Magnanimous

What would be better for IU moving up in NCAAT seeding: beating MSU to win the BTT or winning the BTT and having MSU not even make the championship game?

They also beat Kansas, which always means something in the regular season and absolutely nothing the NCAAT (sans the 1940 and 1953 championship games). You want to talk about a more consistently over-seeded program...

I mean, yea it's a noteworthy feat and all, but with the conference expansion and unbalanced schedules this team only got to play @MSU and against Rutgers and Penn State once. Lets see how they would stack up playing more bottom-feeders and the #2 team at home and then we'll talk...

Are they getting rid of the amateur hour "kiddie field" behind the endzone?

I'm picking Kansas and MSU to make the championship, which will nearly guarantee neither of them will make it.

Really glad Wiscy, MSU, and Maryland are in the other bracket. This team should make the championship game.

Who's the who?

Good stuff

And of the four Big 10 teams that finished higher than IU, only one went farther in the NCAAT than us (OSU). MSU and Wiscy also got bounced in the SW16 (to teams worse than UK), and Michigan didn't even win a game. 

I'll be the first to admit that I had jumped off the Crean bandwagon the latter part of last year/beginning of this season. Going into this year I did think that IU had the talent to finish top 3 in the Big10, but after the Duke game, like many others, thought this would be it for Coach Crean (especially with all of the arrests as well). He did a great job turning this team around and winning the conference title, and the current group of players we have are as good a group as any (character and talent wise) as we have had in Bloomington in a while.   While the 2010-11 season was underwhelming, I never considered that his first year to be judged under the normal circumstances of being IU's head coach. There were still missing pieces and the ones we had were very inexperienced with no senior leadership to learn from. The 09 class was on their own. So while some here may disagree, for me Coach Crean had a pass until Zeller came, and even then we weren't completely out of the woods given the large classes Crean initially had to assemble to field his earlier teams, which resulted in depleted rosters mainly starting over again in 2013-14.   While the tournament is where he has been lacking so far, many here (including myself) have stated that the standard IU should be aiming for is to be competing for Big10 championships on a near annual basis, since fielding a team capable of winning the conference was indicative of fielding a team capable of making a deep NCAAT run. So here we are at the end of Crean's 5th real season. In those 5 years, he has fielded three teams capable of winning the Big 10. Next year will likely make it 4/6 if certain players aren't stupid enough to prematurely jump to the league.   While the 2011-12 team finished 5th, their final place in the standings wasn't indicative of how competitive they actually were. They were only two games out of first, beat all three teams who tied for the conference championship (MSU, OSU, and UM) as well as the eventual national champion. We have no idea how far that team was capable of going in the NCAAT since they were in the same region as Kentucky. If they had played UK in the first round they would have won zero tournament games, and if it had been in the FF they could have won more. To me that team was a Big10 championship caliber team, and 2012-13 and this year's squad speak for themselves.   So objectively, is the program now where it should be? I don't see roster rebuilding in our future nearly as much as roster reloading, and if we're fielding Big10 championship caliber teams as we should be, the NCAAT runs should take care of themselves.   I know fans still have reserved optimism for this team come tourney time, but outside of a select few coaches, I think Tom Crean is becoming a better choice than many to be leading this team, especially with the changes in coaching philosophy he has shown this season (less grueling practices down the stretch, more game tape review, preaching defense). I've watched a fair amount of CBB over the years, and I can say there are times that his teams play absolutely flawlessly, at a level most coaches are incapable of ever getting their teams to play at, let alone on a near consistent basis. Has Tom Crean shown he deserves to be IU's coach for the long-haul? Not yet, but the pieces may have started to fall into place for this program to be consistently relevant again, whether the fans like it or not.

They can eat a d***

Well deserved bump considering both teams were conference champions. 

So why play college at all? If his goal was to play professionally anywhere, why not leave after his freshman or sophomore year? This sounds like the same nonsense people were saying about Watford, that this family wanted him to play pro anywhere after his third year. 

I don't understand this Troy leaving talk. He can barely start for IU. He doesn't have a reliable jumpshot, he can't consistently handle the ball, and he mentally checks out more often than not. He reminds me of James White from Cincinnati about 10 years ago. He may get some looks here and there around the league, but he'll spend most of his time bouncing around Europe and the NBDL at this rate.    I also don't quite understand Bryant possibly leaving, mainly from a conditioning standpoint. He could play himself into a late lottery if he waits another year or two and develops himself. If scouts project him between 15-20 I think he'll jump, but anything below that he'd be best on returning.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpIcPde4rAo

Wasn't a big fan of Mack's "zip it up" culture a couple years back. 

It had been up in the air as TBD between 3/5 and 3/6. IUhoosiers.com now has it set for Sunday at 4:30.

Sunday 3/6 at 4:30 pm on CBS. 

Try 10, or again.

We have four 9pm weekday games left this season. This game just solidified my decision to not stay up for any of them. 

At least Louisville was "noble" enough to self-ban for a season they were going to make the tournament, unlike those citrus clowns up in Syracuse.

The key to this game is ball control. Bryant and Max should have a field day against Penn State's interior if they get their chances, which means limiting turnovers and good transition defense to prevent foul trouble. I know this team is built on transition, but I think that a slower pace and more in control half-court offense is the key for this game.

"Is this heaven?" "No, it's Iowa"   "Is this hell?" "Yes, it's Iowa"