RaceToTheTop

**** the Big Ten.

Wisky's Brad Davidson suspended for the next game. Freaking good. Cheap @$$ dirty player.....always has been.

After Michigan State beats Northwestern, Izzo says that Northwestern's coach is a 'good coach'. After three straight losses to CAM, he's never mentioned him.

As an IU fan, I'd take the points. I'd take the points if I were a Penn State fan as well. 4 conference games and they are averagin +3.8 at home.

Personally, I'm still in pain from the Maryland game......from the standpoint that we played well and shouldn't have lost. Hoping that the players decide the game and not the Big Ten refs.

FWIW, of the sites on the bracket project that have posted their brackets in the past two days, the highest seed we were given was 6 and the lowest was 11. The site that gave us the worst seed -- teamrankings.com -- still projects IU as having a 74% chance to make the tournament.

IU also went up on the Bracket Project after the one point loss to Maryland which currently is the accumulative predictions of 98 different posted brackets, so Lunardi is not alone. Here is what the current accumulative predictions say (number in parentheses is how many out of 98 brackets the team appears in): Michigan State: average prediction 3.14. 11th best rating, so overall 3rd seed. (98) Maryland: avg 3.92, 15th overall, so 4th seed. (98) Iowa: avg 4.97, 18th overall, so 5th seed. (98) Penn State: avg 6.11, 23rd overall, so 6th seed (98) Illinois: avg 6.65, 24th overall, so 6 seed (98) Rutgers: avg 6.92, 25th overall, so 7 seed (97) Wisconsin: avg 7.58, 29th overall, so 8 seed (97) Ohio State: avg 7.97, 30th overall, so 8 seed (98) Indiana: avg 8.28, 32nd overall, so 8 seed (97) Michigan: avg 8.99, 35th overall, so 9 seed (90) Purdue: avg 10.59, 42nd overall, so 11seed (64) Minnesota: avg 10.79, 43rd overall, so 11 seed (74)

Tuttle was definitely in the mix last spring before an injury derailed that. I’d put my level of confidence in Tuttle above where Ramsey was before his sophomore season.

Before Ramsey left, we had the 5th most returning offensive production and 3rd most defensive production in D1 returning. With Ramsey transferring, that number drops for the offense....but if Penix stays healthy, realistically it doesn’t.

will be interesting to see where he transfers. He’s going to be able to pick a spot where the quarterback spot will be his. Hope to see him do well and get another chance to win a bowl game next year.

If Penix gets hurt, we’ll see if Tuttle’s ability can match what his recruiting profile looked like. I’ll miss Ramsey. Hoping Penix stays healthy, but if Ramsey had simply graduated and Tuttle had moved up to #2, I would be pretty comfortable with Penix starting and Tuttle backing him up.

Bingo. And what I’ll never understand is the opinion I’ve seen expressed here that despite our lack of outside shooting that Franklin should play huge minutes and Green should “never be on the court”. Usually these posters who say to play young players who aren’t as ready to “build for the future” would also firs Milled at the end of the season if they don’t make the tourney. The reason Green plays has a lot to do with the options. If you can find a guy on our team that does the good things DeVonte does without the bad, then I’m all for playing him. RP could be that guy but he’s shown to be someone who is oft injured and hasn’t shown the ability to play beyond 28 minutes or so per game at most

Read comments on any of our game threads and see if you come away with the opinion that there aren't a significant number of posters on here that think Miller knows very little about basketball.

Side note to brass cannon: IMO, I would say we have one game left that IMO is equivalent to playing at Nebraska, and that would be at home against Minnesota.....maybe even at home against Michigan, depending how they are playing at that point. The Nebraska game we were 6 point favorites on the road and I would have bet against us. I can see Minnesota in Bloomington being a similar line.

No, it's about basketball. Turning into a 'general leadership' statement, IMO, is the real generic internet tough guy talk.

I don't agree that there is a baseline for criticism on coaches, which I stated in the post. But I do honestly believe there is a certain segment of posters who feel if they were hired at Indiana today, they would 'coach' this team to a run.

FWIW, whether Roger was or not, I was not envisioning the question directed at you. The bottom line today is that TJD makes the last shot or just one other thing goes right down the stretch, we really aren't having a whole lot of discussion about how Archie has been coaching lately and instead are focusing on how we just won three important games in a row.

Not really. Guarantee that there are posters here that believe that they could do so despite never coaching....or coaching Pee Wee basketball to five year olds. Certainly doesn't mean that coaches aren't beyond criticism,, because OF COURSE they are. But it does always amaze me how simple some posters think it is, as if their advice like "it has to be touched by TJD every trip down the floor" is something based in reality and ignore the fact that the other team has players and a coach as well.

Predicting individual games is a sucker's bet, which is why you are probably wise to not gamble. Vegas makes money for a reason. It's why when you look at our games and say you 'don't feel comfortable about predicting a single road win', you aren't looking at it correctly. The correction assessment isn't about looking at each individual game, but the aggregate. You aren't going to win every game you are favored and you aren't going to lose every game you are an underdog. The odds are overwhelmingly that we WILL win at least more road game.....just like they are overwhelming that we will lose one at home. Yet we are likely going to be favored in every single home game remaining and dogs at every road game. Do this for me: go down our home games and tell me which you are comfortable saying that we will lose that game. I don't see a single one. Yet, I would be willing to wager we lose at least one more home game just like I would be willing to wager we win at least one on the road....because that's where the percentages lie.

I am convinced at this point that you are worth responding to....so this may the last time. Mindset has nothing.to.do.with.anything. Saying that something is a 'gimmee game' indicates that it's a level of game that would be a shock to lose. Quite amazing that in five games, there have been two 'shocking losses'.....one by 14 points. The whole 'bad mindset' or 'acceptance of losses' that you (and Josh) have posted about is just meaningless drivel.....and is any thing that anyone has ever said. Know what I accept? Reality. So are you going to only accept a result which sees us lose zero games? I mean, sounds like a bad mindset to me and one that accepts losing.

Could you go and tell Purdue and Iowa that games at Nebraska are gimmes? I'm also willing to guess that if you were going to bet money and the number of wins remaining for IU was put at 4, you wouldn't put money on the under.

I'll never understand if you feel we are a 6 -10 seed the inability to understand that while unwanted, losses are going to occur. If they didn't, the team wouldn't be a 6-10 seed.

So if we had went 5-5 in that stretch instead of 0-10, you would have been negative and not realistic? Being negative and correct when things go wrong doesn't make any more realistic than someone who is optimistic and things go right. And I'm sorry, you haven't been the type of guy who 'raises concerns'. You have been a poster who 'predicts failure'.

So now that you haven't accepted it, did it turn the loss into the win? I guess I'll never understand the idea that telling everyone how much you hate a loss and they couldn't possibly hate it more than you somehow makes your opinion the right one.

And the other two wins came against teams ranked #7 and #13 by Pom. In fact, Pom will tell you that 4 of our 9 conference games were against teams ranked 1-2-3 in the Big Ten.....and we only have one game left against that group.