Maedhros

I'd guess the Darius Garland situation still stings Rabby a bit.

As long as he doesn't grow that unfortunate chin beard, that alone would have me comfortable saying Cupps will be better than Smith. 😁

Let's be clear. Dan didn't just fall for a tweet from a fake account. He saw what he thought was Jeff Borzello reporting news and tried to pass it off as something he was hearing from his sources. Everyone gets duped by fake accounts at times. Shame on those accounts. Chasing clout by pretending you have inside information when you know nothing at all? Shame on you.

Was an IU target back in 2018, a member of the 2019 class when we landed Trayce and Armaan. We offered and made his top eight, but I don't see that he ever got to Bloomington for a visit. That was under Archie, of course, but means there's at least some familiarity with the program.

That's my biggest takeaway from this past weekend. Losses happen and seasons end. Happens every year. I thought the men's and women's teams both had successful seasons, so while I was of course sad in the moment it didn't last long. The true disappointment I'm left with is that I'll never see Trayce and Grace play in an Indiana uniform again. I wanted more games to watch Grace nail a midrange jumper, or Trayce slam home a ridiculous lob. It's not the losses that get to me at the end of the year, it's that there won't be any more opportunities to experience joy. And these two brought me so much joy in their careers.

Sleep now. Stay up all night. At least, that's what I would do in my 20s...

We had some fun upsets yesterday, some other close calls, but this game was the highlight for me. Give me all the McCaffrey tears. I normally have empathy for every player who has their season or career come to an end. Screw that. Get this family out of my life. I'm beyond tired of Fran's antics, and I think the tide of public sentiment starting to turn in that direction as well.

Seth Davis is the physical embodiment of the guy who has born on third base and smiles at the camera because he thinks he hit a triple.

I hear this. Always a red flag for me when a team's best game is actually a loss. Sure, they played Houston close. So did Northern Kentucky last night. Temple actually beat Houston. Meanwhile, Kent St lost to Ball St. Catching up on CrimsonCast, and Scott makes the great point that if this game happens in November, no one picks Kent St to win. But it's the NCAA Tournament when picking upsets is the national pastime, so everyone overthinks it.

My preseason goals weren't that. Expecting a Big Ten title sweep was always ambitious for a team that hadn't had a winning conference record in five years. I wanted a top four finish in the Big Ten and to make the second weekend in the NCAA. We tied for second in the B10, and now have a clear path to the Sweet Sixteen, maybe the Elite Eight and beyond. I had no goals related to the Big Ten Tournament, a meaningless event. Winning a game there was enough. We're 1-1 on my goals. If we make it 2-2, that's arguably one of the five best seasons for this program in a generation. With that perspective, it's hard for me to understand the negative posts I see in this and other threads. I want to get back to conference championships and contending for a 1 seed. I'm okay if that doesn't happen yet in the second season of a new coach. As BGleas said, final judgment on this program and coach will be made in the seasons to come. For now, we're miles from the experience of Indiana Basketball under the previous regime and that's progress. A four seed in the Tournament is pretty neat! It's a season's resume among the top sixteen in the country! This team flashed a ceiling that was even higher, but why let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I'm going to enjoy each win in the Tournament. If we lose, I'll only be sad because there won't be more wins to enjoy. Cheers! 🍻

Isiah Thomas still lost 17 games in his two seasons. Isiah Thomas never won at Mackey. Isiah Thomas lost to Texas-Pan American. Isiah Thomas started out both seasons ranked in the top five, then fell out of the polls entirely. They climbed back, but were only ranked in the mid-teens heading into the tournament. "Inconsistent" gets overused in college basketball. Only a small handful of teams in any season could be said to be consistent, and those are your top seeds. The last Indiana team that could be said to be consistent was maybe the '12-13 team, and people still love to tell you about every loss that team took along the way. Before that you probably have to go back to '92-93 to find a consistent Indiana team. It just doesn't happen often in this sport, and when it does it's special. Every season has its ups and downs, but those get lost to history. I don't remember Maui when I think of the '15-16 season, I think of Yogi's step back three at Iowa to secure a Big Ten championship. I think of Tom Crean shooting finger guns at John Calipari in the NCAA Tournament. We remember Zeke for winning a championship (and for his NBA career), and we forget all the missteps that happened along the way. We're a projected 4 seed this year. In the 30 years since Calbert Cheaney, only that '12-13 team had a higher seed. Only two other teams even matched this one on the 4-line. The '11-12 team was one, and is remembered fondly for their performances against Kentucky, but we forget some of the mind boggling losses in the middle of that season. This is what a 4 seed looks like: big wins and frustrating losses. I'd love to be a 1 seed and have aspirations at a national championship. Of course, the last time we played for a title it was as a five seed. So let's enjoy the season for what it is, and not make the perfect the enemy of the good. Still two tournaments left to go, that will define how we think about the season for years to come.

