incrediboy

If he honestly wanted to be "that good" he would have devoted hours and hours to learning to play defense. A year and a half ago, Dakich said Blackmon "couldn't guard a chair." Did that fire him up and make him work his butt off to be a great defender the next season? Obviously not, so my conclusion is the guy doesn't care. Watch video of any IU game in which he played (possibly the B1G Tournament game vs. Iowa excepted) and follow Blackmon. You'll see he gets beat more often than anyone else and he makes more silly turnovers from just not paying attention to what he's doing than anyone else.

I agree except for the "come back" part

I don't see them falling flat on their faces. Too many ragtag teams at the bottom (OSU, Illinois, Rutgers, Nebraska, Penn St) for that many returnees not to win a fair number of games. I could see them repeating their 11-7 record and not make the double bye by finishing fifth or sixth with that record. I'm not a fan of Pitts Jr. but he has some horses and while they were lucky this past season IMO (a couple games should have gone the other way, including ours) they will be good enough next year not to need luck to go 11-7. But I don't see them much better than that. All barring major injuries, of course.

I agree. Haas is also back, and while he's still green, they have a 7-foot incoming freshman. Plus Thompson, Matthias, Carson Edwards and Cline. Purdue will compete for a repeat. Too much talent and experience, as much as I hate to say it. And Painter understands coaching.

I remember a phone call at home from my boss at the Herald-Telephone, Bob Hammel, telling me that he wouldn't be able to cover George McGinnis's press conference when he signed with the Pacers of the old ABA. I would have to cover it, Hammel said. I sent him back one story, so much he broke it into two. Among the things I remember McGinnis saying: "I wish IU the best." (of course his buddy Steve Downing was still with us) "They keep talking merger, sometimes you have to make decisions based on the money." (the merger came but the money continued to flow). "This had nothing to do with the coaching change." (Lou Watson had just resigned and Knight had just been hired). "I know I'm not going to take over the league overnight." For those too young to remember the ABA, there were some great players that came out of it. Those who didn't get to see McGinnis play in high school at Indianapolis Washington (where he and Downing were on the IHSAA championship team) or at IU (I can remember one time McGinnis took the ball in the backcourt against a press and waved everyone else down the floor as if to say, "Let me handle this."), you missed something very special. I think had he stayed at IU and played a couple of years for Knight, he would have had a longer and better pro career, but that's something we'll never know.

That's great and probably means Maryland is a total non-contender. They do have a good freshman big man coming in, but nobody I've heard compares him to Diamond Stone.

I agree we'll be a Top 25 team. But this idiot doesn't think so: http://www.btpowerhouse.com/2017/3/28/15076536/way-too-early-2017-18-big-ten-power-rankings-predictions-projections-minnesota-maryland-purdue-iowa I think Purdue will finish ahead of Maryland, even if Trimble doesn't go pro. Purdue brings almost everybody back other than Swanigan. Minnesota first? No way that I can see that. I'd pick them 5th or 6th. And apparently the writer got caught up in Michigan's late run and forgot this was an 8th-place team that loses Walton and Novak, the guys who make that offense go. Right now I would say Purdue and Michigan State should be the favorites, but watch out for the Hoosiers.

I couldn't agree more. He can play any position, and his turnovers are almost always the result of good intentions. I think he plays harder than anyone else...if he could just stay healthy for a full year, we could see just how good the young man really is.

You don't think the intelligent coaching staff we had with Crean -- always drawing accolades for having a flock of former head coaches in the mix -- didn't try to teach Blackmon defense? I think it's ingrained in him to be a selfish scorer and everything else doesn't matter that much to him. He's a prima donna who thinks the team revolves around him. We won the '15-16 B1G BECAUSE he was hurt, not in spite of him being hurt IMO. And I think we'd a better team without him than with him unless Miller is willing to bench him every time he blows defensive assignments. Count me among those who hope he goes pro.

Personally I hope Blackmon goes pro, even if he has to go to Europe. I think he's finished his degree already (correct me if I'm wrong...and I know somebody will). I expect OG to go pro. I think he's a fool not to go if the projections of mid-first-round are correct. The idea of a Bryant-Davis-Morgan front line (with Bryant adding 30 pounds and being a muscle force inside) is already tingling my spine.

All right, after reading so much positive comment, I'm going to backtrack to "wait and see" instead of "bad hire." I'm still convinced we could have done better (Chris Mack was my first choice although I don't know if he would leave his dream job at his alma mater...but couldn't we have waited til Xavier was out and talked to him?). And I can't shake that Miller's predecessor was also a "great young coach" out of Dayton. Brian Gregory was swooped up by Georgia Tech and fired five years later after one NIT appearance. Granted, his numbers weren't quite as impressive as Miller's, but thoughts like that nag me when I think about Dayton. So now I will try to throw out my prejudices and look at how he handles our current group. Who stays, who goes? (I expect Blackmon and OG would go pro no matter what). What recruits stay? Which go? Does anyone face "Miller Time"? (my coinage to replace "Creaned"). Do any of his recruits from Dayton follow him? And, this should go without saying, I'm cheering for him 100% because I'm an IU fan above all other fandom.

