LamarCheeks

I know growth is supposed to be good, etc., and I'm admittedly too much of a traditionalist, but I really, really, really hate that Rutgers and Maryland are in our conference. ... I'm not crazy about Nebraska, either, but it's definitely more of a geographical fit.

Regarding the Indy Star, I'm going to be the outlier here. If you dislike the Star and hate the Star for whatever reasons you have, that's fine. But don't hate it for this. I love Fisch, but he's the one who put this out there -- even if he didn't necessarily intend to. The Star just picked up on it and reported it. Fisch went on the air with the Lansing radio guys and said what he said. It was on the radio and on the podcast -- for anybody to consume. Others have reported on it as well. I'm not a big fan of the Star myself. I used to go to its website all the time to get my IU news -- when Hutch (RIP) was the main man. But I don't anymore. For one, they got rid of Hutch. No offense to Osterman, but Hutch was the man. For two, they started limiting to five articles a month. If I were going to read a paper and use its website, I'm willing to pay -- but for 15-20 articles during basketball season, no. For three, their website is awful. If I do want to read something, I click on the story and then have to knock down about 10 different pop-ups -- very obnoxious. Takes me 5 minutes just to clear all the BS so I can read the story. Anyway, I'm gonna use a familiar refrain here: Don't kill the messenger. Again, I think Fisch is the best, but once he said that on air, he opened the box. And as I've written, I lost my father to Alzheimer's, so if that's what Bob Knight is going through, I wish him and his family peace. That's a horrible disease to deal with. My dad passed in May of 2017 and I think my mom is still just starting to catch her breath after the years of hell his condition put her through.

I wanted to rewatch the final MSU possession so I googled IU vs. Michigan State. One of the offerings took me back to 2001, when Haston beat then-No. 1 Sparty with the 3 at the buzzer. In the aftermath, you can see Mike Davis shaking hands with then-MSU assistant Stan Heath. A year later, Davis beat Heath to go to the Final Four. Ironic!

He and Crean are friends and Crean assisted him at MSU, so he must be bitter that Crean was fired. That's the only thing I can guess. Izzo typically is pretty gracious after a loss, but after both times we beat them this season, he seemed very petty and filled with excuses. Really didn't give IU one ounce of credit.

IU fans can't stand Versyp. ... When we hired her and rescued her from the netherlands (Maine), she was sooo happy to be back in her home state and sooo thrilled to be at IU and was gonna work sooo hard to make us an elite program. Then she bailed after one year ... Yes, she is a PU alum, but I still though it was a pretty detestable thing to do.

i'm torn. Normally, I would agree and say that is time to see the bench get some PT. But it's Purdue -- and I want to absolutely bury them!

Hoosiers by 33. Love it even more!!!

Hoosiers by 31. Love it!

What a move by Yeaney!

I've been able to watch immediate reruns for games on the B1G Network and the ESPN family of networks, but have not had success on Fox. I'm not sure there is a way to do so.

We've had a guy -- Hunter -- who probably would be a sixth or seventh man (or maybe even a starter) and he hasn't played ONE MINUTE this season! Maybe Izzo will get sympathy from his fan base or from others when whining about injuries, but he won't get it here.

Listening to Izzo's post-game comments. Sheesh, what a crybaby. He's whining about injuries. "We just didn't have the bodies," he says. Um, we pretty much played six guys. Devonte played 26 minutes off the bench, De'Ron played 8, Race played 1 (I don't remember seeing him out there, though) and McBob played 3. After what we've been through this season, don't freakin' cry to me about injuries. DON'T DO IT!!!

That was the thing that always puzzled me about Crean. Until the past few years, Izzo's teams were known for powering it up in March. And Crean sittith at the right-hand side of Izzo the almighty for a 4-5 years. Yet Crean's teams always seemed to fade in March. Guess he didn't learn that particular aspect.

Oh, come on! ... In the post-game show, they're talking about Michigan State's "litany of injuries." ... ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME! ... We wrote the book this season on injuries!

How in the F-dash-dash-dash (to quote Ralphie) did this team lose at home to Nebraska -- BY 15 POINTS!

What defense!!!

I got a bad feeling the stripes will bail Sparty out here.

Oh, Devonte worked so hard to get a nice short -- then short-armed it.

JuMo!!!

Man, they can just get a bucket whenever they want!

If we only had 3-point shooters, Romeo could drive, get the D's attention and then kick it out. But we would just miss it anyway.

And just like that, it's back to a 7-point deficit.

Love Gus!

Did Devonte just give that up??? ... Just when I thought he was gonna try to go to the bucket and probably get stuffed, he drops it off to Rob for a nice deuce.

We work so damn hard to get a friggin' basket and they go to the bucket for an easy deuce like we're standing still.