BGleas

Aren't we playing Louisville too?

I was pulling for the Spurs too, but looking at it objectively the Clippers were the better team in every game but a Game 3.

While I love college basketball and the NBA, this Spurs-Clippers series was better than almost anything college basketball can produce.

They will be formidable, with a strong frontline, but they also lost their top two scorers to the draft. Will be interesting to see if they play Zimmerman and Okonoboh together, I'd assume they will.

We should be playing UK every year. Like some others, I don't care where they play, just play. Some won't like this, but I say let's get creative Fred Glass. Let's use UK to squeeze every ounce of exposure we can out of this thing. An idea, call it the Rivalry Classic, presented by AT&T 4-year cycle double header with IU playing UK every year and the other "rivalry" opponent switching each year. 1) Indy (Louisville vs. MSU) MSG (Syracuse vs. Georgetown) Dallas (Texas vs. Floria) Vegas (UCLA vs. Kansas) I'm just making up the other matchups off the top of my head, but the point is let's get creative and really turn this into an event. That's what guys like the MSU AD have been doing.

I hear what you're saying and don't totally disagree. I'm sure it happens all the time, but IMO there's a difference between continuing to recruit a kid you've all ready offered and had hoped to land after he commits somewhere else, as opposed to not even offering until after he commits elsewhere. While maybe not a big difference, it is a difference, though this is really an opinion thing.

I always love the "Crean doesn't deserve credit for developing VO" thing. As a coach or a manager, you absolutely need self-motivated people that are willing to put in the work and dedicate themselves, and that goes to the player. In any line of business, you can't force people to work harder than everybody else, you have to motivate them and they need a high level of self-motivation. Where Crean and his staff come into to play is developing the plan to get a player from point A to point B. Crean and his staff supported a guy like VO, informed him on what he needed to focus on, and developed the plan to get there. It requires a self-motivated and driven person like VO, but also requires the support and expertise of the coach and the team he puts around the player. It's not a one or the other thing. Most of the time you need both.

I would add to your list that Emmitt Holt and/or Devin Davis turn into absolute junkyard dogs on BOTH ends. Meaning, they become scrappy and an absolute nuisance on both ends, the boards, defensively, etc.

The couple fans I talked to out here in Maryland are hoping they don't get him. Not happy that they're even in the mix.

I'd say 12-13 had the two best players (VO and Zeller), but top-to-bottom next years team is more talented, and it's best player is at the most important position. Where I lean with the 12-13 team is that while I don't think they're overall as talented, the gap isn't that large. But, where I think the 12-13 team completely trumps next years team is with experience, leadership, intangibles and basketball IQ. The gap in the intangibles is much wider in the favor of the 12-13 team, than the gap is in talent for next years team.

I don't get all the LeVert/UM love? They lost to NJIT and Eastern Michigan before he got hurt last season. They'll be good, but they shouldn't be in the same league as Indiana, Maryland and MSU.

Good in what sense though? If that's our starting backcourt, which would mean a guard added for depth is not as good as Z, then we'll be an ok team, but probably somewhere in the 5th-8th range in conference. That's OK, but I'm tired of "ok".

Agree. Pretty sure they lost to NJIT and EMU when LaVert was healthy.

Agree. I said many times last year that if someone knew nothing about basketball and asked me what it was, I'd just have them watch the Spurs in last years Finals. That's how you play basketball, and this is coming from someone that grew up on the Bird Celtics, Showtime Lakers and Bob Knight Hoosiers.

Just watching the Celtics-Cavs I have two thoughts. 1) Please Brad Stevens, come to IU! 2) Brad Stevens, I think you're staying in the NBA, so thank god you're with my Celtics! The guy is flat out the real deal.

Agree on Briscoe. He basically played one-on-one for about 6 minutes in the 2nd half, and looked terrible doing it.

Celtics are my squad and would love to see them give the Cavs a run for their money! With that said, as a basketball fan I'm praying for a Cavs vs. Spurs/Warriors Finals. I think some combination of that is what everyone wants to see. I love the way the Spurs play and would love to see Pop/Duncan ride off into the sunset finally getting a back-to-back.

On the UK thing, I loved the part of the game where Isiah Briscoe went on a personal 6 minute game of 1-on-1, during which the announcers were going on and on about how he's the rare kind of guard that cares so much more about getting his teammates involved as opposed to his own scoring. He literally took every shot for 4-6 minutes without ever passing and waving off anyone that even tried to set a screen for him.

Bryant looking much better in the second half when his guards actually passed. Diallo is the real deal. Hope he ends up somewhere besides UK.

I can only assume your internship is at Dunder Mifflin?

Imagine if JBJ had a consistent pull-up jumper like Calbert?

Apparently UK also expressed interest in a transfer from Charlotte (no, not the Bobcats).

Are there any NCAA violations with that, if he decided to return? Not trying to start a firestorm, but I remember something about Cody not being allowed to participate in his family's charity while he was at IU, or something about the charity not being able to promote Cody being involved. Something like that? If this is a fundraiser for the charity, would there be any issues with using Yogi's announcement as a way to draw donations or attendance?

No idea which way this is going to go, but I'm pretty sure there was a press conference when Zeller and Watford announced they were coming back for the 12-13 season. It wasn't at a steakhouse in Indy, it was on campus, but it was still a press conference where they took questions from the media, etc.

I don't think you can be so definitive one way or the other. For the sake of discussion, let's assume Bryant can shoot the mid-range jumper and out to the 3-pt line consistently. Maybe Diamond Stone struggles to defend pick and pops and out on the perimeter, so in that case it would make sense to have Bryant to be out there more. Same against Purdue. With Bryant's athleticism and if he can hit the shot, I'd put him in pick/pops with Yogi against Hammons all day long. Against teams with more athletic 5s or smaller teams, then of course you'd want Bryant camped down low and being that interior offensive presence. The point is, it's great that he seems to be able to do both, so IMO you'd definitely want to take advantage of that based on the matchups.