Vauxhall and IU

I keep seeing folks ponder whether Turdue winning a championship would somehow "light a fire" under IU but this idea is laughable. At this point, whether or not they hang a banner is of purely symbolic/psychological significance, for both their fanbase and for ours. Even if we get lucky and they don't win it all this year, it won't change the fact that they've clearly been the superior program in the state for years now. The only difference if they win is that their fans will just be that much more insufferable, if such a thing is even possible. Them winning or losing the championship this year won't prove or disprove anything, and it won't make a whit of difference to anyone with any power at IU. Our program is in the shape that it's in today because TPTB are perfectly fine with the results we've seen for the past 20+ years. There's not really any more to be said other than that this is just a really, really crappy time to be an IU fan. There's no joy in the present and there's no hope for the future. In the words of Simon and Garfunkel "preserve your memories, they're all that's left you."

Gonzaga just looking lost out there. Eerily reminiscent of any number of our blowout losses. Surprising to see it from a team of this caliber. I was expecting this to be another thriller.

I'm starting to get a spidey sense that Texas is gonna win it all.

Some serious grit from SDSU in that game. Kinda also feel like the refs let some things play out in that game that wouldn't have flown in other games in this tourney. Curious to see how they'll fare in the EE.

Never dreamed I'd ever be rooting for UNC, but it actually kinda makes sense. As IU fans, we're primed to root for an African-American coach named Davis who speaks with a southern accent and was a former assistant who took over from a legendary white-haired Hall of Fame coach and subsequently took the team to the national championship game in his first year or two on the job. I'm betting there are others I'm forgetting but that's a pretty surprising number of parallels just off the top of my head.

I think the real takeaway here is that Dane Fife was one bad cat. I mean he had a completely different bag from Woodson. I mean, he just couldn't groove. And when two cats can't groove to the same tune...one of them gets fired and the "Facebook dad" contingent of the IU fanbase gets real, real mad.

I'm kinda shocked how many people seem to think this somehow reflects poorly on Woodson. Look, let's be honest: a LOT of us (not all, clearly, but a lot) assumed, consciously or subconsciously, that Fife was in line to be our next coach. It's only after a rupture like this that it becomes clear just how dysfunctional and problematic it would be to even have that idea floating around. It's not hard to envision a scenario in which Fife internalizes that idea and starts sending signals that he thinks it's already his program. Woodson can't allow the perception that he's not in charge, nor should he have to. I'm sure that's an especially sensitive issue considering the perception among *some* fans that IU "settled" for Woodson after the Stevens debacle. So it's completely fair for Woodson to make moves to make it crystal clear who's in charge if he gets the sense that someone in the program doesn't fully understand or respect that. That's not the same as being a prima donna or demanding obsequiousness from the assistants. Again, I don't have any inside info, this is all just pure speculation and my gut feeling about what kind of dysfunction there may have been between Woodson and Fife.

IUBB social media touting this, as they always do with this sort of thing. I get it, but it kinda feels ominous, like the committee is going to start going out of its way to pick the biggest names possible for the First Four regardless of whether the teams deserved better. Since we never get the respect we deserve to begin with, this gives me a sinking feeling we're an easy mark in that regard. Probably won't be the last time we see IU in a play-in game.

Definitely the end of an era at AH. If you never got to experience this man saying the name "Hanner Mosquera-Perea," you never experienced true joy. Hats off to an IUBB legend.

I just took that as CMW acknowledging the shadow Knight still casts over the program, which has been kind of an elephant in the room for the last few coaches. Just the optics of seeing the new IU coach talk so much Knight right at the top of his introductory press conference was extraordinary. That would've been unimaginable with the last few hires. I'm not saying it's better one way or the other, but it is a signal that there's some sort of weight that's lifted, and that the way the program connects its past and present is going to be different going forward.

Any schmoe can make a fluke EE or FF run, as we've learned from our last two coaches. But you're not going become a consistent FF/NC threat without being the caliber of team that routinely wins conference championships. If Woodson has us near the top of the B1G every year, I don't care if he hangs another banner. This isn't just about instant gratification, this is a long term investment in the health of the program.

Early in the week we were saying how this coaching search had entered "silly season" because Woodson's name had started popping up. It's now Saturday and we're having academic debates on whether it's wrong to steal a loaf of bread to feed your starving family. I trust the process and all, but I'm kinda starting to think we need to hire a coach sometime soon. Before we're all led away in straitjackets.

It is the primary driver, but it's compounded by the fact that he's also a mediocre coach. If he was a great coach, I could understand there might be fans with the "win at all costs" mentality, even if I wasn't one of them. But he's not even very good! To me, he'll always be the guy whose team scored 7 points in a half against pUKe. On top of that, it would conform to every single accusation of our fanbase being stuck in the past and not being able to move on from Knight. He has literally less than zero upside. But none of that would bother me THAT much if not for the Pierce stuff. That's beyond the pale. I'll get behind a mediocre coach, if that's our coach, but I won't get behind someone who does something like that.

It's all right here: https://www.crimsonquarry.com/2017/3/18/14966490/steve-alfords-pierre-pierce-iowa-sexual-assault If I knew anything about coding, I'd create a bot that just auto-replies that link to anyone who so much as dips their toes into Alford talk. Most people with strong opinions on Alford know about this, but it hasn't stuck to him nearly as much as it should (i.e. he's still apparently viewed as employable by other schools).

Yes, absolutely we still would. The Alford "haters" contingent (of which I am proudly a member) oppose him for reasons that have nothing to do with basketball. I don't care if his style is fast Oats style or slow Bennett style, I don't care if it's modern NBA style or a literal peach basket, I will never, ever in a million years accept Alford as coach of IU. In fact, part of the reason I experience such visceral revulsion at all the "IU Guy" talk is that I know that for a lot of the Facebook grandpa type fans, "IU Guy" is code for "Alford." #NeverAlford