BottomLine

Figured it was discipline and not an injury. Sometimes when people start throwing money at you it goes to your head. Heads can be fixed with some pine time, maybe. Injuries are something else. Now tell me what is wrong with Mbako's head. Doesn't look like he even wants to play. As a result he plays less and less.

Is Ballo playing? I see the fact that he was in uniform for our last game as a positive sign. But then, what do I know? Hoosiers 78 Rutgers 72

Not much to say here. Indiana 86 NotWinthrop 69

After sitting through the entire IU - ND football game, I'm too frazzled to put much thought into this game. Sorta anticlimactic. IU 84 Chattanooga 67

Not going to win this thing this year anyway, so what difference does it make? Going with my heart and a little bit of my head. Forecast for tomorrow in South Bend. High of 34 and low of 22. Since kickoff is after dark I'll guess the temp in mid to high 20's and falling. Not good for passers or receivers. Also forecast for light snow and winds between 11 and 14 mph. Should help a team that can't pass very well (ND). Home field advantage to ND. Well, duh. Strength of schedule and stats favor Indiana. ND based on latest top 25, ND has not played ONE ranked team this year. Only loss was to a MAC team at home when they fell behind and had to throw the ball. How in the world did they deserve a home game? Beats me. IU's best chance is to get an early lead and force ND to play come from behind. If our balance attack and passing game are working we walk away with this one. It could actually be a blowout game either way or a rock fight. IU need to play well and avoid mistakes. Interception near the goal line and muffed snap to the kicker made the OSU game look a lot worse than it really was. BottomLine: Hoosiers 4 TD = 28 + 1 FG= 3 Total 31 ND 3 TD = 21 + 2 FG = 6 Total 27

Gut check time! Don't like that this is on the road, actually IUs first road game of the year. Don't like that it is almost always a rock fight out there. But, nobody cares what I like or don't like. Nebraska is probably a small favorite here, but I'm starting to see some improvement from the Hoosiers, and I think we might be able to get over the hump here. I'm still in the glass is half full mode. Last bucket wins. Indiana 76 Nebraska 75

Interesting stat. While it is easy to look at the IU schedule and think that the Hoosiers have played mostly a bunch of chumps, that in reality might not be the truth. Of the 10 schools that IU has played, only Eastern Illinois has a losing record. Their combined record is 49-33 and subtracting IUs 7-2 record they are 47-24. Not too shabby and something to consider. For the record Minnesota is 6-4, so no matter what happens tonight the streak will continue. Minnesota is Minnesota and this game will be in Bloomington. I don't expect it to be pretty but IU should be better. Hoosiers 75 Minny 65

Not going to offer any suggestions on how Woody should coach his team. Took my suggestions almost word for word in our last and look what happened. Hope we stick to the same plan in this one. Miami, O has faced one power conference team and lost to Michigan 94-67. Indiana 3P% 37.0 2P%55.3 FT%77.7 And Ast Rate 59.7. Should be good enough to take this one. I could be a tad low on the IU points tonight but Miami,O should be better than Sam Houston. Indiana 82 Miami,O 65

Time to start putting the pieces together because time is running out. This is one of our last "practice games" so that puts Woody in a tough spot. Stay the course or start looking for a different path before it is too late. With his playing time limit lifted, Galloway needs to start. We need someone to make sure the ball goes to the right place and we run our offense. Galloway can do that and score a,little too. Either Rice or Carlyle needs to sit. I'd start Rice but on a short leash. Like Carlyle's defense but not so much his offense. Reneau and Ballo probably need to alternate in the post because they are getting in each others way inside and Reneau doesn't handle the ball well enough outside to play the 3 or 4. With the middle not so crowded, Tucker would need to play more because he would be free to drive the middle and pop that mid-range shot. Can't see how one in and four out can hurt Mbako's game. Goode also needs to have a chance outside where we spread the other teams defense. Gonna happen? I'm thinking probably not but those are the moves I'll be looking for. Hard not to second guess when we are playing poorly. As to the game. Well it is Sam Houston State. Indiana 83 SH State 67

Indiana isn't very good right now. They lack focus and cohesion. I'm seeing bad chemistry. Hard to be a good team when almost every player on the team seems to think they are the best player on the team. Win or lose this should be an interesting game just to see what Woody is going to do. He could stick to his starting lineup and try to get the guys to work through their problems. Or, he could start assigning pine time. Throw the ball away, take wild shots, miss the open man, not box out, forget to play defense, or whatever else that hurts the team means that you sit and think about what you have done. On a team that is supposed to be deep, I'd go with the second approach. Nothing is guaranteed and you earn your minutes. No guarantees this morning. Should we beat Providence? Yes. If not this could be a very long season and we are back in the hunt for a coach. Indiana 72 Providence 67

