pumpfake

In a game in which your season is on the line, I sure would have liked to see a lot more intensity from the players. Rutgers guys had it and we looked like we were scrimmaging. That is what disappointed me as much as anything. At least we were outstanding from the stripe tonight. Other than that, it was a pretty bad performance.

Can't say that I'm shocked that ESPN could have gotten it all wrong. I'm not passing judgement about any of this without any facts (that's right ESPN, FACTS). Anyway, thanks for posting this.

The following a legend issue is a big one, IMO. Very rarely is the first or even second successor to a "legendary" coach successful enough to last more than a couple of seasons. It looks like we'll be seeing this at UL, maybe MSU, and eventually at NC and Duke. As to Fife, I'm probably in the minority and hold an unpopular opinion about him. It still sticks in my craw that he was one of the most vocal about demanding that Mike Davis be made the permanent (not interim) coach in that first post-RMK season.

It appears the consensus is that Izzo is destined to become Wuzzo. Will Fife get or want the job?

No kidding. As I recall, word was out about how disastrous the visit was that same day or the next - I don't know how that info got around so fast, but we were totally eliminated by the time the visit was over.

I share that feeling 100%.

I've wondered why the NCAA can't have rules that make one and done players less desirable. Maybe count every scholarship for a full four years unless that player uses it at another school?

Yep. If Archie's appeal is that he's a good coach and good at getting the best out of his players (per Tim Langford), that's good enough for me. I'll take that persona over salesman/wheeler dealer every time and sleep well if we lose high ranked targets. It does seem that perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Langford may prefer IU and maybe (some feel) Romeo is drawn toward Garland. I wouldn't want the roles reversed for any number of reasons.

Speaking of the Drew family, I always thought of Homer as being on the up and up, but now I question that. I'm purely speculating, but now I have to wonder if Valpo wasn't working a poor man's version in getting players from Europe? Maybe easier to get by with and not as expensive. I have zero proof, but my suspicion has come about after seeing what kind of scumbags the two sons have turned out to be.

Free throw shooting woes are 100% on the player. Cook Hall is available at all hours and if you stink from the line, you should want to do something about it and get to the practice court and practice, practice, practice. If Art Garfunkle can be a dead-eye from 15 feet, so can a division I basketball player - if he wants to be.

Now that our regular season is over, I also went back to look at preseason predictions. Not that it's where we want to be, but we will finish higher than any prediction I found. 7th - Indystar (mentioned it may seem like some homerism to have us that high) 8th - Sports Illustrated 9th - Athlon, Sporting News, B10 coaches poll 10th - BTN, NBC, "Busting Brackets" 12th - USA Today, Lindy I think one of the other IU forum sites may have had us 6th, but I disregard predictions from team focused sites who always over value their own. Universally most of them blew it in regard to Minnesota and OSU.

Good point. Crean seemed to get in quite early on a number of young, yet unkown players and when they "blew up" they dropped us like a hot potato. No doubt part of it was FCTC's personality, some went with offers from hotter programs, but I have no doubt several chased the "swag".

I think some of the younger fans would be very surprised to see how DV was back on the ABC college basketball telecasts (with Keith Jackson). He was actually quite good. But as you say, he developed his Dicko the Clown act and even that has long since grown stale.

Regarding Vitale: Dickie and most everyone in the basketball world seems to forget or overlook the fact that Saint Jim Valvano was a dirty cheater whose team was put on probation under his watch. I wonder how angelic Bob Knight will be to Vitale if he passes first (he'll probably want the name of the state changed to Knightolina or something like that).

Yeah, that flashed through my head while watching the little roundtable on CBS this afternoon with Gumbal, Bilas, Emmert et al.. When one of the TV guys suggested that some may see the sanctions against Louisville as being "draconian", all I could think was: what word would you use to describe penalties for bumper stickers bought before the penalized player was born or for posing for a charity calendar?

After reading through several threads, here and elsewhere, I suspect Tim Garl is going to be busy guy what with all the pulled hamstrings from jumping to conclusions. LOL

So true. IMO, there is absolutely no excuse for a player or team to be so poor at the line. High School girls (entire teams) regularly shoot 75% or better.

In some ways it might be best in the short term if Izzo doesn't go. With these revelations and an ongoing FBI (and NCAA -LOL) investigation, other teams can really use that against him on the recruiting trail...

I can believe it. More proof that the best way to avoid getting penalized is to deny, deny, deny, and fight the NCAA with everything you've got. It kind of becomes an "honor system" where schools like UK, UNC, etc. have no problem with acting with impunity.

Sir, that is one finely crafted document!

Sadly, that's very likely. Even with several of the proverbial "smoking guns", I can see the NCAA doing little to nothing about it. After all, they had all the evidence needed to nail UNC and they basically just gave them a pat on the back and an 'attaboy'.

I had to look it up, but Vonleh was drafted in 2014, so he wouldn't have been in the last 3. But you know what? Vanderbilt had 2 in 2016....

The punishment is a very good.......start. Until the NCAA shows that they will not tolerate serious rules breakers, I have to see this as an isolated decision based mostly on optics and pressure.

In the days/weeks/months we've had to speculate on this recruitment, a thought finally clicked into my mind (maybe I'm just slow to put this together): Drew is trying to model his program after UK, basing it on the NBA. He sells his (meager) NBA experience and tries to sway recruits with (sub-meager) NBA alumni players. He's attempting to build his team the Cal way, with 5 stars and getting them to believe they can form a super team. I don't see it working because he's at a school that has nowhere near the resources and support that UK does. Maybe he really is eyeing Lexington as his ultimate destination? Also, I wonder if Garland sees himself as the Mike Conley that can vault himself into a higher draft position by surrounding himself with players better than himself? Not to put down Conley, because he somewhat surprisingly became the more successful pro player than Oden and some others. I have no facts to suggest that anything illegal is going on in RL's recruitment or at VU, but it kinda defies the "smell test". I've seen others justify why Garland chose VU in the first place because it's his home team, but still, how often does a blue chipper opt for the home team (one that has never had significant success) over big name schools? Heck, Butler has had way more success than VU and they've had no success in recruiting 5-stars from Indy. Finally at the risk of being repetitive, Vandy pales in comparison to KU or IU in terms of pretty much every facet involved in success on the court. My measured optimism is based on the belief that Romeo will make a thought out and intelligent decision rather than a teenage emotional one.

Agree. I only listened to the post game interview on the radio and had a similar reaction. You could tell he was not happy, but held his tongue before really going off on the team. Don has to really appreciate that Arch speaks to him promptly after the game (no waiting and wondering if he'll ever come on) and give a short but direct interview. No nonsense but without being moody or temperamental.