Exile on Waveland

y u mad bro? \:D/ It was with Jeff Meyer who tried to help ruin IU basketball with Sampson. This is one time I hope Crean's spazzness was even spazzier.

Typical Illinois fan not giving any credit to the team that came back and won. Funny how we see things differently depending on bias.

Evansville Bosse (Lyle's team) lost in the regional semifinal today by 17 to Greensburg. Sigh.

Caleb Porter is the man. But I'm a bit biased here.

Love this. Huh, so did I . . . haha. Alexander is a beast. While IU has recruited him, if it's not Michigan State one would think he'll stay at home in-state.

(including Exile on Waveland) http://northsidebaseball.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=56904&p=2400506&hilit=Butler%27s+leading#p2400506 For sure. I thought the program was too weak for him to commit (thus similar, if not complete, logic why the older brothers didn't commit). But I wasn't the one saying "meh" to Crean landing Zeller; that was you. While it may seem so in retrospect, it was not a fait accompli and Crean deserves a lot of credit for that.

Speaking as a fan of a team that got one of them, I wish you'd gotten all 3. Ha ha yeah. Luke was well less than a great college player. That certainly didn't change the fortunes of either Notre Dame or IU.

Forgot about them. Isnt the South in Lexington though? Lexington hosts the first two games (first and second rounds in old lingo, second and third rounds in current lame lingo). There was some debate if IU would get sent to Dayton or Lexington if they do get a No. 1 seed, though it seems like it would be Dayton. The South Regional is in Arlington, Texas. I prefer "Round of 64" and "Round of 32". Yes, that is much better.

Forgot about them. Isnt the South in Lexington though? Lexington hosts the first two games (first and second rounds in old lingo, second and third rounds in current lame lingo). There was some debate if IU would get sent to Dayton or Lexington if they do get a No. 1 seed, though it seems like it would be Dayton. The South Regional is in Arlington, Texas.

Frankly, I'd rather not be in the Midwest if Louisville ends up being the No. 2 seed in the Midwest. (And I have tickets to the Indianapolis games.)

Oladipo yes, Zeller, meh. And 25-5 in this Big Ten is really damn impressive. While they should've won a couple of those 5, they also won @ OSU and @ MSU Yeah, you guys got about what you should have out of this group up to this point. Butler? (Though the Butler-versus-Indiana-in-Indianapolis thing mitigates that to me, at least.) And many, many people did not think IU would get Zeller (including SSR) based on the state of the program. Though, I can assure you, all three Zellers wanted to go to IU, it just wasn't really realistic/feasible considering their family and the state of the program at the times.

I agree he has done an amazing job. He is weird but main thing I get puzzled with is some of his in game coaching decisions like randomly playing zone defense even though we aren't good at it and his substitution patterns are beyond bizarre at times. I wish he would tighten up the rotation to 7-8 guys. Our bench sucks and plays too many minutes at times. For sure, he's done an amazing job. While people complain about his coaching tactics in-game (rightfully, in my opinion, as sometimes it's inexplicable), this misses the forest for the trees. The job of a coach is to win. Recruiting is, at least, as big of a part of that as anything, and probably more. Player development matters a lot too. Globally, I don't find it very relevant if the winning is done because of recruiting or coaching (and it will never be fair to compare Crean to Knight in 1987 or 1989). IU is 25-5, that is what matters.* *(Now, that said, I find myself thinking that IU should be better than 25-5 with this roster . . . but maybe a better tactical coach doesn't land Zeller or doesn't recruit and help Oladipo develop, etc., etc.)

It's incredible how just about all of the 1-seed candidates have at least one inexplicable loss on their resume. IU's the only one I can think of without a really terrible one (road losses to Illinois and Minnesota are nothing to be ashamed of). Every game they've lost has been to a team that's going to be a top 7 seed in the NCAA's. But I am ashamed of the Ohio St. loss. I just dont think they are a very good team. I think Illinois is a more complete team actually. Not that OSU is bad, but as I said earlier, can't lose that game on that day under those circumstances on Tuesday. Have to say . . . one wonders if that result wasn't caused, at least in part, by their coaching planning a Big Ten title celebration, full with trophy presentation and cutting of the nets, proir to the game. I thought that if IU won the Big Ten title outright and celebrated after the Ohio State game, then the Michigan game could be a difficult mental-hangover type game. Never would I have expected that to come after backing into a shared title (likely multiple-ways!).

And the cutting down of the nets after a loss was, um, . . . unique.

