LamarCheeks

So, you want ... 1. Tim Priller 1. Ryan Tapak 1. Ross Hales 1. Tijan Jobe 1. Haris Mujezinovic In that order?

Good lord -- what happened??? I doze off for an hour and not only miss the end of the Abilene Christian-Texas game, but I see that you all have named Mike Woodson as our next coach. Damn!

Sunday: Villanova

I live in Virginia -- and with the obvious exception of today and a handful of other games -- I love watching U.Va. play. And I don't get the dislike of Bennett. Maybe folks don't like how his teams play, and that's fine, but he's a high-quality dude -- top-notch.

The thing is -- he wanted to come to IU. His grandparents are/were IU season-ticket holders. But Crean creeped him out.

Me, too.

That "one tournament run" wasn't half bad, though -- wouldn't you say?

Imagine this -- five years down the road, Stevens has been fired by the Celts and is coaching the Magic. By this time, we're all good (with Beard or whomever), and no longer give a sh-t. But Coach K retires, so the Dookies make a big push for Brad to come to Durham. Even promise to rename Krzyzewski-ville to Stevens-ville. After a few days of high pressure from Duke fans and much media speculation, Brad dons a pair of mouse ears, holds a presser and declares: "I have no interest in Duke. I am a 49-year-old Mickey Mouse!"

You can have him. But not as IU's next coach. An NAIA coach jumping to a P5 school? C'mon, man!

With the rumors floating around -- there's no way this would've dissuaded the masses from thinking he was coming. He more or less said that early last week, and we didn't believe him. Basically, it took was what happened yesterday - that weird presser and reports of him telling the team and Celtics brass he definitely was staying.

Many thought the same thing about Archie -- and he was a proven head coach at the mid-major level. ... Scheyer has never been a head coach -- anywhere. So I'm not quite ready to hand him the keys to the franchise yet. Also, it's really hit and miss (mostly miss) on Coach K assistants: Wojo (failure). Brey (mild thumbs up). Dawkins (meh). Ammaker (meh). Collins (meh). Capel (meh). Snyder (thumbs down in college; thumbs up in NBA -- fantastic head of hair, though). Hurley (meh). For my money, this is an easy pass.

Did you see the pratfall he did when complaining about a call a couple weeks back? I think it was against West Virginia -- got him ejected. Can you imagine if he did that at Assembly Hall? The place'd go nuts!

And there's this, which I forgot to add: Dolson seems to be pretty close with RMK, too.

LSU-St. Bonaventure is on pace for a 16-8 final. I think that would set a record for lowest-scoring NCAA tourney game.

I keep reading that it would be too tough to pry Beard out of Texas -- but look at what the hell just happened. We supposedly went in lock, stock and barrel on a coach who grew up in Indiana, played college ball in Indiana and cut his coaching teeth in Indiana. Said he was a huge IU fan growing up. We were told his wife -- who also grew up in Indiana -- wanted to come home. And now? He's a Masshole and loves the Patriots, and either his wife's push to get back to Indiana wasn't enough -- or it was just a ruse. Home is where you hang your hat. If we make the right sale to Beard, who knows? Maybe something clicks when he's in Bloomington. Maybe he meets with "The General -- Robert Montgomery Knight" (just using that gadawful reference Vitale always used) who sells him on IU. Since he came back last season, I think it's safe to say RMK's bitterness has waned quite a bit. Beard seems to have a big personality -- unlike Bennett or Archie or Holtmann -- so I don't see the "fishbowl" that is IU as being a detriment. Maybe he realizes if he comes to B-town and succeeds, he'd be revered. I don't know much about Lubbock, but I would think when TT is playing well, they're all in, but when they're not -- they're sorta like "Meh." Until the past few years, nobody really knew a thing about Texas Tech basketball anyway. IU basketball has been a brand for years -- it's down a bit now, sure, but it can get back with the right person at the helm. Winning in B-town would be much, much different than doing so in Lubbock.

I'm not an insider, but I figure the ship has sailed on Billy the kid. When he and OKC parted ways last year, the Bulls snatched him up pretty quickly. If he had any interest in a return to college, he could have taken some time off to evaluate things and weigh any possible openings. But he dived right back into the NBA waters almost immediately. I think his days of college basketball are over.

I'm an IU alum who grew up in Indiana, but 30 minutes from Chicago and 2.5 hours from Indy -- so I more identified with Chicago teams than Indiana teams. And the Colts didn't even arrive until I was in high school anyway. I've lived in Minnesota, Texas and Virginia and while I've taken a minor interest in their teams (except for maybe the Vikings), I've never wavered in my support of the Cubs, the Bears, the Bulls, the Blackhawks and of course, collegiately -- the Hoosiers. Maybe it's easy for some to switch allegiances, but after so many years, I sure can't -- even though most of the time, having a vested interest in those teams those teams can be very painful!

This. I get if you don't want to coach at IU. That's fine. It's your prerogative. But if what posters here have reported is true about the timeline of negotiations, why waste so much of our time? You could've just said no at the start. Just seems weird that you have one fan base that adores you and another who seemingly can't stand you -- and you chose the latter. Okey doke.

Four years ago, Wichita State (Marshall) played Dayton (Archie) in the first round. I thought there was a real possibility we might get one of those coaches. We did, although it didn't turn out all that well. Maybe we'll get one from Sunday's game -- and it'll turn out significantly better!

Not sure how apt the comparison to Tressel is. Tressel had a few years as a Div. I assistant before going to Youngstown State. McCollum has never coached above the Div. II level.

Stansbury?

Congratulations.

I think we probably were preseason Top 5 after the Cleveland State fiasco in 1986.

Good fu--ing grief. It has nothing with cussing. I don't give a rat's fu--ing a-s if a coach cusses. When you're a college coach -- or any coach, for that matter -- going through a handshake line calling an opposing player an assh-ole is absolutely fu--ing moronic.