LamarCheeks

Exactly ... I know many will claim to have hated the Archie hire right from the start, but I think only a small percentage of the fan base was not excited. It's easy to say and do the right things early -- to win the press conference, if you will. When Archie successfully re-recruited Al Durham, Justin Smith and Clifton Moore, it looked good. Most loved how Archie said he was gonna reclaim the recruiting foothold in Indiana -- after Crean had lost it. He was no-nonsense, tough, hard-nosed -- while Crean was tabbed a "used car salesman." I remember many (myself included) were thinking: Can you imagine if Archie had coached Crean's players -- we wouldn't have missed the NCAA tourney. Now, we're thinking the same about Coach Woody. It's easy to do: He got Race, Khristian, Stewart to pull out of the transfer portal and persuaded TJD to stay (which I never thought was possible). Got Dane Fife on staff. Thad Matta is on board. Larry Brown will be at the ready. All are great optics. Can you imagine if he were coaching Archie's players? A little deja vu, eh? But what really matters are Ws and Ls -- and we're months from seeing how that will go. Obviously, I'm hoping for the best -- but there's still a good part of me that remains skeptical. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do.

He's leaving because he wanted to wear No. 4. ... C'mon, Khristian -- you just cost us our best shooting guard!

Armaan ...

Geez, I leave for an hour and head out to the Virginia Beach Convention Center to get one of those shots -- a very Moderna thing to do. I'm wearing an Indiana shirt and on my way out, a clinic worker says "Congratulations." ... I thought -- OK, I guess she's happy for me that I got vaccinated. But now I realize -- she must've known Race was coming back!

Today was just a bizarre set of cosmic coincidences. Pitt point guard Xavier Johnson transfers to Indiana, where ... ... Archie Miller used to coach. His brother is ... ... Sean Miller, who in addition to being fired as Arizona's coach today, is a former point guard at Pitt, where he ... ... helped create the famous "SEND IT IN, JEROME" call in 1988 by delivering the assist to Jerome Lane, who broke the backboard against Providence, where ... ... Al Durham, our starting guard the past four years, just transferred. What does that all mean? Nothing. Or does it????

Wonder if he's expecting to eventually get a show cause?

Brooks isn't even in the transfer portal yet, is he?

Don't think we have anyone working out with our men's team that looks like this ...

Steve Kerr probably would be their Steve Kerr. ... He's actually an Arizona alumnus.

Wonder why Arizona waited so long after the season? There haven't been any new revelations in the NCAA investigation, have there? Timing seems sorta odd.

Yep ...

Don't want to see him leave, but I'd rather him go to U.Va. than Louisville or Illinois.

I wonder if CMW and staff by now have told Race and Armaan -- if you're not ready to make a decision, that's fine, but we're gonna hit the transfer portal and if we can get a commitment from someone we think can help us, we're moving on.

How does it not look good or how is it not warranted? Kenya Hunter was an assistant under CAM, and he's staying on.

I realize these are big decisions, and these are 20- and 21-year old kids, but it seems as if they should have enough information by now to at least determine if they're staying at IU or if they're moving on. If they're leaving, maybe they haven't picked a school yet -- but it just seems as if it would be best for themselves and for the program if they'd at least let the staff know if they plan to be in Bloomington this fall.

Just for the hell of it, I found a Minnesota basketball board to see if there was any dope on Race (BTW, I didn't see anything). But I found this interesting: Brian Dutcher (who took over at San Diego State after Steve Fisher retired) was very interested in that job. He, his wife and his sisters all went to Minnesota -- and of course, his dad coached there. He said the AD called him early in the tourney and basically said, "I don't want to bother you because I know you're busy, but when you're finished playing, I wondered if you'd be interesting in discussing this job." Dutcher said, "I'd love to." After San Diego State lost, the AD called back and said, "Sorry. We went in a different direction. We've found our guy." Kinda interesting. Sounds like Dutcher really wanted the job. His buyout was over $6M, but he insisted there be a clause in his contract that if it were Minnesota, it was just $1M.

I was sorta surprised Fife said this was the first time (other than working for Davis) he was offered a job at IU. I would've thought during one of the times Crean had an opening he might have picked up the phone -- unless he was worried about poaching from his mentor's staff. Yet Fife said Izzo was very supportive of him getting back to IU. I can sorta see why Archie possibly didn't -- he might have have felt threatened by someone very close to his age of whom the fan base is very fond.

I found that odd as well.

Here's the thing: Had we still not named a coach by now, Goodman would tweet that it's obvious we're going after Scott Drew, then he'd say: "Does Indiana really think Scott Drew would leave the national champions for Bloomington??"

Funny thing is, even given the circumstances, I think RMK would've rather seen Gonzaga win than Baylor.

I like Gonzaga. I like Mark Few. I want to see them win an NCAA title. I just didn't want it to happen tonight. I'm glad the 1976 IU team is OK with a team going unbeaten and winning a title, but with everything going on this season with COVID, it just doesn't seem as if it would've been real. And no, I don't think Gonzaga would make it through a P5 conference schedule unbeaten. Just don't think it would've happened. I'm also really torn because I just didn't want to see Baylor win. So, the winner and still unbeaten ...

Texas Tech didn't go far to find Beard's replacement.

I'm not seeing 17/22 from the FT line, either. ... More like 12/22.

I know football's a total different animal. But when you look at what Joe Tiller did at PU, it's pretty remarkable. And proves a coach can make a difference. It's not like he signed a bunch of blue-chippers in his one offseason. 1992 Jim Colletto 4-7 1993 Jim Colletto 1-10 1994 Jim Colletto 4-5-2 1995 Jim Colletto 4-6-1 1996 Jim Colletto 3-8 1997 Joe Tiller 9-3

From Izzo ...