Chips&Dipo

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Oakley's Bistro on the Northside (86th and Michigan area) is my favorite restaurant in the whole city. Affordable (for what it is, don't expect a dollar menu) quality bistro food, good wine and cocktails, and a great atmosphere. I would also add Flatwater and Half Liter in Broadripple. Both are great outdoor eat, drink, and hang spots. If you like beer, the Black Acre Beer Garden in Irvington is great. They have small plates, but mostly a place to have a pint. While you are in that neighborhood, I would also recommend either Steer Inn Diner (classic diner, best in the city) or Jackamo's Pizza. Speaking of pizza, last recommendation would be King Dough on the near east side. Best pizza in the city. I live in the burbs now, but my friends all still live in the city. Whenever we go visit them, you can usually count on us to get a King Dough pizza to bring home and eat later. There is also the bottle works place that opened up on Mass Ave. Its kind of an open concept, mall style eating hall. I haven't had anything from there, but may be worth checking out? Have fun!

At the beginning of this process, I told myself that, besides Brad Stevens, I wasn't going to get to high or low about whoever we hired. I know some folks were really excited about the possibility of poaching a coach from another school, but because of Crean and Miller I had reservations about that strategy. We have seen coaches with relative success elsewhere come here and not be able to compete in the B1G at a consistent level. Archie would have decent non-conference records (which can be conflated by cupcakes, but also included a lot of big ticket games that he had success with) and then conference season would start and he would lay an egg. Crean would consistently underperform in March and really only had strong showings in the B1G three times during his tenure and mostly he struggled. Maybe its because I lack the knowledge that some of you have, but the idea of taking a chance on a coach that had a season or two of success did not sound exciting. As we know, college basketball is sporatic and you can be a mediocre coach and have a crazy run in the tournament. When Coach Woodson's name got thrown around, I was a bit skeptical. He played way before my time, but I knew him as an IU legend and the coach of the Knicks and Hawks. If I am being honest, when he was a head coach, I always thought how cool it was that an IU legend like that was coaching Carmelo Anthony. I would imagine a lot of kids feel the same way (despite what a lot of you guys are saying, teenagers recognize Melo as a great basketball player). Coach Woodson also has connections with the New York Freaking Knicks and World Wide West...that could really open a lot of player pipelines that were never available to us in the past. Having someone that is connected to the university in such an intimate way as Coach Woodson with the NBA connections that he has (not just as a player, but as a coach and assistant) could be a recipe for success (or disaster!). I am interested to see how he translates to the college game, but the dude obviously knows Xs and Os and the idea that he doesn't is frankly insulting. You don't coach for 25 years in the most competitive league in the world, either as a head or assistant coach, without knowing the game. I think Thad Matta (do we have a cool anagram for him? AADDOBOTM? Associate Athletic Director and Director of Basketball Operations Thad Matta) will help with the transition and will play a key role in this new era. I think they are trying to build something completely new and AADDOBOTM is a key piece to that. Almost like football/nba/soccer and how important having both a good head coach and a GM is. I have no idea how AADDOBOTM and Coach Woodson working relationship will look like, but I see adding Thad as only a positive and a sign that Dolson has a greater plan in place with Thad and Woodson as the center pieces. Lastly, having a strong, black man from the city who has had a successful NBA career as a player and a coach is a big deal. It shouldn't be the only deal, but I think it is awesome that we are the ONLY blue blood program whose top person is a black man. This is a game that is primarily played by young black men. Mike Woodson was a young black man from Indianapolis, who went to IU and had a monster career, went to the NBA and had a good career, and coached in the NBA. That is a track that I imagine a lot of young men would love to pattern and would look up to him. That isn't even mentioning from a social consciousness/responsibility point of view. I realize that this probably reads like the ramblings of a mad man and I know that I am breaking away from my original statement of not getting too excited or down either way. They are trying something new, which is NOT IU's M.O. That fact alone has me excited. This could easily fail, but it could also be the blue print other schools use going further. Go Hoosiers!

You said this was a "no win situation". If we lose, it would be really bad for the momentum we built this year. If we win, we get a huge monkey off our back (those same college football fans know IUFB's history) and would be Outback Bowl champion (I don't really understand "we won't be seen as Outback Bowl champ". If you win the Outback Bowl, you are the champion). That is good for the program moving forward and clearly better than losing. Would it have been better to play a higher bowl game? Sure, but you have to play the cards you are dealt. That doesn't mean a no win situation. Win the game and carry this years momentum to next year.

I was thinking that, too. I think the ball moves around much better when Rob is running the point and Trey is in. I like Al and he does some very good things for us, but sometimes the ball stops when its in his hand (especially against a 2/3 zone).

Strong disagree here. IUFB hasn't won a bowl game in almost 30 years. If we handle Ole Miss, it is a HUGE win for the program and good foundation and motivation for this team going into next year (they disrespected us, we beat the snot out of an SEC team, lets go into this year with a huge chip on our shoulders). If we lose to a sub .500 Ole Miss team, we prove the committee right.

Playing for the most wins all time in the Classic this weekend! I get a bit irked that Butler gets painted as the biscuits and gravy eating, playing on a hoop off the back of the barn, all Indiana team. It is private school in the middle of one of the largest cities in the US, whose in state population is about 50% (IU's is 68%, which seems high but that is what my source said). Plus, they are famous for losing two championships , while having the gall to criticize about how IU harps on championships that was won decades ago. YOU DIDN'T WIN ANY! They had an incredible run with an incredible coach a decade ago. They didn't invent the game of basketball.* GO IU! *mostly said tongue in cheek....mostly

Jawaun Morgan started in an NBA playoff game for the Utah Jazz last year and Romeo Langford plays for Boston.

I understand everyone's frustration. That being said, and I understand that this is going to be a very unpopular opinion, we lost to OSU a month ago. I don't know how I would feel if we got in on a technicality over a team that beat us. We talk about asterisks on the achievements of other teams all the time. I say, let's finish out the year strong, get a bowl game win, let the team be pissed about this all offseason, and BEAT OSU next year to remove all doubt.

B1G East title game at Lucas Oil. OSU v. IU. Winner takes all (even though we already lost).

If you want historical podcasts, I can't recommend Dan Carlin's Hardcore History enough. There are tons of backlogged episodes and they are LONG, like 3 hours, and go into great detail, with readings and analysts from both first-person and secondary sources. He also narrates it in such a way that makes an already captivating subject even more so. His two series on WW1 and Genghis Kahn are phenomenal.

I was looking forward to watching the USA soccer team play at 7:30 and riding that to the IUBB game!

If UNC loses by 22 or more, can we play them for second place?

Bruce Hornsby (Just kidding, TJD)

Sadly, no. I think Brunk will have to take the majority of the breather minutes for Race and/or TJD.