Aaron

I'm not sure whether to praise the team for somehow being in the game against a team that's 10 times better or dump on them for again messing everything up in the last minute as they have in every close game. This time 2 easy missed layups that would of put them back ahead and a terrible turnover screwed up what was the best 39 minutes of the season.

The Big Ten is such garbage this year and the worst I’ve seen it. That a team like Nebraska is 4-3 in conference and has been blown out by an awful St. Johns team and lost to UCF as well as had several cupcakes won by single digits tells you how weak the conference is. I could make the same argument for IU given our losses to Ft. Wayne and ISU. Maryland who is the '5th' best team has a terrible loss to St. Boneventure. Only MSU and PU are really good and Michigan and OSU solid. Everyone else you can throw into a hat and no matter who you draw you come out with something smelly.

There is absolutely no way we need anything dirty to get the 4 recruits we did this year. Certainly no one pays borderline top 100 players and even a fringe top 50 player like Hunter is unlikely to involve cash. Generally shadiness is reserved for the 5 stars and top 25-30 players sometimes but other times not (there is almost zero chance Yogi or Zeller took any money to come here). I hope we can get Romeo clean but I am just saying I am OK just this once to funnel money to him just get the program going and then after that winning clean with mostly solid 4 star players moving forward as PU, Michigan Wisconsin etc have done.

I know I am going to get flack for this but I am OK with doing something a little dirty to get Romeo to get back on track if needed. l'd like to win clean moving forward but for this time to get it going we may need to throw a little under the table money just this once. I am willing to bet PU did a little something dirty to get Swanigan just to get going again but have otherwise recruited clean with the next level of kids and won pretty big doing it. I hate praising PU and I feel dirty but following their model may be successful moving forward.

Oladipo 17 points in an easy Pacer win over the Suns to start west coast trip.

After some inexplicable struggles at home against Northwestern for most of the Crean era that is 3 straight at the Hall against them with 2 blowouts. Things may be getting back to normal. Also crowd was far more into game today and louder than against PSU. As I said crowd is always dead against PSU but much louder against most other teams (except maybe Nebraska and Rutgers but not enough data available yet). This is big as the next 3 games now that we are playing better have a chance to be a classic elite Assembly Hall atmosphere and a legit sellout with most of balcony full. Maryland, MSU and PU generally are best atmospheres for Big Ten games and we are going to need it. Lastly this is not game related and I am sure Ken Pom has his metrics and I generally like him but we have only moved up to 89th and still 2 spots behind an Iowa team we clobbered. Makes no sense.

Soccer won't sell out because the stadium is to big. Our attendance for soccer is among the best in the sport each year (top 5-10) and our program by college soccer standards is better supported than 95% of college soccer teams. If we dropped our capacity in half to 3,000 or so like most college soccer stadiums we would fill it fairly regularly (many games draw close to that) but its not reasonable to expect to fill a 6,500 seat stadium except in maybe late in the tourney. We nearly did that in the Elite 8 and had far more people than any of the other 3 games in that round. Soccer is the one sport I think most people our proud of and is as well supported as can reasonably be hoped given where the sport is at. Women's basketball needs to get a lot better but even an if we become an elite team Assembly Hall will never be more than a third full. Even the best women's teams average 5-9,000 a game. There is room for growth here. Volleyball if we ever become decent could fill our soon to be open modest size stadium (heck the one year the team was good in 2010, U-Gym which is fairly small was filled most of the season) I'll throw in baseball where as soon as we got good 5-10 years ago we are now better supported than any Big Ten team save for Nebraska and attendance is far better than any other team in the conference save for them and among the best of northern teams. Since Bart Kaufman Field is a perfect size stadium (2,500) it nearly sells out fairly regularly on the Friday and Saturday games once the weather is warm. If our soccer stadium were that size we would usually fill it as well. I absolutely agree that people are down on IU in general and especially football but I think we have prideful base of fans and if we win as we should people will attend games. We need to fix our performance in most sports across the department and than people will start attending just as happened with Baseball where for many years we would draw 200 fans a game. Now we draw over 2,000 since Tracy Smith turned the program around and we've stayed around that since.

