Class of '66 Old Fart

NBC Sports B1G preview: http://collegebasketball.nbcsports.com/2016/10/11/big-ten-conference-preview-michigan-state-and-wisconsin-fight-for-the-top-spot/ Predict IU to finish 4th. League POY - TB Breakout Star- OG

I just laughed when I saw the picture of the 4 of them but only 3 of them identified by name. It just struck me as funny - warped sense of humor I guess. I have no idea if Gelon's on Twitter or not.

This was the caption: Devonté Green, De'Ron Davis and Cujo

The official roster lists Green at 6'3" / Davis at 6'10" / Gelon at 6'5" / Cujo at 6'4"

I'm assuming you got this from the tweet from IndianaMBB. If so, go back and look at the caption again. Is it a 'freudian slip'?

Jordan starting a blog of his European experience. First entry at: http://albersangle.com/index.php/2016/10/10/inside-life-jordan-hulls-journal-entry-1/

Possibly transferred to Blair Academy in Brick, NJ in May of this year. Regardless of where she's currently attending high school, this is a girl you'd definitely like to have on your team. Found this on the Blair Academy website: Honesty Scott-Grayson ’18 Makes Blair Debut New sophomore Honesty Scott-Grayson '18 made her much anticipated Blair debut this past week in contests against ASA Junior College and Life Center Academy. Scott-Grayson is a 5'11" combo guard who is ranked as the number-one player in her class in Prospects Nation. She also played for team USA this past year in Mexico, where she showcased her talents as a scorer, creator, defender and leader. Scott-Grayson is being recruited by most of the top programs in the country, including Notre Dame, UConn, Duke, Maryland and South Carolina.

Jon Rothstein ‏@JonRothstein Northwestern freshman forward Rapolas Ivanauskas will undergo shoulder surgery and will miss the upcoming 2016-17 season, per release.

Jordan J Wilson , IndyStar Former IU star has 163 yards from scrimmage vs. Colts A little bit of Hoosier bled into the Indianapolis Colts’ 29-23 win over the Chicago Bears at home Sunday afternoon, but it didn’t come from the home team. The ties to crimson and cream came instead from Bears rookie running back Jordan Howard, who has replaced injured starter Jeremy Langford (ankle) in the Chicago backfield the past two games. In his only season for IU after transferring from Alabama-Birmingham, Howard finished with the Big Ten’s second-highest rushing average (134.8 per game) as a junior, despite missing 18 quarters battling injuries. He declared for the draft after his junior season and was selected by the Bears with the 150th overall pick. Even though the on-field results might seem to say otherwise, Howard said being down the road from his alma mater didn’t add “any extra juice” to his performance Sunday. That’s just the guy his Bears teammates have known him to be. “He’s a guy that almost seems like a Year 5 or 6 guy just because of his demeanor,” Bears starting right guard Kyle Long said. “He doesn’t say a whole lot. Less is more with him, and you see that translate on the field. I mean, the guy just runs hard. There’s nothing flashy. Next thing you know, you look up and he’s 15 yards downfield.” Howard didn’t exactly fly under the radar against the Colts. He carried the ball 16 times for 118 yards, including a 57-yard bolt down to the Colts’ 18-yard line that set up the Bears for a game-tying touchdown in the second quarter. Howard also caught three passes — all three of his targets — for 45 yards and a touchdown, running into the end zone untouched from 21 yards out for a go-ahead score, the first of his career. “I was very excited, like ‘Where is everybody at?’ ” Howard said of his touchdown, adding that he is “definitely not surprised” by logging a pair of 100-plus-yard rushing games in his first two career starts. “I felt very comfortable out there,” Howard said. “The O-line did a good job; tight ends, receivers, so they made my job easy for me. I didn’t really have to do all too much work.” Howard seems to be fitting right in with the Bears' zone-running scheme, one he is familiar with from his time at Indiana. When he finds his hole, he becomes a tough man to bring down at a compact 222 pounds. He piled up 111 rushing yards against Detroit last week and had 92 yards from scrimmage in Week 2 at Dallas. For the season, Howard has rushed for 296 yards on 51 carries, an average of 5.8 yards per carry, and caught 12 passes for 122 yards. “He’s a good, young player,” Bears coach John Fox said. “He is big and physical. He has good vision. He has a bright future.”

