RaceToTheTop

Game #9: neutral court against a solid Louisville team. IU entered half down 4 but was never able to get any closer in the second half. Final: Louisville 82, IU 70. IU falls to 6-3 IU Stats MIN FG/A 3PT/A FT/A REB AS ST BS TO PTS Enright 29 2/5 0/1 0/0 5 4 0 0 2 4 Wilkerson 32 9/16 7/11 2/2 4 1 2 0 2 27 Dorn 25 1/6 1/6 0/0 3 0 0 0 2 3 DeVries 32 7/19 3/11 3/3 4 3 0 0 2 20 Alexis 23 2/7 0/0 2/3 10 1 0 2 0 6 Conerway 18 1/6 0/1 0/0 2 3 0 0 1 2 Bailey 17 1/4 0/0 0/0 3 1 0 0 0 2 Sisley 16 2/4 0/0 0/2 6 1 0 0 0 4 Miles 7 1/1 0/0 0/0 2 0 0 0 0 2

I can't remember what bball analytics guy ran the 'kill shot' stat but it was really telling. He defined a 'kill shot' to be when a team has a run of 10-0 or more in a game; Teams that had a kill shot v a team that didn't register a kill shot won about 90% of the time. I would guess that this year we gave up fewer kill shots but also registered fewer of our own.

I used to use my own version of WAB to rank the teams and went with that. I did find that my calculations tended to overseed teams with really good records but low SOS so when I put my brackets out. I know that I tended to over rank MWC teams a bit. A team like Miami (O) is a really tough one -- I would guess their WAB even with their incredibly weak schedule would be a +3 or so and in my system a WAR of +1.5 would guarantee a team being in and a +3 would probably make a team an 8 or 9 seed.

The one that gets to me is the 16 point second half lead that IU blew to Nebrasks. That's a Q1 win we left out to dry.

SIAP, IU has said they would decline an opportunity to play in the NIT or Crown. Not a surprise. I would guess that USC will as well as Musselman will want to hit the portal. Not sure about Washington. I could see Northwestern interested in playing in the Crown since that could give their team that didn't have much NIL get some more.

I didn't do a bracket, but I would have had Oklahoma in and SMU out. I also would have had Oklahoma in before Texas.

I didn't do one this year, but the first year I did it I had a score of 318....too much of me putting teams's where I thought they belonged and not enough of trying to imagine what the committee was going to view as valuable.

Will do after the BracketMatrix posts the results of other brackets.

Missouri AD chair the committee?

Game #8: Indiana at Minnesota. Unlike their real life counterparts, virtual Indiana beat Minnesota by a score of 82-77. IU Stats MIN FG/A 3PT/A FT/A REB AS ST BS TO PTS Enright 30 2/6 1/2 2/2 7 4 1 0 1 7 Wilkerson 33 10/16 6/9 0/0 2 1 1 0 1 26 Dorn 25 5/9 3/7 1/1 3 0 0 0 1 14 DeVries 33 4/11 3/8 0/0 4 4 0 0 2 11 Alexis 22 2/3 0/0 1/3 7 1 0 0 2 5 Conerway 17 3/5 1/3 1/1 3 3 2 1 1 8 Bailey 18 3/5 0/0 0/0 7 0 0 1 4 6 Sisley 15 1/2 0/1 3/4 6 0 1 1 2 5 Miles 7 0/0 0/0 0/0 0 0 1 0 0 0

"Why are people always sitting in a circle and telling me that?" -- Chris Beard

Stats through 7 games: MPG PPG RPG APG Wilkerson 35 22.9 4.4 2.9 DeVries 35 19.4 7.3 2.9 Bailey 18 10.0 7.1 1.0 Dorn 25 9.7 2.6 0.9 Conerway 19 7.6 3.6 2.6 Alexis 22 7.4 8.3 0.7 Enright 30 6.7 4.6 4.3 Sisley 10 5.0 2.1 0.1 Ristic 8 2.2 0.5 0.0 (4 games played only) Miles 3 0.3 0.3 0.1