Oladipo also out dueled Lebron down stretch and hit game winning go ahead 3 with just under 2 min. left. Lebron stepped out of bounds along the baseline trying to drive for the game winning basket with under 5 sec. left. Great game. Pacers 3-0 vs. Cavs this year.

Glad everyone approves of a 'good effort' on the road. I agree tonight was about the best you could hope for but the fact that we are not taking advantage of Tyra Buss in her senior year (it's not her fault as she is doing everything she can) is despicable. Moren has recruited well but roster construction and her player development is so poor that what should be a sure tourney team will struggle to make WNIT. Feel bad for Buss as other than her sophomore year we have basically wasted her career as the best player in program history. That is 100% on Moren who is losing players left and right to transfers who don't want to play for her who are really good. I have said multiple times this year that this program is not in good shape until we make a coaching change and hire the right coach. Moren is not it.

Rutgers is going to have to worry about losing Pikiell to a better job (contract extensions mean zero) if he sniffs success.

First off can we please dump the myth that we don't do well against PSU? While the games are always unnecessarily close we have now won 10 of 12 against them which is by far the best against any Big Ten team recently. Other than the first 3 years under Crean where they were at their best ever and us at our worst where we lost 5 of 6, we have dominated PSU like no other Big Ten team the last 25 years. Part of the reason the games are close though especially at home (save for the 2 Zeller years where we wiped the floor with them both times) is when we play them the Hall is dead like it is not against any other Big Ten team (including Zeller years). People rarely stand, the place is half empty and feels like an NBA atmosphere at best. PSU just doesn't excite anyone when they come here so its actually easier for them to keep a game close than it is any other team that comes in during conference play as the Hall never has its normal buzz. Now I want to say with the game that this is the best I have seen us close out PSU. I know they hit a couple of prayer 3's very late but we actually hit our FT's, broke their press (save for the 10 sec violation a little earlier) and adequately got the ball in bounds to keep them at bay at the very end. Every time under Crean in all these close games against PSU we have either lost (the ridiculous melt down in 2014 up 10 with a minute left) or had the game unnecessarily go to wire since we turned the ball over against their press and missed FT's in last minute to give them a chance (other than 14 we have held on despite trying to choke game away). This is the first game this season I can clearly say I saw a change for the better in the way the team played under Archie compared to the exact same situation under Crean in the last minute. Much calmer and no mistakes this time. Well done. Also save for a few stretches, the ball movement was pretty good tonight. Now if only we could learn to hit a few open 3's.

Oladipo is the league MVP without a doubt. There is no way he will win it but no one is more valuable to their team than Victor. Pacers were awful for the 4 games he was out and now all of the sudden look great again with him. By the awards true definition that's an MVP.

PU has screwed their program worse by stubbornly holding onto Versyp for to long. PU women's ball is like IU men's ball historically until the mid 2000's with constantly elite results under Lin Dunn than a national title under Carolyn Peck and than continued high success under Kristy Curry. Than they took Versyp from us and she was great with Curry's players for 3 years but has since taken them from a top program to an average one and PU refuses to get rid of her (sound familiar right?). Nice win but PU has fallen on fairly hard times and they have a reason to be madder about it than us given they have historical precedent for major success unlike IU who has had zero success. With all that said go Hoosiers and love curve stomping a down PU team.

Agreed prior to that we were not great. I was referring to recently only where we have been better there than anywhere else almost (as I said 4 wins and other games have been close losses in last 10 years) on the road. PSU has been our best recently. where I believe it is 5 of 6 and 12 of 16 if I counted right. Worst is Wiscy where we have lost every game since 98 and MSU where we have one win since 91.

