Aaron

Not necessarily. He could just love IU and is committed to being here regardless of who coaches. I can tell you I love my boss but love my job just as much. I would be committed to my job regardless of who my boss was. Could be something like that. He may know something about coaching search but it could just as easily be he loves IU regardless of who coaches him.

I just hope all these rumors have not blown a cover and screwed the deal up. Maybe Donovan said he would take the job under the condition that nothing got out until it was announced and if it did he would flat out deny and the deal was off. Doubt it but if that's the case the people who leaked it are going to feel terrible.

I don't see it on mobile or regular and I am logged into both at moment.

I don't see that anywhere on his twitter?

Well I just 'saw' (note the 'saw' in quotations because I mean it in an abstract way) someone I know who knows exactly whats going on with the coaching search but they won't share the truth with me even if I asked them.

Well Terry Hutchens accidentally tweeted a private message to the public about Donovan on twitter. A search firm was hired that draws up contracts and is the same one that was hired 2 days before Cuonzo Martin finalized at Mizzou. All other stuff is 2nd hand from supposedly plugged in posters. Certainly not final and I'm still skeptical but wind may be blowing that way although this tweet from Jeff Goodman may throw cold water on that. Davis staying is confirmed by his High School coach. Bryant staying is a rumor that I am skeptical of still.

Hutchens just confirmed his 1st tweet was a private message he accidentally tweeted publicly!

He doesn't say what he is hearing. Maybe as media he has to be more careful. Donovan would be logical but he doesn't say.

That's what I was trying to figure out?

If this is the case (and I'm sure Bozich would not report it otherwise) doesn't this throw cold water on Donovan at least for now (doesn't mean it won't happen)? If Donovan were a done deal why would IU be hiring a search firm? I don't want to hear it's because we want it to make it appear like a legitimate search. No AD would throw away 10's of thousands of dollars on a search firm if Donovan hire were already in place. We may still get him but this seems to indicate to me this is anything but a done deal.

What does this mean?

I would argue this Michigan vs. Louisville game features IU's 3 worst showings of the season between the Louisville struggle in Indy, the blowout we took in Ann Arbor and most importantly the no show home game vs Michigan (this was pretty much when the Crean firing talk really heated up from a smoldering house fire to a full blown out of control wild fire). Of these three games, I attended all besides the Ann Arbor blowout but the other 2 were definitely the 2 worst games I attended in person this year (I went to all Big Ten home games along with UNC, both games in Indy and the games at Fort Wayne and Northwestern)

I saw Davis' high school coach tweet. Sounds like Davis is smart and I've said from the beginning (to people I know, not on this board) no one stands to benefit from a change more than De'ron Davis given Crean's issues developing talented big men. As for Donovan as I said in my previous post I'll believe it when I see it but god I hope it's true.

Here's what worries me about anonymous and media sources. I know 2 things that have been reported to be completely wrong at one or time another. Neither correlates directly, but are sort of related to Crean's firing. One involves a posting on this board where supposedly someone important in the process still liked Crean. I actually know someone who knows this person very well and this important person was more than ready for Crean to move on despite what got posted. The second is a story where the media got everything wrong in terms of what it said regarding fan anger towards Crean and I have seen with my own eyes to the contrary. Don't ask me anything else because I won't address it but I can promise you this is why I get so questionable of anything I read in the media or what people post until it's a done deal. With this said I have no idea who IU is hiring or why Crean was fired and whether it involved the supposed booster mutiny as has been reported or was Glass's own decision.

Here's my thought: At this point I hope Alford gets to the Final Four or farther so either UCLA fights really hard to keep him or I feel a little better about us hiring him with a now improved resume. No matter what Alford is my last choice though.

Precisely and that's a huge problem either because of fear or arrogance. When you are willingly giving your 2 biggest competitors more coverage you are not doing something right. Like I said when you win big that's no big deal but when your not it is another major reason he needed to go. You cannot limit the interaction fans are given to your team through the media and its one of the reasons the Indy media was recently treating IU as 'A college team in the state' instead of 'THE college team in the state' despite being the most popular one (I've written about this before).

Listening to a podcast with Alex McCarthy on Crimson Cast and apparently Crean was not giving the media access needed to properly cover the team and he told various negative stories he and other media members covering the team had. I also have heard Dakich and JMV say they were not given proper access to talk to players on Indy radio (and this seems accurate given how many more Purdue and Butler players they have on their show). If this is the case (and I have every reason to believe it is given certain people I know in the media who have told me this) it's another rock in Crean's shoe and a good reason we have made a change as making yourself available to media and putting the team out there for fans to interact with is very important. If Crean won big this is not a big deal but when you are not winning and not letting your team be properly covered at the same time it creates a huge problem in terms of likability fans have of the team.

I hope IU strives higher. Not a horrible hire but I would of thought Illinois could do better.

Didn't talk to them during live action. My attempt was before game and during halftime. I think they were just rude people.

OK this sounds dirty but I was at the NCAA games in Indy last night and the UK fans could not of been nicer and more humble and Dayton fans more arrogant and rude from my experience. This may sound weird but that was my experience last night. Walking into the stadium a group of Dayton fans were obnoxiously chanting their fight song at UK fans and everyone in line at the top of their lungs. The UK fan in line with me and I had a laugh. Fast forward to my seats. The UK fans on my left and behind me were super nice and I had a great conversation with them throughout the game. They wished me luck and said they hope we find the right guy to bring IU back and that college basketball is better when IU is good. The Dayton fans on my right were fairly rude and did not want to talk much and one of them said we had no chance at Archie as the UK fans and I were talking about it. They also said to me that the A10 is a much better conference than the Big East (talk about delusional). Maybe I just bumped into the right bunch of UK fans and the wrong bunch of Dayton fans but that was so weird last night and what i experienced. Now after watching Dayton and Wichita St I would jump on either Archie Miller or Greg Marshall. Both teams are so well disciplined and play excellent defense and value every possession. The way both these teams play is exactly what IU is missing and what we have not been under Crean. After watching this game and seeing these teams play, either coach would be a great choice in my mind. Its just a shame the NCAA so vastly under seeded Wichita St and these teams had to play in the 1st round (something I mentioned to the Dayton fans who just smirked rudely).

I know he likes to talk but given the dynamics and the known issues with that team (drugs, academics, partying to much) I would not doubt it. He also said it in a way that sounded like he was being serious. He laughed and said it like he could not believe he went through that which is generally not the tone he uses when he is just talking and making things up for ratings.

He mentioned to Katz in passing during their conversation on radio today casually that he later found out that one of the players on the team at the time he took over for Sampson was a pimp while on the team. I know Dakich likes to talk but given the nature of that team I don't doubt it at all. That's just a wow if true!

How do we know those 2 anonymous posters are not the same person with multiple handles or that they know anything and are not just drawing attention to themselves? It seems people are saying they have been credible in past but who knows? I am always skeptical of people I can't put a face to.

More likely no one wants to attend NIT games. Illinois had under 5k and even GT had 5,500 including the free tics Pastner bought. Their's no doubt IU would of drawn 5k if they hosted game. Question is do we prefer that to playing on road? Many would say yes. As I've said I think the NIT debacle and not hosting game is small potatoes but a very important piece in a larger puzzle that has gone haywire with IU basketball in general.

That could be possible as well. No one knows what the world is going on.