No defense for that decision. Stanford lost their second game of the conference tournament, just like we did. Their loss was to 19 UCLA, ours to 14 Ohio State with Sheldon back. Stanford also lost on the road to a top ten team to close the regular season, just as we did, though it didn't take a buzzer beater. If ESPN didn't already have Stanford ahead of Indiana before, there's simply not an argument for moving them ahead of Indiana now.

Gender parity has arrived. The IU women losing a basketball game provokes the same despondent overreactions as the men! Guys, you're being hysterical. We lost by four on a neutral court to a team projected to be a 3 seed in the NCAAs, and that's without OSU ever having been at full strength until now. We lost in the BTT, an event which doesn't matter for shit except money for the conference. Yeah we looked awful against their press, after handling it just fine earlier in the season, but now we have two weeks off to fix that weakness. We also have those two weeks to get healthy. Mack was clearly limping, and Moren said she's not alone. We're still a lock for a 1 seed, and probably 2nd overall. Everything is still ahead for this group.

Brey is leaving Notre Dame. Already speculation that could knock loose JJ Starling, a 6'4" CG who originally felt overwhelmed by the decision process before committing to ND because of his relationship to Brey. Five star recruit ranked around 20 by all the services. No IU offer initially, but he's now been in the state for two years.

Malik came out of the gates hot. Then the film was out on him and he hit a wall. Malik responded by improving his game to go from being unplayable to being one of the first guys off the bench. He still fouls too much, but I'm extremely encouraged by what I've seen from Malik and what it means for his career in Bloomington.

I used to love severe weather growing up, and I still want to feel that way, but now I'm old enough to experience property damage. Having wind blow the siding off your house changes the equation a bit, I'll feel better when today is done.

Ugh, just had someone put a meeting on my calendar for 12:30. I knew I should have blocked out that time.

Yeah, I think the landscape has already changed, in the way Seeking6 describes. "Channel" isn't a thing anymore. I turn on Hulu/YouTubeTV and it shows me what games are available. I pick what I want to watch, I don't think about whether it's on FOX or ESPN or whatever until the game is actually on my TV.

Lost some votes from last week, but we're still comfortably in second in today's AP poll.

Lost some votes from last week, but still comfortably in second in today's AP poll.

Edey uses his elbow to clear space every time he touches the ball. It's not malicious, he's just built on a different scale, but it's a foul at least half the time and if you're not going to call them there's not much of a way to play defense. He also uses his lower body to move the defender well out of established position. We've been taught that's what basketball is, especially in the Big Ten, but imagine a defender doing to that to a player with the ball and it just looks silly. Edey seems like a good kid and I don't blame him for acting surprised when he does get called. To be fair to him, those calls have been rarely made all year.

He's getting there, and might top the rankings he mattered on the court at all. We've played them twice, and the only times I ever remember seeing Gillis is when he was being fake tough off the clock. He also blew a .272 during a DUI arrest. Seriously, read the whole thing. You won't be at all surprised to learn this kid is a belligerent drunk: https://www.jconline.com/story/sports/2021/07/15/dui-charge-filed-against-purdue-basketball-player-mason-gillis/7983128002/

Yep, that overall 2/3 is what I want to see happen, preferably 2 of course. It was good to see The Athletic keep Indiana at 2 this morning, Sabreena Merchant recognizing the body of work and not letting 1.5 seconds erase a fantastic season.

Played well enough to win on the road at the #6 team in the country. Didn't quite play well enough to keep it from being close at the end. And then a great player made a tough shot. Say what you want about our defense, she still had to catch and release while falling off balance, and had been just 3-11 from three up to that point. It was a tough beat, in a game that counted for little to this team except pride. It made me sick to my stomach to watch the game end that way, but you tip your cap and move on. Team should still be #2 in the polls based on body of work and the losses of the other challengers. It would be incredibly dumb for six-loss Iowa to leapfrog us in the polls, but that objectively awful ESPN broadcast has planted the possibility in my brain. Seriously, the Big Ten can't leave ESPN soon enough. I'm convinced the network has decided to be the sports channel for people who don't actually like sports. They want to be the channel you leave on in the background. So they program overlapping content, even if it means your miss the entire first quarter of your scheduled game. They constantly promote upcoming content, even over the current game you turned on the channel to see. And they promote stars above all else because they only want your superficial interest for that two hour chunk of time. ESPN is a terrible product. Good riddance. Rant over, bring on the Big Ten Tournament. I'm looking forward to another conference title, and stacking some more quality wins. This team should be a 1 seed no matter what happens, but I'm hoping to be across the bracket from South Carolina. That would be a terrific national title game.