley State who is actually a very good top-10 division II school. This is Gardner-Webb. This is a team that had 9 wins last year and was picked to finish 8th in the Atlantic Sun conference. That's the Atlantic Sun with the likes of Stetson, S.C. Upstate, North Florida, Mercer, Lipscomb, Kennesaw St., Jacksonville, Florida Gulf Coast, East Tennessee St., Campbell, and Belmont. The other great part about this was how excited the Kentucky fans were to have Billy Gillispie at the realm. Now I am not saying that Kentucky won't rebound from this because I think they will. And I do think Gillispie is a good coach. However, I am just enjoying how quickly the bubble was burst for the Kentucky fans and the miserable feeling that they have in their stomachs today. Hey KY fans, more bad news -- you don't play again for 14 days! Good luck getting that feeling out of your gut any time soon. Of course, this upset along with the exhibition losses by Michigan State and Ohio State leads to this question -- could IU fall victim to a major upset this year? Last year and any of the previous 10-15 years, the answer would be "quite possibly". This year, the answer is an emphatic "no". This year, the Hoosiers have too much talent, depth, and skill at all positions to fall victim to a major upset. With D.J. inside, a great backcourt, solid all-around players on the wing, and depth at each of those positions, IU simply has too many options on offense. Add in the fact that Sampson will have these guys playing tough defense (even though they didn't always show it in exhibition game 1), I just don't see the Hoosiers getting upset by one of the "cupcakes" on their schedule. I want to get back to something I said earlier -- I said my mom always told me that I should not revel in other's misfortunes. Well, either she didn't actually tell me that or I wasn't listening because I am absolutely loving it that Kentucky went down to a nobody and all their fans are beside themselves. Hopefully, IU can make this an all-around miserable season for Kentucky by beating them up on December 8th when they meet in Assembly Hall. Go Hoosiers!