BottomLine

This is another tough game to pick. I think IU will have a lot of these tossup games this year. We have a better record than Rutgers but that doesn't mean that we have played that much better. Way too many close games against teams we should have outclassed. Thankfully we have ended up on top in all of those. Playing on the road in the Big10 is a nightmare. Ask Ohio State about that. Without taking match-ups into consideration I think the road team has about a 25-30% chance of winning. That looks bad for the Hoosiers and good for Rutgers. We usually play at Rutgers like we are having a root canal. Their defense can make most games a brawl. How tough are we? The X factor here is Xavier Johnson, no pun intended. He was the difference against Ohio State, where he played under control, unlike Nebraska. How is he going to respond Tuesday after a short turn around between games and a trip to New Jersey? He has the ability to make this team better than we have been to this point. How much better? That is the real question. Especially if he starts playing out of control hero ball. On paper I make this one about a 3 point Rutgers victory with the scoring in the low 70's. However, now we have the Xavier factor. I rated the Ohio State game a toss-up and IU won by 6. Johnson? I'm going to fudge my prediction here by 6 points and make this a 3 point IU win. This is getting way too complicated. Hoosiers 74 Rutgers 71

Wow!!!! Way to go Mamasa for an incredible 145. You are my hero. You now have well earned bragging rights. And, as to LlHoosier, you were robbed by Xavier's exhaustion at the end. He played a ton of minutes for someone that has been out for weeks. Great job - both of you.

What is an iPhone? Does it come with a rotary dial?

Why oh why do you pretend to be such a harda**? We all know that inside you are just a softie. BTW hilarious picture. Family member?

I'm sorry if you took any of my comments personally. I intended to be of a more general nature. I was reacting to your comment on the Hoosiers being inconsistent and unpredictable and I and others have not found that to be the case. It all depends on how you look at the situation and many on here are always wearing rose colored glasses. The reality is that we are not a very good team at present and it shows in our record. We are outclassed by good teams and struggle against "lesser" teams. We are almost completely in agreement as to the reasons why. After winning this league last year I made some comments about my background and some people took exception. I spent 18 years as a basketball coach. I think I have a pretty good understanding of team dynamics and chemistry as well as the Xs and Os. I'm not going to apologize for that. It is what it is. I also was employed for 21 years as a public thoroughbred handicapper for a Chicago area newspaper. I have a lot of experience in separating emotion from the process of making predictions. Again I'll not apologize for that either. It is just a fact and I've always tried to pass on what I've learned to others. I have been to a casino twice in my life. I never play the lottery. I've never wagered on sports events. I do not gamble on anything except the things that I understand, which is horses. I have not made a wager on a horse race in years. It just doesn't interest me any more and it is really hard work to do it well. I've moved on. However, as long as someone keeps score and maintains maintains standings, I'm going to do the best that I can, and use whatever talents and insight that I have. Sorry that I've run on so much. I also spent 43 years as a U.S History teacher. Being verbose seems to go along with the gig. I can't help myself. Good luck over the rest of the season. I hope the guys finally give us something to make us happy.

This is a last bucket wins type of game. Xavier Johnson killed us at Nebraska. I know he has to come back at some point but he must have had 6 or 7 turnovers by half time, and most of them resulted in Nebraska baskets. Was trying to do way way too much. Hope he gets his act together Saturday. I am so so tired of his crybaby act. Drives into a crowd and then begs the refs for a call. That is now what a leader does. Cupps, Mister Basketball in Ohio. Why did Ohio State take a pass? Something to prove? Mgbako couldn't find his 3-point shooter with a GPS. Time to grow up. How about some more stupid fouls for Reneau. He needs to stay on the floor for this one. Will Ware show up? Potentially great when he does but also often a no show. This Indiana team is not a smart team and the chemistry is bad. Do we even want to play defense? Still we can win this one. Wish the students were back from vacation to add some sixth man support. Hoosiers 74 Buckeyes 75 I might go back and change this one. It is that close.

