Exile on Waveland

I have a hard time getting on him too much for 2010. 2011 and especially 2012 are where this thing will have to be made. Hell, I'm suprised he even got this close on Abraham, even if he's being over-hyped. Agreed. I still don't think IU will get Abraham -- and am extremely dubious how good he'll be in any event -- but I'm pretty impressed at the last-minute sales job Crean has done. Obviously at some point Crean will have to actually cash in; but that should be easier with in-state players coming off what hopefully will be a better year (even around .500 would be another step in the right direction).

Crean has to recruit the state of Indiana like gangbusters in 2011 and 2012. That was always going to be the make-or-break moment, and it hasn't changed. We'll see if he can get it done. Expecting much more than .500 by year three I think was turning a blind eye to how low the nadir of the program actually was.

Except the 2/3's that don't have employer provided health insurance are already subsidizing the 1/3 that do.

That's incredibly unfair. The state of Indiana has two major state schools (Indiana and Purdue) and, while certainly overlap exists, they intentionally attempt to offer different programs and attract different students. You point out engineering but not various schools that Indiana has and Purdue lacks? Why is engineering the salient program? I can only posit it's either (i) ignorance or (ii) bias. That said, it would be arguable Indiana brings the least to the table, though that is of course extremely relative. Indiana likely isn't the worst academic school in the Big Ten -- though US News & World Report places IU tied with Michigan State and Iowa for "last." Basketball is terrible right now, but I think we all know that's not permanent. Regardless, Indiana was the fourth most valuable college basketball team by Forbes at $22.3 million in 2009, which is tops in the Big Ten. In 2009, IU had the fifteenth biggest endowment among public universities (which is only good for seventh in the Big Ten, as I said it's extremely relative). However, football is king and IU is dreadful. In itself, that might be enough to make IU the least valuable in the Big Ten. If it makes you feel any better, I would have listed Purdue second using the same rationale. :) That's fair. Depending on what one thinks of the academics-athletics spectrum (i.e., what to do about Northwestern), Indiana and Purdue are very possibly the two least valuable Big Ten members. The splitting of the academic pie is certainly a very salient reason when compared to the other eight/nine. However, I just don't see why Purdue's exclusive programs (e.g., engineering) would necessarily trump Indiana's (e.g., law, medicine). If Purdue is ahead of Indiana on the Big Ten totem pole, it's because of football not engineering (admittedly, overall Purdue's academics are stronger currently than Indiana's, though I think not enough to be dispositive).

That's incredibly unfair. The state of Indiana has two major state schools (Indiana and Purdue) and, while certainly overlap exists, they intentionally attempt to offer different programs and attract different students. You point out engineering but not various schools that Indiana has and Purdue lacks? Why is engineering the salient program? I can only posit it's either (i) ignorance or (ii) bias. That said, it would be arguable Indiana brings the least to the table, though that is of course extremely relative. Indiana likely isn't the worst academic school in the Big Ten -- though US News & World Report places IU tied with Michigan State and Iowa for "last." Basketball is terrible right now, but I think we all know that's not permanent. Regardless, Indiana was the fourth most valuable college basketball team by Forbes at $22.3 million in 2009, which is tops in the Big Ten. In 2009, IU had the fifteenth biggest endowment among public universities (which is only good for seventh in the Big Ten, as I said it's extremely relative). However, football is king and IU is dreadful. In itself, that might be enough to make IU the least valuable in the Big Ten.

That's a really bad list of "best" movies. Yuck.

That's probably not a bad idea. For instance, if George Mason would have beat Florida in the 2006 Final Four, surely that couldn't have been much "under-performance" by Florida considering what the Patriots had accomplished to that point. But, on paper, it would have been just any old No. 11 beating a No. 3.

More information I already knew. Look, this performance blows. I've said it before, I'll say it again even if Cuse, Pitt and WVU all make the Elite Eight and even if Cuse and WVU make the title game. That doesn't invalidate an entire season's worth of data that made pretty clear that the top 3 leagues in America were the Big 12 first, and then the ACC and Big East 2nd and 3rd in some order. Unless you're a moron. I didn't do this to rub in the Big East thing, I was just doing it to do it. I was curious how many leagues have over-underperformed (it's a zero-sum game, as the default is everyone performing exactly to expectations). All the same, a 9 beating an 8 shouldn't be worth as much weight as, say, a 14 beating a 3 or a 13 beating a 4, so a better weighting system would provide a better result. Maybe I'll do something like that if I get really curious. Yeah, I think a more in-depth analysis is needed. Upsets don't happen in a vacuum. I don't really care if a 9-seed beats an 8-seed; that's not really under-performing much. But a 14-seed over a 3-seed, or a 9-seed over a 1-seed, that's under-performing.