Game 7: Bethune-Cookman at IU. In an embarrassing performance, the Hoosiers found themselves down 8 at half and couldn't go over the hump in the second half. IU had two shots at a three pointer to send it to OT late but fall to the lowly BC team, 66-63. IU is now 5-2. IU stats MIN FG/A 3PT/A FT/A REB AST ST BS TO PTS Enright 30 2/5 1/2 0/1 4 3 0 0 3 5 Wilkerson 36 9/18 4/11 0/0 7 2 0 0 3 22 Dorn 25 3/7 0/4 0/0 2 0 1 1 0 6 DeVries 36 5/15 5/14 0/0 7 3 2 0 2 15 Alexis 21 1/7 0/1 0/0 7 0 1 1 1 2 Conerway 16 0/3 0/0 2/4 2 3 2 0 2 2 Bailey 19 2/5 0/1 2/2 7 1 0 0 3 6 Sisley 15 2/2 0/0 1/2 6 0 0 0 0 4 Miles 2 0/0 0/0 0/0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Game 6: Kansas State at IU. Solid win, IU 101, Kansas St 73 IU stats MIN FG/A 3PT/A FT/A REB AS ST BS TO PTS Enright 30 5/7 4/5 0/0 7 4 0 0 1 14 Wilkerson 33 9/17 2/8 6/6 3 4 0 0 3 26 Dorn 25 3/8 1/5 0/0 5 1 0 0 1 7 DeVries 34 8/16 6/10 6/7 9 5 0 0 0 28 Alexis 23 1/7 0/1 4/5 8 1 0 0 0 6 Conerway 22 4/8 0/3 0/0 2 1 3 1 1 8 Bailey 17 3/3 0/0 6/6 7 0 0 1 0 12 Sisley 6 0/2 0/0 0/0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Miles 5 0/0 0/0 0/0 1 0 0 0 1 0 Ristic 7 0/1 0/1 0/0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Game #5: Another day, another meaningless cupcake win: Indiana 103, Lindenwood 52. Hoosiers are now 4-1. IU stats MIN FG/A 3PT/A FT/A REB AS ST BS TO PTS Enright 30 0/0 0/0 0/0 5 5 1 0 1 0 Wilkerson 37 8/21 3/12 1/1 4 5 0 0 0 20 Dorn 25 6/8 4/6 2/2 3 0 1 0 0 18 DeVries 37 10/17 6/10 2/2 7 4 1 0 0 28 Alexis 24 6/6 0/0 0/1 12 1 2 4 3 12 Conerway 19 5/9 2/5 1/1 5 4 1 0 0 13 Bailey 17 3/5 0/0 1/2 9 1 0 0 2 7 Sisley 4 1/2 0/0 0/0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Miles 3 0/1 0/1 0/0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ristic 8 1/2 0/1 1/1 0 0 0 0 0 3

Game #4: IU v. Incarnate Word. Unlike their real life counterparts, virtual IU blows out Incarnate from the start. IU 101, Incarnate Word 67. MIN FG/A 3PT/A FT/A REB AST ST BS TO PTS Enright 30 4/5 2/3 0/1 2 6 1 0 1 10 Wilkerson 33 8/15 6/10 8/8 6 2 0 0 5 30 Dorn 24 3/9 1/6 1/1 2 1 1 0 1 8 DeVries 33 8/15 7/11 1/1 9 1 0 0 1 24 Alexis 19 3/5 0/0 3/3 7 1 0 3 1 9 Conerway 23 1/4 1/2 0/0 6 3 0 0 2 3 Bailey 20 4/7 0/0 6/8 6 1 1 0 0 14 Sisley 8 1/2 1/1 0/0 3 0 1 0 0 3 Miles 3 0/1 0/1 0/0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Ristic 7 0/1 0/1 0/0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Game 3: IU hosts Milwaukee. Hoosiers came out angry in this one after dropping their last game. IU in a laugher, 98-54 IU stats MIN FG/A 3PT/A FT/A REB AST ST BLK TO PTS Enright 29 2/5 1/2 2/2 2 4 3 0 0 7 Wilkerson 32 7/16 3/8 6/10 2 1 1 0 2 23 Dorn 23 4/7 3/4 0/0 1 1 1 0 2 11 DeVries 32 5/10 5/9 0/0 7 4 1 2 1 15 Alexis 19 3/4 0/1 2/3 11 1 0 1 0 8 Conerway 23 3/5 0/2 3/4 4 4 1 0 2 9 Bailey 21 5/5 0/0 2/6 9 1 0 1 2 12 Sisley 11 1/2 0/0 3/6 1 1 0 0 0 2 MIles 2 1/2 0/1 0/0 0 0 0 0 0 2 Ristic 10 2/2 1/1 1/2 2 0 0 0 0 6