Dave, I should restrict these comments to the end of the year but your comment struck a note. Not everyone is having difficulty predicting the performance of this team. I suspect that most who are struggling are picking with their hearts on their sleeve. I come at this from the position of a professional gambler, Horses not sports. One of the first thing that I learned a long time ago is that you can not will the outcome of any event. Your feelings in no way have an impact on the outcome. Secondly, most people who are struggling, vastly over react to the last performance. Scoring 100 points against a team with a horrible defense lulled a lot of fans into over predicting our performance against Nebraska. Overall performance is a much better predictor. Finally the same can be said about individual performance. One career night does not mean that the player is not going to revert to normal in the next game. Time off between games, distance traveled, and location of the game also has a major impact. I probably sound like an obnoxious know it all, so feel free to ignore me. I try to adhere to the principles that I have listed above and I almost always explain my reasoning when I list my picks. Doesn't mean that I'm always right. Then I root like hell for the Hoosiers when they play. The prediction League is only a fun game. Being a IU fan is serious business.

Help is available Speak with someone today 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Hours: Available 24 hours. Languages: English, Spanish. Learn more 988 Call Chat Official Website

Don't give up so soon. We have a LOT games to go. Maybe Woody can work out a mid-season trade before the trade deadline. Bringing in a shooting guard from a non-contender might work. Wait! Wrong league. Never mind!

Thinking of changing my name to Class of 69 Old Fart. We do get feisty as we get older. How do you find pictures so fast?

Goodbye, didn't like your ball anyway. This site has been way too quiet this year anyway.

Hey, chooiserred1, how is the view from up there on the top of the hill? Hearing footsteps behind you? That's me, only five points down and sitting in the catbird seat. Defending champion, you know. Not giving up the title without a fight. Good luck! Lots of games to go.

From now on they all really count. The nuts and bolts are starting to loosen and fall off: 1. This game is at Nebraska and it is particularly hard to win on the road in the BIG10. We usually play poorly there. 2. Missing Johnson at the point and, if he comes back, will he be game ready? 3. Mgbako tweaked a knee and missed the second half of our last game. 4. Ware missed the last game with illness. Will he play or will he be able to play his best. 5. With Cupp at the point we are playing 4 on 5 on offense. 6. Next man up can only take us so far. The lack of bench and fatigue will start to hurt. We can win this one but probably won't. Hoosiers 73 Cornhuskers 77

Haven't got a lot to say here. This game is to get the guys back to playing basketball again after going home on vacation to await a visit from Santa Claus. Kenny State = OK offense and horrible defense. Hope we get out of the habit of playing to the level of our opponents. Hoosiers 86 Kenny State 71

Don't like the quick turnaround. Do like playing at home. If IU had put out the same effort in the last 9 minutes that they put out against Morehead State, IU would have beaten Kansas. Ah, the one that got away. North Alabama isn't much. They are basically a 500 team against bottom dweller competition. They have played two major programs and lost to both, Mississippi State (-25) and Kansas State (-1 in ot). They struggle to get into the mid-70s. After nearly getting their rear ends handed to them on Tuesday, the Hoosiers should come out with a little more enthusiasm on Thursday. If not. Something is wrong with this team. Hoosiers 84 Them guys from the northern part of Alabama 66

Move on! Not much to see here! Morehead State is 5-3. Sounds good right? The three losses were against power conference teams Alabama (-31). Purdue (-30) and Penn State (-23). The five wins were against Mid-major of lower teams. FYI Indiana has 21 regular season games left. 19 are against teams that currently have a winning record. The exception is two games against Penn State. Probably being a bit conservative. Indiana 79 Morehead State 65

