Odds & Ends

Great quote from Sampson on his radio show: It was reported after the Minnesota game that Ratliff played only a couple minutes because he was sick. Here's Sampson's take: "A.J.’s biggest problem at Minnesota was not his temperature of 101. It was his inability to guard his man." #5 Tennessee just lost to Kentucky -- Another spot available for the Hoosiers if they can get a pair of home wins this week against Iowa and UConn. Wisconsin Wisconsin went to an impressive 6-0 in conference play tonight. Although they limped to a home victory against Michigan, I have been very impressed with Wisconsin. I honestly thought they would be down a little bit after losing Tucker, but this team looks as good if not better than last year's team. Flowers and Hughes have been great at the guard position. Butch is having a good year. Landry shows flashes of greatness. Krabbenhoft actually leads the team in assists. Then, if Butch or Krabbenhoft comes out, they bring in another guy in Stiemsma that looks just like Butch and Krabbenhoft. I swear those 3 guys could be triplets. They also have a couple 3-point shooters that they bring off the bench. And finally, they might just have the best coach in the Big Ten. Right now, they are playing great team basketball and I definitely consider the Badgers a Big Ten title contender. (Note: don't read this as some sort of lovefest toward Wisconsin and think that Jeff likes all Wisconsin pro teams, so maybe he is pulling for the Badgers as a second-favorite team. Definitely not. In fact, my living in Wisconsin had led me to really hate the Badgers and all my Badger co-workers -- what a bunch of idiots. They embarrass themselves anytime they try to talk basketball. Anyway, I think you get the point, I don't like the Badgers, but I do respect them and they have me a bit nervous now. I thought the Big Ten would be a 2-team race between IU and MSU, but Wisconsin is looking strong as well.) Michigan State I doubt that Michigan State is going to lose any more ground in the Big Ten standings any time soon. There next 5 games are @Northwestern, Michigan, Illinois, @ Penn State, and Northwestern. Bad News for IU: Wisconsin and Michigan State play each other only once. Purdue and Ohio State have been looking pretty good and would appear to be putting together pretty solid tournament resumes at this point in the season. Prediction: IU 74 Iowa 63 Go Hoosiers!