Talent isn't enough. Yesterday we played a team that could put a team on the floor that had a definite idea of what they wanted to do and how to accomplish that goal. Indiana played like a pickup team at the local Y. It is going to be hard to change that over night. I don't care what coach promised to get players to come to IU. It is time to start looking for five players that want to play together and build from there. All of that said I don't think we are together enough now to take on Gonzaga. I hope I am wrong but we could see a repeat of the Louisville game if we can't get our act together. If you want to blame our performance on the coaching, fine. On the other hand sometimes a performance like the Louisville game is exactly what a coach needs to get the attention of his team. Everything is up in the air today. Indiana 78 Zags 93

I really want to see our guys stomp on those bugs from Purdon't. Nothing fancy - just an old time beat down. Come on Hoosier bring the Bucket home. Indiana 57 Those guys 7

This shouldn't be a piece of cake. IU has the talent but we aren't much of a team. Guys still need to learn their roles. We need to get rid of the "I've got to get mine now" state of mind. They need to learn that there is no I in TEAM. Hoosiers 77 Cardinals 73

What a homer page! To this point only 7 here have picked OSU. Forget the Vegas line. People are just betting the brand name team. I'm not buying that. Still I need to have a reason to pick IU and I think it is there for those who look hard enough. Ohio State is going into this one with a patched up offensive line. Most importantly, look at the three games that are against common opponents. IU did better against all three. OSU's brand name isn't going to win this game. They put their pants on one leg at a time, just like we do. IU 4 TDs + 2 FG = 34 OSU 3 TDs = 21

Chump of the week game. We are still looking to come together as a team. Indiana 81 Greensboro 65

Knew a guy who played for South Carolina. Knew several guys that played for IU. There is strength in numbers. At this point in the season what are you going to do? Team is still looking to come together. IU 74 SC 69

Basketball and football at the same time is going to drive me crazy. The football season is supposed to be over by now. Indiana 92 Eastern Illinois 65

FIFTEEN AND OH, HERE WE GO! Let's see. We win out and that is 3 games. The Big10 championship is 1. A bye in the playoff and 2 more games. That is a total of 6 more games. Or, We beat Mich and Purd but lose to OSU and that is 3 games. We miss the Big10 championship because OSU has the edge over PennSt and IU. We are an at large in the national championship and play 3 games. That is a total of 6 more games. Or, we lose to mich and OSU and beat purdue to finish 10-2 and go to a bowl game. That would be 4 more games. I really want to kick Michigan's A** and play 6. Sure the guys feel the same! Indiana 6 TDs = 42 Michigan 2 TDs and 1 FG = 17

Indiana - 93 The other guys - 59

Figure we get our quarterback back. Though MSU is at home and IU is playing a rare road game, the Spartans are only 4-4. The games seem to be getting a bit harder every week but this doesn't look like the game where the streak ends. The Hoosier offense gets back on track and the defense is just as mean as ever. IU 6 TDS = 42 MSU 3 TDS = 21

Found it myself. Yes game is on the radio with Don Fischer and Eric Suhr doing the call.

Will the game be on the radio?

I had a coach once that told our team about a substitute for a starter on the other team, "There is a reason that he wasn't the starter to begin with." Yeah I get it. We are starting our second string quarterback. However, in this case I say, so what. The rest of the starters, that have been pounding the snot out of everyone are still intact. I'm not expecting much of a drop off, if at all. We were mostly going to pound the ball on the ground either way. As to Washington, they have lost to Washington State, Rutgers, and Iowa. We would beat all three of those teams. IU scoring and defense for the year is 341-96. Washington is 169-119. Put another way we have scored 172 more points than Washington and we have given up 23 fewer points. Our margin of victory this year is 245 and Washington's is 50. They can't score enough points to run with the BIG DOG in this game. Finally Alaska Hoosier says we are going to beat the Huskies 42-21 and I believe him. Though I picked my score before I checked what everyone else was doing, I think that is a 42-21 brilliant pick and sounds just right.. Hoosiers 6 TDs = 42 Washighton 3 TDs = 21

Only three undefeated teams left in the Big 10 - Oregon, Penn St and IU. I went through this way back in 1968. This season has the same feel but the margin of the victories has been much higher. IU has scored 285 points and given up only 89. Who would have thought that IU would be 4 points away from outscoring our opponents by 200 points over the first 6 games. Of course, IU has the easiest schedule in the Big 10 thus far, and a schedule that is heavily loaded with home games. I'll take it after the meat grinder we went through under the old scheduling scheme. Nobody has been able to stop the IU offense thus far and I can't see Nebraska, despite being 5-1, slowing us down much. I'm picking IU to beat the O/U once more. IU 5 TD and 1 FG = 38 Neb 3 TD = 21

Hate to pop your balloon but I'm sitting right there behind you in 3rd, only 2 points down. You hear the foot steps? Been a long climb from 38th but I'm back and set to do battle. Have a restful week and don't think of me for a second. Enjoy your lead while you can.