Vaughn McClure ESPN Staff Writer Falcons' Tevin Coleman brushes off sickle cell concerns to soar in Denver DENVER -- Atlanta Falcons running back Tevin Coleman didn't go into Sunday's game thinking about worst-case scenarios. His concerns over how being a carrier of the sickle cell trait could have a negative effect in Denver's altitude were well-documented, although such a disorder is more of an issue in extreme heat. Coleman didn't have any health issues in Sunday's 23-16 win over the Denver Broncos. In fact, he racked up 163 yards on 10 touches. He hauled in his first career touchdown reception on a 31-yard pass from Matt Ryan in the third quarter, a play that gave the Falcons breathing room at 20-3. "I put it out of my mind," Coleman said of the health concerns. "I wasn't even thinking about it because I knew everybody had my back. The trainers, they had my back. Every time I came to the sideline, there was something to drink. There was oxygen. They prepared me to go out there and play." Coleman led the Falcons with a career-high 132 receiving yards on four catches (six targets). He looked like a seasoned receiver when he lined up in the slot and beat linebacker Brandon Marshall down the field for the touchdown. "I mean, yeah, right now I'm going out there and making big-time catches and running routes," said Coleman, who was not known for his hands last season. "It's kind of half and half now: half-running back/half-receiver." A hybrid, right? "You could say that," Coleman said with a laugh.

Howard with 118 yards on 16 carries and 45 yards on 3 receptions and a TD. Very good game for Jordan.

And Jordan Howard could run out of bounds into Pagano!

Kevin Ferrell impresses Nets’ head coach Kenny Atkinson Updated October 7, 2016 7:34 PM By Laura Albanese laura.albanese@newsday.com The Nets’ undrafted point guard made a strong effort to distinguish himself in their first preseason game Thursday. Jeremy Lin was pretty good, too. While most of the attention was focused on Lin during the Nets’ 101-94 win over the Pistons — Lin scored 21 — anyone who watched the fourth quarter can attest to the fact that his sub, Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell, made a fairly convincing case to be considered for a spot in the opening day roster. Granted, that’s not saying all that much. But when you have about a half dozen point guards coming to training camp every day, it’s pretty much an honor just to be nominated. “I think when making the right play happens, you have a great chance of winning,” said Ferrell, who came out of out of Indiana University as a potential late second-round pick, but didn’t get a phone call on June 23. “I feel like the more wins you can get, such as myself, trying to make the team, then you can try to make your case as a valuable asset to make the roster.” Ferrell was a dynamo off the bench, scoring five points and grabbing two rebounds in an extremely hard-nosed 12 minutes in which he ably corralled the Nets offense in a late-game surge. “He played well,” coach Kenny Atkinson said after practice Friday. “He’s got a lot of characteristics we like. We love his explosiveness, like how he shoots it. I think he’s improving defensively, but I think those roster decisions are later down the road, but he played well last night.” Either way, the Nets have shown an affinity for Ferrell, who signed a partially-guaranteed one-year contract worth $100,000. That came after an impressive summer league debut in which he averaged 8.8 points and 1.8 assists. At the very least, the contract means he’ll serve the Nets in some capacity this year, and if that happens to be in the D-League, so be it. “It’s always hard for someone not to hear their name on draft night,” he said. “But you know, I always heard a lot of cases of guys going undrafted and still making a team, whether it was a summer league team or whether it’s the D-League, it’s still called up to another team. I knew my dreams weren’t over. It was just time to go back to the drawing board and figuring out what situation I wanted to go into best and I felt Brooklyn was the best opportunity for me.”

Yogi’s second NBA preseason appearance Nets beaten by the Knicks. 116-98. Yogi played 15 minutes; 8 pts. on 1-3 F’s; 1-2 on 3’s; 5-6 FT’s; 1 reb; 3 asst; 1 stl; 1 TO. Team was -8 while he was on the floor. Next game is Tuesday evening.

Multitude of reasons people can't attend IU home games but their absence doesn't necessarily lessen their status as a true fan. To me, it's your phrase "can upset". Sadly, that's the usual weekly mantra for IU football. Certainly on any given week we "can upset" the opponent but let's be honest, how often does it actually happen? Our earlier defeat of MSU isn't even looking like much of an upset at this point with its record of 2-3. I've followed IU sports for 50+ years and how many winning seasons have we had in those 50 years? I guess what I'm saying is that I apologize to everyone for not being a true fan and spending a minimum of 6 hours in a car to watch IU football.

Suffice it to say the ND faithful are not a happy bunch of campers this evening. The usual chatter about play calling and fire the coach but to me this was one of the best comments -- Kelly can blame the rain- it was raining every time ND was on offense; it was raining every time ND was on defense.