I voted "bad hire" and my logic is: He has no track record of success, just a reputation of being a brilliant, up-and-coming young coach. I'm reminded of the San Francisco 49ers in the '90s, a powerhouse franchise under Bill Walsh and George Siefert. They had this "great young up-and-coming coach" named Steve Mariucci. Rather than lose him to another franchise, they ousted Siefert. Mariucci proceeded to lead the 49ers to mediocrity. At least Crean had a Final Four on his list of credentials. What does Miller have? I hope someone can alleviate my distress over what I consider at this point a thoughtless hire.

since we're paying him $4 million not to coach, I don't think he's going to be on the bread line

Once Crean gets his next job (LSU?) we might see more migration. Remember Robert Vaden and Mike Davis.

I could get behind firing Glass. He made no attempt to ever go after a big-name football coach when several (most notably Mark Richt comes to mind) were available during his tenure. Unless IU gets very, very, very lucky we'll never have a decent football program unless we find a big-name recruiter. If he's somehow able to lure Donovan or Hoiberg from the NBA, I'll withdraw my objection. If he cannot, we'd have been better off keeping Crean.

For the record I'm 66, hate Purdue almost as much as I hate Kentucky and both Pitino coaches, live in Atlanta and went to the NIT game Tuesday night, my first chance to see an IU team live since the Peach Bowl here in Atlanta in the 1990s. I went to IU in the late 60s-early 70s, was a sports writer for both Bloomington newspapers (before the Courier-Tribune folded, I'd moved to what was then called the Herald-Telephone, now the Herald-Times). I was there when Knight was hired, wrote the headline "The Mighty Quinn Coming to IU" the day we landed Buckner, covered the press conference when McGinnis went to the Pacers, and was in the middle of knowing thousands of things about IU basketball that happened before the vast majority of those on here were born. So...sophomore at Purdue missed it by almost half a century, and, frankly, I saw the last five years of Crean as a glass more than half full or I wouldn't have said I thought it was a bad decision. You are welcome to try for strike three, though. I gave my opinion that I think it was a bad and unfair decision to fire Crean. No matter who we hire, I will not change that opinion. Nor will I refuse to support the Hoosiers no matter who coaches them, even if we decide to rehire Dakich or, God forbid, Lord Voldemort.

Bad decision in my opinion, but I wasn't consulted. A guy wins two conference championships in four years, then has a .500 season with two major injuries and gets fired. That's not a school I would pursue if I could pick and choose where I wanted to go. I only hope our recruits will still come and our returning players don't transfer en masse. My opening-line money is on Alford to be our next coach although we've snubbed him twice in the past. With his kid graduating UCLA, he might want to come home. Stevens has said he's staying with the Celtics, and why Bennett would want to leave the more prestigious ACC for the faltering Big Ten (for anywhere other than his alma mater Wisconsin) is beyond me. That doesn't leave many great candidates unless somehow we can woo Billy Donovan...and I'll be surprised (pleasantly) if that happens, but I don't expect it.

That's sort of like a fat girl saying if a boy doesn't want her because she's fat, she doesn't want him anyway.

My opinion, and it's only my opinion, is that there is a zero chance Crean gets fired. He's won 2 B1G titles and reached the Sweet 16 twice in the past four years, then has a sub-par year when two major players are down with injuries (one all year and one for two-thirds of the conference season). If I were a much-sought-after coach and saw a school do that to its previous coach, I would have zero interest in taking on that job. I believe the only way Crean leaves is if it's HIS decision to do so. Sorry to clutter this thread with this post, but I don't know how to take a quote to another thread.

section 112, row 21, look for the red "Sons of Knight" hoodie I'll be wearing surprised at how many tickets were gone already

I wonder how much our AD got paid under the table to deny his hometown fans another home game? However, the good news for me is that I live in Atlanta. I have my tickets! Go Hoosiers!

Cheering for (in this order): Gonzaga, Butler, UCLA, all four 16 seeds

The Crean haters are going to hate this thought: Maybe this is the first time all year we've been healthy (other than Hartman and Anonoby). Maybe JBJ and CuJo (on whom I've been pretty tough) are just now getting their legs right. Maybe that has helped RoJo get out of his doldrums because he has more outside support. Maybe Morgan is finally injury-free, Davis has reached the point he's developed beyond lost-out-there freshmanitis. And if all that is true, maybe we saw the team as it really is against Iowa. I know that's a lot of maybes, but if they're true, we will run the table. Next step is: Indiana 81, Wisconsin 72

since I'm on a personal losing streak, maybe I can extend it Iowa 84, IU 82

for starters, go Michigan, beat Nebraska and get us off the Wednesday game