LamarCheeks

I'm already tired of hearing/reading about how we beat a short-handed team. Hells bells, we were shorthanded, too, with no Hartman and no Davis (and CuJo already being gone). And we were missing our guys because of injuries and transfers, not because they're sexually assaulting females on campus. ... And as odd as it might be to say, the significance of this win can't be measured until I see what we do against PSU and NW. I've almost already forgotten about the way we played against Duke and ND because in the very next games, we pooped our pants. Hopefully, it's time for us to put together a string of more than two wins.

Don't let the door hit you in the a$$, Teddy. This story underestimates how long he's been a national joke. For me, it started when he screwed us in the 1992 Final Four. https://theathletic.com/205279/2018/01/07/referee-ted-valentine-says-he-is-considering-retirement-in-wake-of-latest-controversy/

Living out in Virginia, I try to follow the team as closely as I can. But I can't always get as much 411 as I'd like. Does anybody know what's up with Clifton Moore? I thought since this was an "all hands on deck" situation, we might see him yesterday. Especially since he's 6-10 and would provide some of the size we're missing with Davis out. Then I looked up his numbers and he's played in five games for a grand total of 23 minutes this season. If he's not ready and if we can't get anything out of him this season, why didn't we redshirt him?

How many bunnies have we missed today?

Archie just said Deron got hurt in practice yesterday (lower leg injury) and is out indefinitely. He was good early on. Lately? Not so much. Will be interesting to see how the fellas react.

Rodents 79 Hoosiers 64

Chatted with my 81-year-old mother -- also an IU grad -- today. She is the widow of a former high school coach (my late father), so while she doesn't claim to know the intricacies of the game, she has a decent understanding of it. We were discussing IU and she said: "I don't get that Robert Johnson. He's a senior, right? He's been around long enough where he should know what he's doing and should be able to tell everybody else what they should be doing and get them all playing together. But he doesn't. And since he's a senior, I don't understand that." I said: "None of us do, Mom." But the old gal hit the nail on the head!

You would think there would be one or two guys on the team who would get the boys together and say, "C'mon, this is unacceptable. We're not playing hard. We're not playing smart. This has to change." ... As much as this season sucks for us, it can't be much fun for them, either. And while the only thing we can control is whether we watch or not, they can control the effort and the passion with which they play. And right now, there is very little. There were flashes against Duke and Notre Dame, but that has to come out for 40 minutes a game for every game. Why these guys don't understand it is beyond me. And while I'm still behind Archie, I don't get why he can't get it out of them. Effort can make up for a lot. We're 15 games in. It's time to wake the eff up! Like Nuke Laloosh said: "Winning -- it's like, better than losing."

Watching this game makes me angry about not only our basketball team, but our football team, too. How's that, you ask? Glad you did. When I was in school (late '80s-early '90s), Wisconsin couldn't beat us. In fact, I think we went something like 18 years or so without losing to Bucky. But the tide has turned -- and in a big way. Now, we can't beat them. I think we're something like 2-16 against them in our past 18 games (don't quote me, though). ... And that brings me to football. We're stuck in the same division with Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan. And I think since 1960 or so, we have exactly four victories combined against those teams. Why is that? Why can't we beat them? Instead of lamenting that we're stuck in their division, let's beat 'em. Obviously we can't win 10 out of 10 against them. But we should be able to beat them three out of every 10 times. Wisconsin found a way to not only beat us in hoops, but dominate us. There's no reason, IMO, why we can't find a way to beat PSU, Michigan and OSU in football every now and then.

After they shot a 3, our guys went to the basket, the ball came out long and Bucky got the rebound. Don't go to to basket like a wild man. Find your man and block him out!

I heard college football guru Bruce Feldman on the radio this morning, discussing the B1G's perfect bowl record with one game to play (Michigan-South Carolina). He mentioned that the conference had made some pretty good hires in the past few years: Urban Meyer, Paul Chryst, Jeff Brohm, James Franklin, Jim Harbaugh, P.J. Fleck and now, Scott Frost to Nebraska ... but he forgot to mention Tom Allen!

Bucky 73 Hoosiers 66

Sam Wyche and Nate Sudfeld -- two greats of IU football!

Has everyone noticed that after Ohio State's beatdown of USC last night, the B1G is 5-0 in bowl games. I think that perfect record is due in large part to us not qualifying for a bowl!

Hoosiers 88 Penguins 63

I read some of the early Mitch Rapp novels, but for some reason, stopped. I mainly started reading them because I lived in Minnesota for a while and Vince Flynn was a Minnesotan. I'm curious to know what fans of the series think since the new guy took over after Flynn died ...

This gal usually insists on wearing her IU bandana. But she changed today for the special day. Merry Christmas, everyone. Go Hoosiers!

I just saw this a few minutes ago. Am totally bummed. I grew up listing to him call just about every sport imaginable. In my opinion, the Pat Summerall-John Madden tandem was the best the NFL ever had to offer, but Dick Enberg-Merlin Olsen wasn't far behind. And again, in my opinion, no college basketball broadcast team will ever top the trio of Enberg, Al McGuire and Billy Packer. Back in the day when there was only one or two college hoops game on a week, those guys made it must-see TV. He also called two of our national title games -- in 1976 with Curt Gowdy and in 1981 with the aforementioned team of McGuire and Packer. RIP to a true broadcasting giant.

I'm chuckling as I listen to Andy Katz. He sure likes to drop names.

I tuned in just a smidge past tipoff. Is that Andy Katz serving as color commentator? I wondered what happened to him after he left ESPN.

IU 77 TTU 70

Hell, after seeing this video, I'm just impressed that he could tell which guy he needed to throw to. Both teams were wearing very similar dark blue jerseys. Seems strange to me that officials didn't make one team change.

Channeling my inner Jim Mora ... NCAA tournament? Don't talk about that -- NCAA tourney?! You kidding me? NCAA tourney? I just hope we can win another game! Another game!

I don't care if we have Crean's players or Archie's players or Mike Davis' players or Lou Watson's players, we should not be losing to IPFW -- ever. I put last year's loss on Crean and I put this year's on Archie -- plain and simple. Because like I said, we SHOULD NOT lose a game like this, especially by 20 points. I'm still behind Archie and think he was a good hire, but I think last night's loss falls on him. Either the guys weren't ready to play, or he didn't make the proper adjustments or proper substitutions -- I don't know. But that was ugly. Our roster, obviously, isn't as good right now as it needs to be to be an elite program, but we played Duke even for 36 minutes with Crean's players and beat Notre Dame with Crean's players. So there is some talent there -- definitely enough to beat the likes of IPFW and Indiana State (the trees, BTW, are 5-6 now). I give Archie a smallish pass on the ISU game, because it was his first one at IU. But against IPFW? I don't. That was the second time a team his 17 3s against us, and our perimeter defense has been weak all season, so obviously there's something wrong there. That's on Archie to get that fixed, and even with this roster, he should be able to. Last night's loss was not on Crean.

I lost count of how many times I screamed "Oh, fuuuudge!" last night. Only I didn't say "fudge." I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words -- the f-dash-dash-dash word.