Aaron

Everyone but Stepaniak looks good to go. The fact everyone freaked out over Dakich is mind blowing. We know what he is like.

Really nice road win against a probable tourney team on road that shows this team is a legitimate Big Ten title contender. We blew this game last year but closed it out this year really well which shows where we are at. Instead of fighting to get in tourney which is a lock we are fighting to host games as a top 4 seeds.

What a second half. Like I said these 5* freshman are going to be special. Homes especially has chance to be one of top IU players ever and certainly best big ever. Even Allen though was big with a couple baskets when Holmes out. MSU is decent and we schooled them in second half. That second half was best half of ball for IU since Virgin Islands in my mind. If that team shows up from second half most of Big Ten play we will be special and compete for conference title. First half IU can't show up to much though or we are a fringe tourney mid-pack team. Nice win and way to open Big Ten play.

I was thinking that and Holmes only a freshman. If she keeps this up and becomes anything close to Gustafson she will be the best player in program history bar none (yes better than Buss).

IU cleaned up the two things I said and had a huge quarter to take a 5 point lead. What a stretch by Holmes to close the quarter as she leads IU with 15.

Two problems that half: Getting destroyed on boards including 9-2 on offensive end which has led to multiple second chance points for MSU. Also 6 Spartan threes to IU's none. Got to clean those two things up. Other issues crept in that half but those ones are the debilitating factors. BTW: Attendance with the $1 tickets is 6,020 which is a season high and beats last weeks UCLA crowd by 800 or so which was previous best. This is the ninth largest crowd in program history. UCLA last weekend was 15th.

I just realized this, but most likely if we beat PSU we are looking at being in the Pinstripe Bowl rather then the Gator Bowl if everything else goes the same. Why is this you ask? Because if we beat Penn St. they are 9-3 like us and don't make the Cotton or any other New Year's Six Bowl meaning the Big Ten only gets two there. This leaves us with: Playoff: Ohio St Rose: Wisconsin Citrus, Outback, Holiday, Gator, Pinstripe: All of PSU, Minny, Michigan, Iowa and IU have 9 wins so you would have to place each of those teams in one of those five bowls and given who we are its probably us relegated to Pinstripe. My question is do you agree with my assessment and would it have been worth beating PSU if it meant being relegated to Pinstripe over Gator?

Ignore the Colts since their game is meaningless and on road. I am going to IU game and don't care at all I am missing Colts game and I am someone who rarely misses either.

OG was very good tonight with 15 points. Pacers won an overtime classic and I don't think I've ever been so happy to see the Raptors lose (not mad at OG though and glad he played well). Not going to go into details (you can PM if you want the full story) but I should of been there and due to circumstances beyond my control I was not able to go. Great game though between two really good teams.

Finally falling behind early killed them. They have overcome it in all the previous games but not today against a top 10 UCLA team who was trying to prove they are legit after playing a much softer non-conference schedule then IU. If we can learn from this it could be a good thing as better to lose now to a top 10 team with all the top wins we have already then to have this happen in conference play. To be honest UCLA is probably better then every Big Ten team besides Maryland. Hoosiers definitely challenged themselves and were rewarded with some huge non conference wins and now they need to use that and compete for a conference title.

One of the largest crowds I have ever seen here non-NIT run division. That half was ugly with no one able to hit a shot and careless turnovers. IU fortunate to be this close.

Remember when we couldn't win in Indy or in close games under Crean? Archie has fixed that. Every Crossroads Classic game we have been in besides the first one has gone to wire but we are a solid 6-3 and won three in a row and five out of six at the event. With Crean it seemed we were in a lot of close games but were not so good at pulling them out. With Archie we have actually been really good in close games but key is not getting blown out which has happened more often since he got here. Take your 11-1 and hope these close games don't come back to haunt you in Jan. as they did last yr.

Pacers blew out the Kings but Yogi had 7 points 2 rebounds and 2 assists in his return to Indiana tonight.

Devonte good to go. As an aside we have trailed in the second half of every Crossroads Classic game we have played in besides inaugural (and by double digits in some of the cases) yet we are 4-3 in these games and everyone of them went to wire. In other words if we are trailing in second half big does not mean game is over:).

OG will play vs. Pacers here Monday. Yogi tonight with Kings.

We've won four out of our last five at Crossroads but all have come right to last seconds. Lucky to be playing ND and not Butler. Butler is probably best team in state while ND is probably the worst of the four teams at the event this year.

I''ll be there. I have been to all four of the IU Butler games but this is only my third of five Notre Dame games (missed 2011, 2017 while vacationing).