As much as I will be rooting for Wisconsin: I believe I've already seen the Wisconsin-Cornell game, except it was called Wisconsin-Davidson.

I'll say it again: 2010 Kansas=2006 UConn. Ultra-talented, disinterested teams. Such teams don't win the title. Of course, I'm a moron and didn't learn my lesson and picked Kansas to win it all (Onuaku's knee freaked me out, ugh).

The two Mississippi schools are two of the most disappointing teams in the nation in my opinion.

Yes, thank you for taking my obviously hyperbolic post as literal as possible.

Oh my god I am in love with St. Mary's. Pretty sure I played against these guys at the YMCA before. Fewer knee braces though. Second, ugh. I struggled with Richmond-St. Mary's but knew I'd take the winner over Villanova. I chose poorly (not saying this game is over, obviously).

Watchable Wisconsin games are pretty darn rare. They play fantastic defense, but their games just grind to a halt. Huh, I love watching Wisconsin. Their offense is a thing of beauty.

I was actually going to run for you guys for the sake of the Big Ten and on account of my feeling sorry about Hummel. However, at my late lunch today I sat next to Purdue fans -- they must have been lost -- and, wow, were they obnoxious morons. Not that you care, but, sorry, after that: Go Saints.

So Indiana's former backcourt has combined for 60 points in the opening round. Sounds about right.

Oakland/Pitt could be a good game If Pitt was playing Sam Houston State instead of Oakland, I would have picked them to lose. Not real sold on Oakland though. We'll see.

Go Bucky. I might have picked Wofford against a lot of teams, but not sure they match up well with Wisconsin. We'll see.

Syracuse routinely makes a habit of never playing outside New York in non-conference and building up a gaudy record made of complete fluff. At least this year they actually went to Florida once. Yes, I despise their non-conference scheduling generally. It wasn't quite as bad this year though. And they pretty much thoroughly dominated the Big East. Which, despite yesterday's totally enjoyable 1-3 mark, is still a good conference.

The Indianapolis CBS stuck with Kansas for way too long so I watched most of that game. Extremely uninspired performance. I'd be slightly concerned if I were you as Northern Iowa is sort of a more talented version of Lehigh. I stand by this year's Kansas reminds me of 2005-06 UConn. I still picked Kansas to win the title though.

Marquette and ND's seeds were both ridiculous (I was saying that before they lost). I don't think the other upsets really reflect on the seeds. It may, however, accurately reflect how ridiculously overrated the big east was this year. I'm sick of playing the sample size card, I really am. And the selection committee overrated the Big East I suppose, but everyone else has been saying those two seedings were nuts since about 7:05 on Sunday. I don't think Georgetown, Villanova, Syracuse, etc. are anything special, either. I'm not sure how you can say Syracuse isn't anything special (at least relative to this year). They have clearly been one of the top-3 teams all year long.

Crawford, Holloway, and Ebanks await. Wasn't Bassett in trouble at UAB before landing at Ohio or am I thinking of somebody else? Hard to be too regretful about a guy who essentially failed/stoned his way out of IU Ben Allen is already into the second round with St. Mary's too. Bassett initially went down to UAB, then was (kicked off/left?). This is all hazy, but I believe he was one of the guys Crean gave a chance to stay but Bassett declined. I'm not necessarily saying he should still be at IU, just that I always liked him. I have a soft spot because I covered his first ever game in high school, for Terre Haute South at White River Valley lead by A.J. Graves (technically I was covering WRV).

Armon Bassett. (Laugh/Cry?)

Still, every other game was close, aside from KState throttling an overmatched North Texas. I figured at worst the Butler-UTEP game would be close. I certainly didn't think it would be a blow out either.

Butler against a dumb, athletic team? Never really understood the UTEP love. They stink. No one watched the CUSA final?