LamarCheeks

Whew! That was too close for comfort. ... Good road win, though.

I think everybody knows that if we blow this, it'll pretty much be your fault!

From 36-11 to 50-40 to 51-47. Now I'm REALLY worried!

Since the game's not on TV (and I don't have BTN-plus), I check on the stats every now and then. Early, we were up 36-11 and I had no worries. Now, I see it's 50-40. I have worries.

I know the difference between a 2-3 zone, a match-up zone, a 3-2 zone, a box and one and man-to-man defense. But as far as the pack-line defense, I'm not smart enough to know the nuances. (I lived in Minnesota for a while, and a legendary Div. II coach ran the "up the line, on the line" defense. Now, what that is -- I have absolutely no idea). I do know this, however. Tony Bennett runs the pack line -- or some version of it. And when he had good players, it worked. Since I live in Virginia, I see most of their games and before all their good players left for the NBA, they'd win 30-plus games, get a 1 or 2 NCAA seed and despite the first-round debacle in 2018, did win a national title. I've watched his defense limit teams to 35 points, to 40 points, to 45 points. What's the difference between what he does and what Archie's trying to do. It is it simply better execution, or it is a better variance of the pack line?

Not trying to toot my own horn, but I had the idea of "Bob Knight Arena in Assembly Hall" -- or at least I was one of the folks who expressed that idea. I still like that.

I'm probably in the minority, but at the time, I thought Archie was a really good hire. He had (IMO) an impressive pedigree: son of a successful coach, basketball junkie, gym rat, point guard, played ACC ball, a couple stints as a Power 5 assistant, successful run at a really good mid-major. The only thing left was to succeed at a Power 5 school. And outside of a Donovan, Few, Bennett or a Stevens, it seemed as if he was just about the perfect fit. I thought it would work out splendidly. ... And I can almost guarantee you, had we not hired him, Ohio State would have after they "parted ways" with Matta. I just cannot figure where it all went off the rails. Today's performance, which was just shameful, has me as pissed as I've ever been at this program. Maybe even more so than after the Syracuse NCAA loss.

UNC sucks this season, yet they're giving Duke (No. 7) a real tussle in Chapel Hill -- a rivalry game. Makes me even more disappointed in the effort from our boys today.

Randy Wittman is 60 and Isiah Thomas is 58 and I bet they'd make a better backcourt today than any combo we've got. I'm serious.

I'm at a loss ... One of the most embarrassing losses in IU basketball history -- I don't think it's hyperbole to say that ... You have the legendary coach end his blood feud with the program, return to a packed, raucous house -- and you play like that? ... Wow. ... Everybody in that locker room should be totally ashamed of themselves. I say that for our next game, we start Armaan, Race, Damezi, Jerome and Bybee. WTF not? If the end result is gonna be the same, maybe at least those kids will play hard. I just can't believe we performed like that on a day like today. Well, I can believe it, but I don't want to realize that it happened, I guess.

I'm still not understanding why the crowd is so quiet. It should be non-stop cheering from the second he came out till he leaves. Seemed very odd to me.

Why is the crowd so damn quiet! MAKE SOME NOISE!

Make some noise, crowd! ... Get off your a$$es.

You skipped most commercials during the first half, ESPN. Let's skip this halftime bullsh*t and just stick with what's going on at the Hall.

How can this team be so offensively inept! ... Maddening. ... Taking bad shots and committing turnovers. ... Crowd wants to go nuts, but we're not giving it any reason to.

During the break, I just rewound and my suspicions were confirmed: Williams took about three steps on the layup underneath. Was easy enough for me to spot -- how did the striped shirts miss it?

I think since the back-to-back 3s from Green and Hunter, we've had three possessions without a shot ... We just cannot sustain any momentum.

Damn, Brunk -- that's a shot you gotta make!

Excuse me, Mr. Billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, famous IU alum and producer/host of his own TV show, I'm gonna need to see some ID ...

What's the over/under for Matt Haarms' hair flips today? I say no less than 20.

Not only is he going to IU, he's at IU. And apparently, he's staying at IU!

Archie just said Race is making progress and depending on how things look today and tomorrow, he might be able to play Saturday.

Just in case anybody wants to listen to the chat between Dakich and Fischer, where they discuss Archie being "handcuffed," here's the podcast of Monday's show. Fisch first comes on at about 22:30 in, but they don't get on topic until about five minutes later ... https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-dan-dakich-show/e/67061136?autoplay=true

Since we're honoring the 1980s team and Knight and Keady might attend, I've already got Archie's pregame speech ready. (I'm a 1980s movie geek and stole this from one of my favorites -- "Vision Quest.") It's short, sweet and all you really need! "Listen up a second, fellas. This is one special night. You know it, and I know it. Now let's go out there and make sure Purdue knows it."