TheWatShot

  Do or die needs to be THIS year, not next. You can't keep a coach for more than 5 seasons when he's won less than 33% of his games. He's also nearing the end of his contract (2017 is the last year), so we kind of have to make a move one way or the other pretty soon. 

  Who was grumbling? If he hadn't been sick, we would have gone to a bowl in his second year. The only people I ever heard complaining about him were the Bill Lynch fanboys who blamed Lynch's ineptitude on Hep for not leaving him better players. 

  That's easily the most dangerous game out of the most probable wins. It's the game we should win, but could certainly find a way to lose, and the opponent (along with their coach) are no slouch.      Honestly, looking at the conference slate, it's hard for me to see more than 2 wins. Purdue, Iowa and Rutgers are the safest bets. We won't beat Michigan or PSU. OSU and MSU can name the score. Maryland embarrassed us last year and it's difficult to see us flipping the script at their place.      Time to earn that paycheck, Wilson. 

Fortunately we aren't playing any MAC teams this year. 

  Hopefully they get hit by the pitch. That would hurt more. 

  Why is Bird so fixated on bigs? The four teams still playing all rank in the top five of the NBA in three point shooting. The game has officially changed. The style Bird wants isn't necessarily wrong, it's just archaic at this point. 

Isn't Kennessaw State the team we played a couple years ago where Crean said it was "like playing an SEC team," even though they had won like 10 games over the last two seasons? 

Yeah, how dare they pick us 13th when our leading rusher left for the NFL, we're 14-34 under our current coach with a defense that allows points in waves and we've been to one bowl game in the last two decades. 

I don't know how the lottery works, but based on the standings the Pacers would have the #12 pick.  

  What a waste of talent. I think it's pretty clear he was the reason the Pacers collapsed last season. He made a horrible decision signing with the Hornets and he richly deserves to be where he is now. 

Also, the Pacers are in this position because of what the Pacers have done. Not because other teams are/aren't playing their starters. If you need help to make the playoffs in the East, you probably don't deserve to go anyway. And if you know you're going to suck, then you tank. You don't try to be the worst playoff team. They should have kept Hill and West out for half the season and used the lottery pick to make the team better. Instead, they're going to end up with the 15th pick in the draft, a quick exit from the playoffs and more fans screaming to get rid of Hibbert (regardless of performance). 

  I can't figure out why so many fans desperately want the 8 seed. PG is still too rusty for this team to have any chance against Atlanta and some of the comments I've seen lead me to believe many Pacer fans don't fully grasp how good Atlanta is. I think when PG came back, it made a lot of fans think it's like he was never out and the team is ready for a deep run when that's nowhere close to being the case. 

Only a team I support could go 6-1 the opening week and not be in first place. 

Without looking it up, I bet every Sunday game between the Yankees and Red Sox this year will be on ESPN. 

Out of curiosity, yesterday I looked up Stephenson's stats. To say he's regressed this year would be a massive understatement.      He's gone from 49% from the floor to 35%, 13 ppg to 8 ppg, and 35% from three to 16%. And the Hornets are roughly equal to the PG-less Pacers. Good choice, Lance!

Someone needs to tell the Pacers to stop trying to win games where you get behind by 20+ points in a lost season. 

Not sure how many remember gocolts88 from the Scout site, but he's had some interesting posts the last couple days on all of this:   "I say let it play out. Patience."    "The basketball program - our most visible and famous entity - is a complete mess. I think we deserve to be impatient and say "fix it," but things need to play out. If Crean's the coach 6 weeks from now, I think people will really be upset."      Someone then asked if he chose 6 weeks because the Celtics' season will be over by then. 

I think we haven't heard anything yet for a variety of reasons:   1) IU wants to make 100% sure a replacement would take the job. Presumably, the top four candidates are Stevens, Donovan, Miller and Marshall. Two of them are still coaching their current teams.      2) IU also wants to make sure Crean has a job lined up so it doesn't make it look like he was forced out. I've heard that the coaches IU has put out feelers to have requested this as well.      3) Assuming more than one of the targets are interested, they would then have to weigh options and decide who is the best one.      Or, I could be completely wrong and IU is just afraid of the backlash that would inevitably come when they announced Crean was staying. 

Remember how excited Illinois fans were when they hired Groce? I think the bloom is off the rose now. Wouldn't be surprised if they're shopping for a new coach in a year or so. 

  Wichita State was unbeaten going into the tournament last year. 

  Was just about to post this. Crean has our scholarship situation on par with a school that just had scholarships taken away.      Great roster management. 

  Check your inbox. 

  Love it. 

Purdue went over 8 minutes without scoring in the first half and is only down by 5 at the break. Amazing what can happen when you actually play some defense. 

  Did he really say that?     MSU-2009 OSU-2011 IU-2013 Michigan-2014     I thought Wisconsin always had "smart" basketball players...