LamarCheeks

Steve's boy ... It's a small, Christian school in Indiana. Competes in the NAIA. (I grew up in Indiana and had never heard of this school!)

Am I the only one who gets really, really annoyed by this crap from the BTN? ... Maybe so, but I feel like ranting, so I'm gonna rant. Johnny Rodgers NEVER PLAYED IN THE BIG TEN! And the BTN always does this. It's had TV shows reliving Nebraska's 1994 and 95 national championships -- that had nothing to do with our conference. It had a show naming John Cappeletti one of the conference's best running backs of the 1970s. Cappeletti was NEVER a Big Ten running back. It actually named Ndamukong Suh as the conference's best defensive lineman from 2000-10. He didn't play one single down in the B1G. It had a show looking back on Rutgers' 1976 basketball season (anybody remember who the undefeated NCAA champ was that year?) ... Let's stick with the time Penn State, Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland actually were in the league. What they've done previously is somebody else's history -- not the B1G's. ... OK, rant over.

Looks as if he's headed home ...

The ladies are staying home -- but ballin' together from wherever they're holing up!

Wonder what "making it work" means? ... Didn't we hear this after his freshman season? ... I like the kid. He's from Indiana and wants to be at IU. I would love to see him succeed. He works hard. According to an interview last year, he tested out as IU's strongest player, so he's obviously been putting in the work. ... But when you have a guy who gets into a game, shoots a wide-open 3-pointer and doesn't even hit the rim -- that's not good. And that happened more than once last season ... He needs to figure out how to perform in games, because the way things went for him last season, giving him playing time in critical games is like rolling the dice.

If memory serves, when the Holt/Davis thing happened, it was just the latest in a long list of transgressions of IU athletes -- and obviously, that was a very serious one. Many sports had kids getting into trouble, but I think football and men's hoops had the lion's share. At that point, McRobbie actually stepped in and either sent a memo to all coaches or called them all together and told them to get their players to behave themselves ... Without the McRobbie edict, I wonder if Holt would've been kicked off for his second miscue?

22.5 inches! She could be a tall one! Has Teri Moren contacted you yet??? Congrats! Wishes for much good health and happiness to you and your family.

We're not on Haarms' list of 25. Maybe he'll end up in Bloomington!

Some 8- or 10-year old Bloomington kid should pose with Leal. The youngster would be on track to a big future!

NCAA approves an extra year for spring sport athletes. Barry Alvarez says, "Not so fast, my friend."

Yes. I realize that. But thank you.

I wonder: Is this just an odd angle for a photo -- or does Penix have huge hands??? ... This football looks like a toy in his big left mitt.

Are we gonna have guys leaving or not? So far, there's been no word on that front. Yet we're finalists for this grad transfer from San Francisco. So obviously, we're pursuing him. Yet if Lander does indeed reclassify, we don't have an open scholarship -- unless someone leaves. I can't imagine we'd be recruiting a kid (particularly a grad transfer) if we don't have a spot for him.

Hillman did play baseball, but he definitely was a basketball recruit. I think he averaged over 40 points a game as a high school senior.

I'm still waiting for someone to say they're leaving, too ... But if that doesn't happen and Lander reclassifies, we're right at our limit ... Two schollys open. De'Ron and Devonte leaving. Four guys coming in. That would put us right at 13 -- no room for anyone to transfer in.

I guess we reached out to Nolley. Not sure how hard we pursued him, but it looks as if we didn't make his final cut. ... BTW, when you cut your list to 11 -- how many did you start with? Sheesh!

BTW, Izzo did not try to contact the victim. The son of former player Steve Smith -- Brayden Smith -- was with Brock Washington (a MSU player) on the night Washington was accused of sexually assaulting a female student. When police went to speak with Smith about what he saw, he said that he already been contacted by Izzo and the coaching staff. So why did Izzo contact Smith? To tamper with the witness? Your guess is as good as mine, but regardless, it was extremely inappropriate and could easily be considered obstructing an investigation. Izzo is slimy, but in this case, he didn't do what Alford did with regards to the victim in the Pierre Pierce situation. He didn't try to intimidate or harass the victim.

I think I saw somewhere here that we had reached out to Landers Nolley (Virginia Tech). Don't know how seriously we pursued him, but we apparently didn't make his final cut ...

I remember in the days leading to that game, Vitale was screaming his head off that they should reseed before the Final Four -- because you had Oklahoma (a No. 2) and Indiana (a No. 5) on one side and two No. 1s (Kansas and Maryland) on the other. ... I thought it was very disrespectful to Oklahoma and IU -- they did what they had to do to get there and for us, that included knocking out the No. 1 overall seed (Duke). Had the other two No. 1s (the Devils and Cincy) done what they were supposed to do, it's not even an argument. And that's the way the tournament had been run for years. Was just a crazy rant from the appropriately named Dick.

Listened to a bit of it. He sure made it sound as if the Class of 2020 will be a group of four -- him, Leal, Geronimo ... and Lander.

Sorry for your loss. Never easy to lose a pet. This fella was 15 or 16 or so, diabetic, arthritic and half-blind. He had been declining recently, but didn't seem to be suffering or in pain -- still seemed like a happy, old cat. Then one day early last month, he meowed really strangely and really loud. I sorta figured it wasn't good -- that it might be his time -- so I called the vet and asked if I could bring him in. About 10 minutes later, he was gone. Passed away right in front of me. Was very, very tough.

We beat Michigan in the 1976 NCAA title game to finish unbeaten. I was 7. My mother, an IU alum, shed tears of joy.

I have to admit, when Teri Moren first came aboard, I did not like the hire. I was adamantly opposed to hiring another Purdue grad. But I think we got the best person we possibly could have. Hope she and the ladies see continued success.

BTW, we're playing West Virginia in the NCAA tournament. We're a 10 and they're a 7.

Archie's favorite TV show: Narcos. His favorite movie: Kingpin. Looks as if he's making an effort to cover the can in this photo. Wonder if it's 12 ounces of his favorite ale?