AKHoosier

  At this point, with me anyway, Crean has earned the benefit of the doubt in his ability to identify talent.   Oladipo, Hulls, Holt, O.G., Juwan.  Sure we've missed on guys too, but even the great coaches have too.

Not sure where to put this, but I need to vent on how little coverage college basketball gets even with it being March.   I go to ESPN or espn.com, and all the top stories are NFL free agents, MMA, NBA, and the Premier League.  For some reason ESPN is trying to force us to watch or like soccer instead of NCAA basketball.   It's frustrating because college basketball is probably my favorite or second favorite sport to follow, but it just doesn't get the love from national media anymore unless it's either the NCAA tournament, or about Duke.

  If Alford gets fired, does that put T.J. Leaf back in play?   I would doubt it, he seems soft for some reason.

Looks awesome, I completely forgot about this.  That will be huge for recruiting.   Side note - is Assembly Hall going to be finished this coming season or is it not until 2017?

Even if Robert Johnson heals his ankle enough to play Sunday, I'd rather he sit out until the NCAA tournament because he's supposedly been dealing with an ongoing groin injury most of the season.   Hopefully a little over 3 weeks off will get his body right, we're going to need him.

We certainly have a flair for the dramatic in games for outright B1G championships.   On the road, no less.

It's just not going to happen tonight.   The B1G wants the last weekend of games to be interesting because of all the teams fighting for a slice of the conference championship.   I'd love to see the FT disparity right now.

A lot of time left, but it's tough when you're playing 8 on 5.   I feel like the referees are going to start high-fiving the crowd.

These referees are complete dogsh1t.   Neither of those and-ones were shot attempts.   These refs are trying their best to keep this a game and have Iowa back in it.   They are f***ing awful

I don't hate them, it's just that I prefer our traditional jerseys.

  I really don't want Malik Williams at Purdue.   What I wouldn't give to have the 4 in-state guys of Malik Williams, Jaren Jackson, Kris Wilkes, and Paul Scruggs to go along with Durham in 2017.

  I would amend that to say we really should be in contention for first place.   There's a lot of talented teams with good coaches in this conference.  You can't ever really say we SHOULD be in first place.  Except if you're Kansas in the Big 12.

Give Crean a ton of credit tonight.   With the B1G title in the balance, he coached a remarkable game considering it's a road game and one of his starters was out.   Every win is a big win now.

Come on Wisconsin, hold on!   Haven't said that since last year's Final 4.

  Hmm, not sure why you'd put Duke #2 considering they've won 2 championships in the past 10 years.  I've put them above UK, and UNC would probably be on the list too since they've won 2 since 2005.

Some of these injuries you never know sometimes.  Robert could give it a day or 2 and wake up Thursday morning feeling well enough to play.  I just hope we don't rush anything that could aggravate it, we're going to need him at his fullest strength in the tournament.

Glad to be in this position but before we crown ourselves with at least a share, realize we could still go 12-6 in conference and miss out on a double-bye in the BTT.   I still think smart money is to go 2-1 and win a share of the title with Iowa.

This won't be a blowout, not after last game.   Thursday would be a big win for an otherwise miserable failure of a season for them, especially after getting demolished last time we played them.  They'll be out for revenge.   Raucous crowd usually = referees that play to the crowd in the closing minutes, so yeah I'm worried about this game.

  I was first made aware of it via a thread started by an IU fan on TOS' national bball board.  He asked Purdue fans if they claimed the title from the season they were forced to vacate wins, Purdue fans said yes they do, the rest of the board said that's bullsh!t, Purdue fans got defensive, then everyone agreed to look at it with an asterisk.   It was funny, but this is the main reason why I want at least a share of the B1G now.  No longer will they be able to say they have the most B1G championships in the conference, and even more, they have to share it with us.  They are straight up squirming right now.

  Disagree.  After seeing them struggle against Minnesota at home and losing at Penn State, I really don't see Iowa beating Wisconsin, @ Michigan, and @ Ohio State while also beating us at home.   Especially when 3 out of 4 of those teams are still fighting for their tournament lives and need a quality win.

Michigan clawing their way back into the game at Maryland.   Now down just 5.

  Yeah, and they actually still claim a B1G title the league doesn't recognize because they were forced to vacate it after violations in 1990s.  So really, we are tied with them right now.

Did anyone else notice the graphic ESPN displayed early on in the game detailing the history of the IU/PU rivalry?   It was hilarious how they pointed out that Purdue won like 42 of the first 50 games in the series, and even the announcer made it clear that the series is way more tilted to IU since World War II.   I couldn't help but laugh at that, and there were probably some pretty upset fans in West Lafayette after they discussed that.

Funny that we'll definitely be rooting for Purdue to beat Maryland at Mackey, as that should stick a fork in the Terps' chances for the B1G title if they lose.   All we have to do is beat Illinois and Maryland at home to secure at least a share of the title in all likelihood.  Iowa looks to be weakening down the stretch, and I see them dropping at least one of at Michigan, at Ohio State, or Wisconsin.

  Dang well, good thing that doesn't matter at all.