Game 2: Indiana v Marquette on a neutral court. The Hoosiers fell behind 32-16 in the first half. They whittled the lead down and took their first lead with about 8 minutes left in the second half. See saw battle from there. The Hoosiers were up 2 with 12 seconds left and missed near the end of a shot clock....and then proceeded to give up a game winning three at the buzzer. Final: Marquette 79, IU 78. Not a good sign that the imaginary Hoosiers lost to a team the real Hoosiers blew out. Hoosiers fall to 1-1. IU stats MIN FG/A 3PT/A FT/A REB AST STL BS TO PTS Enright 31 3/7 2/3 0/0 6 3 2 0 2 8 Wilkerson 36 6/17 4/9 3/4 6 1 1 0 2 19 Dorn 26 2/7 2/7 0/0 4 1 0 0 0 6 DeVries 36 5/13 2/8 0/0 7 2 1 1 0 12 Alexis 22 4/7 0/1 0/0 6 0 1 1 2 8 Conerway 15 2/4 1/2 3/3 4 0 1 1 2 8 Bailey 18 3/4 0/0 3/5 5 1 0 0 3 9 Sisley 14 3/4 0/0 2/2 2 0 0 0 0 8 Miles 3 0/1 0/1 0/0 0 0 0 0 0 0

The real life year did not live up the standards we all wanted. In this little project, I'm going to load each team into the PC Stellar game and see if the imaginary season turns out any better. -- I will use the starting lineup that was used in the second half of the season: Enright, Wilkerson, Dorn, DeVries, and Alexis. Players off the bench are projected to get the kind of minutes that they did during the year -- so off the bench minutes from most to least will be Conerway, Bailey, Sisley, Miles, and Ristic (Ristic isn't likely to get many minutes at all. Game 1: Alabama A&M at Indiana: Indiana 88, Alabama A&M 61 Indiana stats MIN FG / A 3Pt /a FT/a reb ast stl BS to pts Enright 32 1/3 1/2 0/0 6 5 3 0 4 3 Wilkerson 35 6/16 4/10 4/4 3 5 2 0 2 20 Dorn 27 4/8 2/4 2/2 1 2 0 0 2 12 DeVries 35 4/10 3/7 3/3 6 1 1 1 0 14 Alexis 24 3/7 0/1 1/1 7 1 2 2 1 7 Conerway 14 3/3 0/0 4/4 2 1 0 1 2 10 Bailey 16 2/3 0/0 6/7 7 2 0 1 2 10 Sisley 15 5/5 0/0 2/3 3 0 0 1 0 12 Miles 4 0/0 0/0 0/0 0 0 0 0 1 0

In terms recruiting chops, I’m not sure what it would take someone to go to Muncie and play for almost nothing.

They shot 3% higher while putting many more three pointers per game. It’s not ‘about the same as last year’.

I have no idea what 'marsh mellow fingers' means.

Why are we still fouling

I said in the first half when there was only 7 fouls called that they may call 30 in the second half. So far they've called 21.

God I hope it's not Reed Bailey in a thong.