I remember when Kerwin Bell was a third string QB on the Colts the first year I started watching them in 1996 (I was 9 yrs old). He almost started a game when first Harbaugh went down in week 12 then Justin went down at the end of week 15. Fortunately Harbaugh came back next game against KC in week 16 so Bell only ended up playing very late in week 15 when Justin got hurt or Colts would of missed playoffs. Bell went to CFL after this and eventually coaching which is obviously what he is doing now. Fun fact: The practice squad fourth string guy was Kelly Holcomb on the 96 team and he ended up moving to third string next year in 1997 disaster and played a bit before being Manning's backup first couple years he was in league but never saw action since Manning never missed a snap:) Never heard of any of these guys outside Bell.

This makes me hopeful the committee will pick a good candidate and McRobbie will just sign off on it. There is no way Moren, Yeagley and Looze and some of these others would let McRobbie pick someone with no sports experience who is a lapdog and wants to de-emphasize athletics. Interesting neither Allen or Archie is on committee but assume they did not want to or are to busy with their sports. Running football and basketball is much harder then running Olympic sports.

It really only matters if the committee comes up with a great candidate (lets say Pat Kraft) and McRobbie vetoes it much like Herbert vetoed Beilein for Sampson since he wanted a minority. Like I said who we hire will tell us whether McRobbie simply listens to the committee and takes recommendations or personally puts a cronie in there who wants athletics to be in a limited role. It was obvious when Sampson came out of nowhere someone intervened (and now we know the whole story). Until someone is hired we won't really know what McRobbie does or is trying to do and I am not going to worry until I see who we get. Also on McRobbie from everything I have heard from people who work at University he is a decent president in a lot of ways but has faults and is way better then the last two idiots (Herbert and Brand) we have had. He just doesn't get athletics. As long as he takes who the committee recommends and doesn't hijack the process like Herbert did we should be OK.

I heard run by a committee as well from what I saw on twitter from media. I think a committee will recommend someone to McRobbie and he will approve or deny the hire and have final say. As I said who we hire will say a lot about how much McRobbie is or isn't hamstringing the athletic program. Either way McRobbie will retire soon also so not sure he cares enough to deny someone if committee makes a qualified recommendation.

You usually have the inside info at times (I'm checking my sources and have nothing either but mine are much much more limited then yours and more second hand). I am curious myself if this is for lack of support from McRobbie and administration and he wants out or Glass just is tired of the pressure. As I said above who we hire says a lot. If it is a legit candidate like Pat Kraft or some of the names thrown out there then it probably means Glass just is sick of job and most of what is in press release is true. If its some kind of weird hire like someone who has had little success at previous job or a VP with no Athletic experience like Clapacs in past then its probably not good and means McRobbie either forced Glass out or Glass felt little support. Like I said the best thing is if Archie fails the new AD won't feel married to him and will lead to a quicker change.

I could see this as a lot of different things. It could be McRobbie is hamstringing Glass as some people think so Glass is getting out (although I think McRobbie is retiring soon to as well) since he doesn't have the support or he could be tired of it and there is nothing going on that is not in the press release. Really not sure For the good it does mean if Archie or Tom Allen fail the new AD will not feel an attachment to hold on to him for to long since his job does not ride with these hires. The bad is if McRobbie hires a lap dog who also really doesn't understand sports (as is alleged and quite possible) it could get worse. This could go many different ways and its hard to know what is behind this. A telling thing will be if we hire an AD with previous experience who has done well at other schools. If we do that then clearly the administration cares more about sports than we think. If they hire someone with no experience or a University VP like Clapacs in the past it gives credence to IU crowd who thinks IU wants to take athletics secondary. Interesting turn of events.

Not surprising. Versyp has done to PU what Mike Davis did to IU. Followed a legend and did great at first then drove program to mediocrity. Difference is PU refuses to get rid of her so they alternate between a fringe tourney team and missing all together. Women's BBall was PU's elite sport through the mid 2000's as a dynasty similar to IU soccer till Versyp got her hands on it. Fortunately for IU soccer when they got Mr. Mediocrity in Mike Freitag they dismissed him in a few years and Todd Yeagley has returned it to elite. Not sure why PU lets Versyp keep lowering their standards but not complaining. Thankfully for us Moren (who played for PU) has a 10 million dollar buyout clause in her contract that pretty much prohibits her from going to Boilermakers after what Versyp did to us spurning IU for PU. Looks like it worked out for us better then for PU even though it took many years to play out that way:).

IU fans had a lot to do with that as place was 50% percent Crimson at least:)