Best Lineup Combination: Victor Oladipo and Gus Johnson

There's just something about Gus Johnson that when you see that he is doing a game, you just know something exciting is going to happen.  I'm starting to get the exact same feeling about Victor Oladipo.  This kid certainly has a flare for the dramatic early in his IU career.

As expected, the Hoosiers let North Carolina hang around waaaaaay too long, but did eventually push the lead to 20 and secured a 72-56 victory to move to 5-0 on the season.

I personally thought IU played like crap, but they balanced the crappy play with some bright spots:

* When IU needed it most in the first half, Derek Elston provided a nice spark off the bench by hitting 3 consecutive shots and allowing IU to finally get a little breathing room that was capped off by Oladipo's buzzer shot for a 10-point lead at half.

* Christian Watford struggled from the field with a 4-14 performance, but continued to take advantage of his opportunities at the line by hitting 9 of 10 from the charity stripe.

* In addition to Elston, Jeremiah Rivers, Victor Oladipo, Will Sheehey, and Daniel Moore all did good things off the bench to help get this victory. 

* Jordan Hulls can flat out shoot.  Crean and Hulls should be watching Steve Alford video non-stop because I think they should be working harder to get Hulls 3-point looks.

Next Up:  Typically, this is where I would simply put IU's next game which will be Friday night at Assembly Hall against Northwestern State, and then I'd be done with it.  But it's not going to be a quiet week for IU. And possibly in more ways than one.

First, we have the Yogi Ferrell commitment tomorrow.  This would be HUGE news for IU to keep the recruiting momentum going and to get the true Point Guard that they need.  At the same time, with all the speculation that it will be IU when Yogi makes his announcement, it would be a HUGE disappointment if Yogi would choose to go elsewhere.  And if you didn't see it earlier today, there has been a bit of drama around the announcement and Indy Star's reporting today.

And maybe, just maybe, Yogi's announcement won't be the only big IU news this week.  I'm putting a guess out there and it is purely a guess (that has the potential of turning into a threat) that Guy will be cleared prior to Friday night's tip-off.  And knowing the NCAA, it will be about an hour before tip-off.  It's just a guess, but everything seems to be lining up.  First, if there are only 5 games in question, then sitting out 5 games would seem to be appropriate.  Second, I will just happen to be driving through Indy around noon on my way down to the game and I have a prepared message for the NCAA that I am convinced will speed along the process.

With that, I will bid everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and let's hope for some good news over the next few days and a 6-0 start come end of day Friday.

Go Hoosiers!