To start I'm going to throw out the Auburn game. When you play two good opponents away from home, in games that are almost a thousand mile apart, and there is only four days from one game to the other, you are almost always going to lose that second game. The IU team in Atlanta was physically and emotionally tired. We tried early and then ran out of gas. Now we take on a nationally ranked blueblood opponent at home with a week between games and wanting to prove something. This is going to be a much closer game than almost anyone thinks. To win we need to keep the crowd in the game. Upset! Upset! We also need for Cupps to start making a difference by shooting the ball. He showed indications against Auburn and he needs to continue to grow here. If we get 30 points out of our guards we win this game. Cupps is the only one that might show major improvement. He has the stroke and now just needs the confidence. IU might take this one but I can't bet that way. Why? They have better guards and they beat Connecticut. Jayhawks 76 Hoosiers 73

Flipped a coin for the Michigan game and it came up tails. Indiana was heads. So now I'm fighting the impulse to try to get that game back by picking the Hoosiers here. Most fans over react to the last game, win or lose. Since we edged a lackluster Michigan team on the road, should we now beat everyone? Doesn't work that way. Indiana is underrated. Michigan is vastly overrated. Auburn is better than Michigan and the Hoosiers will be looking at their second game away from home in a five day span. Figure they got home Wednesday morning from Michigan and had a light practice. Thursday was pretty much normal but then they were flying our for Atlanta on Friday. Not a lot of recovery time there. Bus would be worse. A letdown after a big Big10 road victory as the underdogs? Figure the guys could possibly be flat for this one. Hope not but I'll pick this one the other way. Hoosiers 71 Auburn 75 Off to bed now!

I'll be honest. I've flipflopped on this game over and over since Friday. Vegas has this game tp144 and Mich over IU by 4. That make the implied score 74-70 Michigan. This is despite the fact that IU is 6-1 and Mich is 4-4. Mich has defeated UNC Asheville, Youngstown State, Stanford and St Johns. Figure IU could beat all of those. They lost to Long Beach State, Memphis, Texas Tech and Oregon. Thing is I figure IU could be 2-2, 3-1 or even 4-0 against that bunch. So If IU would have a winning record against Michigan's schedule, aren't we a better team? That thought haunts me. Are people still looking at IUs early close wins against lower ranked teams? I think we are playing much better now. How much better? There I go trying to talk myself into picking the Hoosiers again but I'm not. A win certainly wouldn't surprise me but the head has to win out over the heart here. Figure we will have a lot of games like this this year, but home court in the Big10 counts here as the tiebreaker. Hoosiers 73 Vicious Furry Animals 76

Think he has been doing pretty well in other games for them. Looked like a deer in the headlights tonight. Sometimes happens. They come home with a chip on their shoulder and play the game of their life, or they let the nerves get to them. Looked like tonight the second was the case. Wish him well for the rest of his career but not against us.

Hang in there and maybe we can make this season both interesting and memorable.

@str8baller. Nice picks for this game. Hear footsteps? Don't look over your shoulder. I'm right there waiting.

Josh. Mouth doesn't count for squat - only picks count and we have a long way to go. Good luck.

If you want a pro coach I hear Lovey Smith may be available. He took a team to the Super Bowl. Ask Illinois how that worked out.

Realistic expectations for IU football? Look to Kentucky. Located in a small population basketball state without a rich football tradition. Forced to compete in the SEC against perennial football powers. Two conference championships in the history of the program. How well have they done? Over the last 10 years they are 71-54 but only 34-46 in the SEC. Most Indiana fans would probably be happy with that. Unless a miracle happens that would probably be our ceiling. At least the east and west divisions in the Big10 will be gone next year. Hard to recruit kids when you play Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State every year. Hey, kid! Come to IU to play football and get a sterling education. After losing to the "Big" three we only have to finish 6-3 in the other 9 games for a chance to play in the Toilet Bowl. Next year everything improves. We now get an opportunity to lock horns with USC, UCLA, Washington and Oregon. But we won't need to play all the Big 3 monsters every year. We get to mix in several of the Big 4 new monsters. Lucky us.