That is absolutely not correct. It's our 4th win their in 10 years and almost every other game has been extremely close in that time. I know its a weird building and is extremely intimidating but in the last hand full of years we have done better there than at most other places.

I listened to everything Dakich said yesterday and some of what he said is completely blow hard and ratings driven and makes no sense and other things he may be right about and it raises flags. In our world of extremes people tend to be all right or all wrong. I think some of what Dakich said is right and some is beyond ridiculous and needs to be criticized. Of his main points he compared IU and Butler having first year coaches which is absurd. Butler brought back the same roster from a good team while IU lost 3 players off a bad team and you can't compare the two. He did however, compare IU to Holtman at OSU and to me that is concerning that he is getting a team already to play a lot better that is no more talented. He also said we need should of hired an IU guy like Alford which is completely insane. You take the best guy available. The only question is did we do that and that's very much up in the air? He also said we were wrong to fire Crean which was about the most insane thing in his entire rant. He also said the IU fan base is excepting mediocre results which from everything I have seen could not be farther from the truth and is very upset that everything is happening the way it is. A few people may be content but from what I see, but for the most part the fan base is so far from happy right now and has been very critical and not making all these excuses he claims. However, the main point he said is that this is the worst coach team he has seen since he coached and he was at a practice and the players were not trying hard and coaches were crossing their hands and not caring. The first part of the point looks certainly true and the second part I have to take him at his word since I have not been at a practice and I doubt he flat out made this up. He may be overstating it to make his point but I have to believe there is at least some truth to this. Assuming this entire point is true (and I am going to assume it is for at least the most part) this to me is the only thing he said that is extremely concerning and makes me question if things will improve. To sum it all up I think Archie deserves a fair chance and I refuse to judge him until next year when he has his own players, but some of what is going on is concerning moving forward and needs to be discussed. We live in a black and white world where everything is all one way or the other and sometimes the middle ground (including what Dakich said) can be true and I strongly believe that.

This is something I struggle with. You will never win at a top level if you don't cheat some but you can certainly win at a high level. I can guarantee you given the level of recruiting they do that Michigan, Butler, Purdue and Wisconsin are pretty clean and they do it with systems and pretty much all 3 and 4 star recruits. Key is being able to install a system and win with the next level of player. If Archie is the coach everyone thinks he can be, he can certainly recruit the same level and type of players he has next year, every year and mold that into a run similar to what the above teams I mention do every year. Is that enough for IU fans? Given what we have been through you might take it. If every year is like Crean's 2011 team consistently without the valleys is that acceptable? You can certainly do that without cheating at all. To be Duke, UNC, Arizona, UK ETC you have to cheat some. The question for the entire fan base is do we want to be a Michigan or a Butler that wins pretty big but clean every year and probably falls short of a title or be the UNC or UK and cheat a bit and hope to not get caught? I kind of think at this point in college basketball those are your options and IU and us fans needs to decide which way we want it. If we can always be like Crean's 3 good years without the 6 bad ones would we take it or do we play in the gray a bit and win really big? With all that said I will not judge Archie until he has his own players in here.

Since I have the BTN+ subscription for other sports I really follow (mainly Soccer and Baseball) saw about the last 3 min. Both teams are not going anywhere first of all and neither is very good. PSU let us back into the game and we did an excellent job of taking it until about 20 seconds left where we did everything wrong. After finally tying the game we gave up such an open lay up PSU didn't even bother to hold for the last shot as you normally would. Then we still had a chance to tie with a layup but committed an offensive foul with about 5 seconds left. We fouled immediately and PSU missed a free throw opening the door but an awful in bounds pass after was turned over to PSU giving us no chance for the tying 3. At this point I'm hoping to lose as much as possible in Big Ten just to get Moren out of there as much as its a shame to waster Tyra Buss' senior year. Moren can recruit with the best of them but has no idea how to get through to the players or develop them and this program will be much better with a change where we can do a normal coaching search and not be hastily forced into a hire like we were after Miller.

