LamarCheeks

Guess if he misses it, it's a Devonte-like shot. If he make's it, it's a Haston-like shot!

Simpson taking a Devonte-like shot there.

That was just stupid, Devonte! (how many times have I typed that over the years???)

Yet ANOTHER missed layup.

TJD -- why are you dribbling. GRAB THE DAMN BALL AND HANG ONTO IT!

Jeezus, Justin!

OK. So, we're on the road and we've taken our usual punch to the mouth. Do we fight back ... or quit? I'm half-afraid to find out.

Archie did call a TO somewhere in there because he was POed.

OK, so UM's Davis shoved Brunk out of the way. That was a missed foul, but still -- we gotta get those rebounds.

One white shirt with three reds underneath -- and they get the ball and the bucket. ... GRAB THE DAMN BALL!

De'ron with the bucket on the dribble drive?

Pretty much the same thing as a turnover.

Sweet pass by Devonte, but Race can't finish ... Another missed bunny. ... Absolutely gotta have those.

Have we entered our usual cold spell? ... Getting decent shots. They're just not falling.

Don't get how Smith can make a nice drive like that and ... then miss everything! He's 6 feet from the bucket and doesn't even hit the rim .. Puzzling.

Played a great game Thursday. Can we sustain that and carry that over to Sunday? I'd love to believe it, but there's just very little evidence that will happen. So, with much regret ... Maize & Blue: 70 Cream & Crimson: 64

After beating the best team in the country, giving Baylor a battle and beating Illinois by 40-plus points, we're now struggling against inferior competition and battled just to beat that same Illinois team in the rematch. I think, like you mentioned, our lack of depth is proving pivotal. I think we're really getting worn down. I had hoped that for the first time, we could make it to the second weekend of the NCAA tourney, but unless we find a second wind somewhere along the way, I fear that might prove very difficult.

For one, Rob shouldn't go to the corner. For two, Justin (I think it was him) shouldn't pass it to him there.

Schedule makers did us no favors here. We tip off at the exact same time as the men. You can't tell me that throughout the entire week, they couldn't ensure that these games start at different times? Shouldn't have to pick between the two.

Sparty has its man! This guy coached the Bears' defense a few years back and they were awful -- historically bad, at least for Chicago. Bears fans wanted to hide strap his a$$ to a pine rail and send him out the South Shore line. ... Guess he has worked his way back into respectability since then.

Yeah -- that didn't look good. I remember when Verdell Jones and OG had their injuries -- they didn't look too bad. Verdell just planted on a drive and OG just landed after a dunk. Looked very ordinary. The knee is very fickle.

Yikes. That did't look good for Dosunmu.

So I'm watching Dayton beat the snot out of Rhode Island. Dayton is No. 6 in the country and will be 22-2 after this blowout is complete. ... Anthony Grant, an alum, is the coach and appears to be doing a great job. He was very good at VCU, then not-so good at Alabama. Shaka Smart also was very good at VCU, but has been considered a failure at Texas and barring a major turnaround, this likely will be his last season there. Just a few years ago, he was the next big thing. ... John Groce was pretty good at Ohio U., but failed at Illinois. ... There are myriad examples like this: The hot coach from a mid-major goes to a Power 5 school and ... stinks. Will Grant become a hot commodity again, or will the Alabama failure scare people off? Or since he is at his alma mater, will he be content to just stay there, perhaps realizing that that level is appropriate for him? Why are there coaches who seem to hit their ceiling at that level and for some reason, can't carry their success over to a Power 5 program? What would've happened had Few taken the IU job when we offered years ago? Or had he gone to the Pac-12 when he flirted with UCLA a few years back? He said he was happy in Spokane and thought he could win a natty at Gonzaga. He hasn't, but he has been to a Final Four and to the Elite Eight a couple other times. All these examples have me curious, because I know of a Power 5 school that has a coach from a mid-major that so far, doesn't seem to be working out. I'm asking for a friend, if you will ... LOL!

I still can't figure out what happened with him. He's an Indiana kid who wanted to play at IU. I never actually saw him play in high school, but had seen playoff games streamed and videos of his play (the videos, naturally, are edited to accentuate the positive). He had a nice shot and, I thought, would be a nice piece off the bench. I'm not sure if I ever saw him as a starter, but I figured he could play 20 minutes a game and maybe average 8-10 points. The main knock seemed to be that he needed to get stronger. My question is this: Did he get too strong? Because now, he's a beast. He was on the air with Fischer during Archie's show one night and said that he tests out as the strongest guy on the team. Did all that weightlifting ruin his shot? In high school, he had some lift on his shots and drifted backward a little after his release. But at IU, he gets about 2 inches off the ground, goes straight up and .. clanks it. Maybe he's got a very fragile ego -- and like a lot of guys on this team, once things start to go wrong, they steamroll? A couple times earlier in the season, he came off the bench and knocked down a couple 3s here and there -- and I hoped he had turned the corner and would be a solid contributor. But now, he couldn't throw the ball into the proverbial ocean. I think it was in the PSU game, he had an open 3 from beyond the top of the key. He totally bricked it. Didn't even hit the rim. It went to the left and was so hard and so long, that I thought it was gonna break the glass. Maybe his talents were overestimated in the first place -- and he's more of a mid-major caliber player? I don't know. His case is very puzzling to me, though.

I heard his comment and I think he just meant that we have two open right now. I don't think he made a Freudian slip or was insinuating anything. He was just saying they're not done with recruiting -- that they might look at adding a grad transfer or a transfer to the class of Leal and Galloway and Geronimo. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if we did have a couple extra slots become available after the season -- because of a couple guys leaving who have eligibility remaining.