We're 5 games into the season; Lagow is not the answer at QB and I'm not sure we have an answer on the squad. Yes, he had 2 TD's, but that's not the sole measure of a successful QB and IMO his overall level of play just doesn't cut it in the B1G. And FWIW, I'm not all that hyped on our play calling.

A really nice piece from Rich Campbell at the Chicago Tribune: Bears' Jordan Howard honors late father with quiet determination http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/ct-jordan-howard-quiet-determination-bears-spt-1009-20161008-story.html

Retweet from Alex Bozich: Will Sheehey will be joining the Raptors 905 of the D-League to start the 2016-17 season, sources tell Upside & Motor #NBADL

Retweet from Alex Bozich: Christian Watford will sign with the NBA D-League and join the Fort Wayne Mad Ants as a RR player, a source tells Upside & Motor #NBADL

I'm not that big of a fan of pro football or the Colts, but I do try to keep up with "background noise" about the team and I know many of you will enjoy this from Ryan Phillips at the BigLead: Ryan Grigson is somehow still the general manager of the Indianapolis Colts, despite a mountain of evidence that he should have lost his job long ago. On Friday, Grigson once again proved he’s unfit for his position when he blamed Andrew Luck’s contract for his team’s defensive woes. Grigson said the following: “When you pay Andrew what we did, it’s going to take some time to build on the other side of the ball.” Hey Ryan, maybe you should have thought of that before giving Luck $139.125 million when you had massive holes littering the rest of your roster. I don’t know, just spitballing here. Grigson’s real problem has been his horrible draft record. Other than landing Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton in the 2012 NFL Draft, he hasn’t selected any true impact players. You could slide Donte Moncrief, Dwayne Allen and Jack Mewhort into the discussion, but after that there is an absolute dearth of talent. Guys like Bjoern Werner, Coby Fleener, Khaled Holmes and Hugh Thornton highlight the long list of Grigson draft failures. Not to mention the fact that he shipped a first-round pick to Cleveland in exchange for Trent Richardson. Grigson has also spent money on the wrong guys. He wasted cash on busts like Todd Herremans, LaRon Landry, Trent Cole and Donald Thomas, all of whom were or have been awful. Meanwhile, he let stud linebacker Jerrell Freeman walk this offseason without so much as a wave in his direction. For the record, Freeman is one of the NFL’s best bargains right now. Aside from that, it’s not like it’s impossible to pay a quarterback and build a defense. The Broncos paid Peyton Manning a ton of money and managed to have one of the NFL’s best defenses. The Patriots have had outstanding defenses while Tom Brady has been under center. It’s a weak excuse by Grigson. The real problem for the Colts is poor decision-making, not Luck’s contract. Grigson and Colts owner Jim Irsay are to blame for all of this. They can point to Luck’s massive new deal, but this has been a problem for years. It’s ridiculous to claim one player’s contract is responsible for the failings of an entire front office. This is systemic and it starts at the top. Grigson should have been fired long ago. It is stunning that he still has a job.

Jon Rothstein - 20 impact transfers for the 2016-17 college basketball season Josh Newkirk, Indiana: The 6-1 point guard has cheetah-like speed in the open floor and should be a menace defensively. Newkirk battled injuries during the tail end of his career at Pitt, but should be a suitable replacement for Yogi Ferrell at the most important position on the floor. Full List

Watford to participate this weekend in the eighth annual USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team October Minicamp on Oct. 8-9, 2016, at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The 2019 ESPN 25 features: Trendon Watford (Mountain Brook H.S./Mountain Brook, Ala.) third; Vernon Carey Jr. (University School/Southwest Ranches, Fla.) fifth; Matthew Hurt (John Marshall H.S./Rochester, Minn.) sixth; Onyeka Okongwu (Chino Hills H.S./Chino, Calif.) seventh; Antoine eighth; Christian Brown (A.C. Flora H.S./Hopkins, S.C.) 10th; Juwan Gary (Gray Collegiate Academy/Columbia, S.C.) 12th; James Wiseman (The Ensworth School/Nashville, Tenn.) 13th; Cole Anthony (Archbishop Molloy H.S./New York, N.Y.) 14th; Lewis 16th; and Romeo Weems (New Haven H.S./New Haven, Mich.) 17th Full Article

From Jon Rothstein: Minnesota's Davonte Fitzgerald will miss the 2016-17 with an ACL tear, per release. Tough blow for the Gophers. Was going to be in rotation.

Not trying to take away from Troy's overall performance but he did pick up 4 fouls for his 22 minutes of court time. He's a rookie so clearly he won't get the benefit of the whistle so he'll have to learn to play smarter.