Those are remnants from the Knight-era. Knight only believed in banners for national achievements, eschewing banners even for Big Ten titles (with the exception being 1983). In general, I think this is a pretty difficult thing to complain about with IU, considering they've been probably the most discerning program when it comes to this (it's been awhile since I've been to most of these arenas, but I'm guessing IU was the only school that did not hang Big Ten banners, and may still be the only one without individualized Big Ten banners--the former may even be true for all programs across conferences). This might be the last time I get to say this, however, as I'm pretty sure "participation ribbons" will soon be the order of the day. My point is most IU fans seem to think Purdue hanging a Helms banner is the height of comedy, and they have a UPI and pre-season champs (what is that even?) banner hanging in their gym. I think the difference would be that Purdue fans tend to count the Helms title (which was voted on years later, after-the-fact) as an actual national championship and I've never heard a single IU fan count the UPI thing as anything worthwhile or even know that it really exists (it was voted on at the time, at least). Purdue has every right to hang the Helms banner--and, frankly, I would too--but it's not a "national championship" by any common understanding of that term for college basketball. There is no "preseason" banner. There is an NIT banner, which includes both postseason and preseason NIT victories (Knight loved the NIT). The postseason NIT banner has been there since it was won, and IU then added the preseason NIT victories to the bottom of the NIT banner. IU has won other preseason tournaments and does not hang banners for them, so this is more accurately described as an "NIT banner" not a "preseason banner." Basically, both the UPI and the (preseason) NIT banners were ways of recognizing teams that were very, very good but failed to win a national title and thus meet the standard Knight had personally set for hanging banners (at that point, IU did not hang Big Ten banners). They're both a bit of an historical oddity, and whether they should be there, or if I'd personally hang them, is different. Either way, IU has, to this point, been very discerning about when to hang banners and how many. (Though, again, I suspect that is about to change in a significant, disappointing way.)

Those are remnants from the Knight-era. Knight only believed in banners for national achievements, eschewing banners even for Big Ten titles (with the exception being 1983). In general, I think this is a pretty difficult thing to complain about with IU, considering they've been probably the most discerning program when it comes to this (it's been awhile since I've been to most of these arenas, but I'm guessing IU was the only school that did not hang Big Ten banners, and may still be the only one without individualized Big Ten banners--the former may even be true for all programs across conferences). This might be the last time I get to say this, however, as I'm pretty sure "participation ribbons" will soon be the order of the day.

Creek had not played more than seven minutes in any non-blowout and had not played more than five minutes in any single digit game. He had played a combined eight minutes the last three games. He played zero in IU's win at Ohio State. And yet he played seven minutes in a game IU was trying to win the outright Big Ten title--including being on the floor with under eight minutes remaining. I would really like someone to explain that to me, even though I know there is no rational reason besides caffeine.

IU evidently thought the season ended when they won at Michigan State; they have not been the same team since. However, regardless of the slumping play, the same issues are ever prevalent. You could tell within the first five minutes of that game that IU was going to struggle to win. Ohio State did a great job playing physical with IU, not letting IU get any offensive flow, and IU inevitably became stagnant (as they mostly do in the halfcourt). Play physical in the half court and you give IU issues (even better if you have a jump-shooting big man and can run pick-and-rolls with Zeller guarding him). It's why the second and/or third NCAA Tournament games could be nightmares for this team--possibly even harder than the next couple depending on who they play, if they happen to get that far. Should be an interesting game this weekend, neither team is playing as well as when they met earlier in the season.

And go Big Blue. And the Hoosiers clinch a share of the Big Ten title -- first since 2002. They can win it outright with a win on Tuesday. Would be IU's first outright title since 1993. I was really hoping this team could break that streak and then hopefully make the Final Four (not saying I wouldn't turn down more, but still).

And go Big Blue.

Boiler up.

Lyle had 41 points, 21 rebounds and six assists last night in sectional semifinal win. I keep reading we lead for him. I hope Groce can land him. Would have liked to have seen that. Maybe when they make their way closer to this area; I went to the Warren Central sectional (Trey Lyles, Collin Hartman, Jalen Coleman). Me too, a guard getting twenty one rebounds. That's crazy. Twenty-three points, twelve rebounds, and ten assists in a win last night. They play next week in Washington, making it unlikely I go. I'll let you know if so (I've seen him a lot, just not this high school season). They are probably the 3A favorites, but, well, it's still Bosse. So we will have to see.

That 8 spot will most likely go to whoever loses the Iowa-Illinois game on Tuesday. ETA: And the winner probably gets the 7 spot. Ah right. Forgot Iowa hosts Illinois yet.

Iowa is going to have a really good chance of beating IU in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament (assuming that matchup happens).

Yeah it is to an extent. You can become a passable ball handler, but he's not going to develop not a point guard or anything unless that's all he worked on. Exactly. Ball-handling is very much an improbable skill (all "skills" are). Like anything, there is an individual ceiling involved, but until that point is reached improvement is always possible. However, being a point guard is more innate--i.e., even if he improved his ball-handling to point guard caliber, it wouldn't inherently make him a "point guard" (speaking more generally here, I haven't seen McLemore enough to comment on if he specifically could become a point guard).