Another thing I just saw and I am not sure how this went over my head at the time given how closely I follow Big Ten Baseball is Maryland lost their highly successful head coach in baseball John Szefc to Virginia Tech in the summer which is also an equivalent if not lower program in baseball's hierarchy. I don't know if Maryland is being cheap but to me I am starting to think them losing Aird is more about Maryland not valuing and paying their top tier head coaches correctly than anything nefarious going on. Obviously we lost Tracy Smith in baseball a few years ago (which was very unfortunate) but that was to a program that is much higher in the pecking order in Arizona State. Losing Smith was the football equivalent of losing a coach from IU to Florida State or Clemson versus losing Szefc is the football equivalent of Maryland losing a coach to Illinois or Virginia. It starting to look like this is on Maryland incompetence (and I didn't realize this yesterday) and not anything sleazy on Aird's part although you never know. I am certainly not mad, but Maryland fans should be furious (and they are) that their department is losing great coaches to equivalent programs. No excuse for that.

Apparently i'm a really bad doctor (I actually work in the medical industry but on the billing side and know nothing about actual medicine) given that I wanted him to play tonight and now it seems he's out Friday. I guess the injury is a little more serious than I thought. This is the first and last time I try to be a doctor or play one on TV. However, if Vic needs help making sure his medical insurance for the injury is filled out and filed correctly with no errors I'm his man since I do that for a living.

I went over to Maryland's message board and no one can seem to understand why he left and most posters don't follow volleyball enough to really know whats going on. However, most posters seem to blame the administration for a lack of support and direction for him and the program based on their view from a far. If that's all it is than certainly their loss is our gain but I am not sure anyone over there really knows for sure. As I said if nothing nefarious happened behind the scenes at Maryland that no one knows about and the Maryland fans are indeed right than it was a support issue this is a fantastic hire.

Well Pacers just announced Victor is out Friday as well. If this really is more serious than I thought I apologize and the right decision was probably made to withhold him tonight. It just seems odd that he played last night and finished the game with no visible problems and now all the sudden his knee is to sore to play for a few games. Maybe it was injured or aggravated in practice today. Either way the Pacers are in big trouble if Vic is out a week or two.

I have no idea how the Media will handle this. We will see tomorrow. Like I said it could all blow over. I still stand by the fact he should of given it a go and played at least limited minutes given the circumstances. This was not the night to rest him with presumably a relatively minor injury. If he misses a few games and this is more serious than I think I apologize to everyone and that changes the discussion. But for now you have to understand the stakes tonight and I don't think the Pacers fully thought through everything when they made the decision.

I said this isn't about me. I am already a Pacer fan and work 5 minutes from the Fieldhouse and always attend 1-2 games a month. I was slightly upset but I am mostly over it and will see Vic in a couple weeks. This is about the family on the fixed income who spent maybe $100 to see Vic or the mostly IU fan who is not as into the Pacers they may not be back now this year. For a team that has attendance problems all year and finally sold out tonight and is trying to win fans back this was not handled well or thought through. I stand by that. It's not the end of the world but still an unnecessary negative experience for many first time fans this year that the Pacers blew a big opportunity with.

I disagree. This was a game where you ask 'would he go' if this were the playoffs? If the answer is yes you play him at least limited minutes tonight for the reasons I mentioned above. I may be upset but I will still go back and attend my 1-2 games a month like I always do. For the family on the fixed income who spent $100 to see Vic or the mostly IU fan who is not as into the Pacers they may not be back now this year. If the injury lingers and you want to sit him Friday on the road that's fine but the Pacers did a decent amount of PR damage in my mind tonight for sitting Vic with what is clearly a nagging but relatively minor injury. I am curious to see how the Indy media handles this tomorrow. It could blow over and be nothing or it could cost the pacers 2 days of unneeded PR problems on local radio and in the paper. For a team trying to win a fan base back this was not thought through well at the very least and I stand by that regardless of how the next few days and season play out.