Shooter

6 teams for 3 spots: SDSU, Indiana, Texas, UNC, Xavier, Boise St. If VCU loses, they get added to the bubble and it's 7 teams for 3 spots. If Memphis loses, one spot is taken and it's only two spots available. 28 of the 33 brackets updated this morning on Bracket Matrix have Indiana IN the field.

Thanks for clarifying. What a ridiculous concept this thing is in the portal era. I'm voting with my feet, I won't be watching.

At this moment, Ohio State is NET #40, Northwestern is NET #53, and IU is NET #54. But I can certainly see the TV suits demanding Indiana over Northwestern.

I doubt Cronin leaves UCLA anyway. But I think he's a good example of a very good but unsexy coach. Brownell, the more I look into him, I don't understand why he wasn't fired by Clemson at some point.

Cronin and Brownell are not on the same level. Mick Cronin made the NCAA tournament 13 consecutive seasons before missing it last year. Brownell made it only 3 of those 13 years.

Interesting resume comparison between two guys in the news today - Fran McCaffery and Brad Brownell. Both are high major coaches for 15 years, at similar level jobs. McCaffery: 8 NCAA Tourney appearances. 6 seasons finishing in Kenpom Top 25. Best season, NCAA 2 seed. Never been past Round of 32. Brownell: 5 NCAA Tourney appearances. 4 seasons in Kenpom Top 25. Best season, NCAA 4 seed (projected this year). One Elite 8, one Sweet 16. I'm taking Fran's resume, despite the lack of tourney results. Do this two years ago and it was not even close in favor of Fran. Is IU really going to hire a guy who has delivered worse results than Fran McCaffery?

Consensus from Bracket Matrix seems to be 6 teams for 4 spots, currently in this order (highest to lowest chance): San Diego St, Indiana, UNC, Texas, Xavier, Boise St. Any bid thief would take away one of the 4 available spots. UNC and Boise St have opportunities to help themselves tonight.

So he's going to love Mgbako? Seriously though, it's sounds like you are describing Matt Painter. I've often thought that Painter's best quality is that he knows exactly what he is looking for in a player, and doesn't care about stars.

Agree with your overall point. I don't know a ton about McCollum's personality, positive or negative. But that's a huge factor in making the right hire. We can sit here and look at resumes, but there was nothing obvious in the resume to tell you that Archie Miller would fail and Pat Kelsey would succeed. Have to trust Dolson et all to do the interviews, vetting and make the right choice.

Archie Miller had very little charisma, never won a thing here and still was able to sign stud recruits like Romeo and TJD. And that was before NIL. I'm not that worried about recruiting.

Agree with last part... MSU was subbing out seniors one by one, each guy slowly walks around and hugs his teammates, walks to center court to kiss logo, walks to bench and hugs coaches etc. Repeat for each senior. Whole thing took multiple minutes. It's poor sportsmanship to do that during the game and expect the opponent to just stand there and watch. They are just as much to blame as Michigan is.

With (at least) three games left to play, how are people feeling about our chances? Win 3 or more games - definitely in, and not in the First Four. Win 2 more games in any combination - we are in. Probably safe from the First Four in Dayton, unless both of those wins are in the BTT. Win 1 game - if that win is at Oregon or vs Ohio State, probably in. First Four is a possibility. If the only win is in BTT (would be quad 2 in this scenario), we're right on the edge of the bubble. Zero more wins - probably out.

I hope he does make a deep tourney run, I'll be cheering like hell. But going on a Cinderella run as a 10 seed wouldn't change how I feel about him moving forward.

Wasting your time with that poster I think. Reality is Woodson came in talking about Big Ten and National championships, and now his camp wants to pretend that bubble teams are good enough

Brad Brownell inherited a Clemson program coming off of three consecutive NCAA tourney appearances. He proceeded to make a grand total of three tourney appearances in his first THIRTEEN seasons there. I am happy for his success the last two years. But I would rather take a chance on an up and comer than hire known mediocrity.

Leal is truly tremendous on defense. Both individually and in the way he communicates with his teammates. I still think he needs to look at the basket occasionally on offense. But I'm not going to complain with these results.

It will be forever baffling to me that he saw the results of the Ware-Reneau-Mgbako frontcourt last season, and decided "let's do that again, except with a more traditional center that doesn't offer any of Ware's outside game". It's water under the bridge now though. I have liked his changes recently and I hope he goes out with a bang.

That's one of the more impressive performances we've had in years. Washington is not good, but it was still an important road game and we dominated start to finish.

I don't think our pitch to Dusty May is primarily about money. It's about returning home. He will have lots of money and resources at either school. If he still dreams about coaching his alma mater, only IU can offer that. If he doesn't, then why leave a place where he's already having success?

Thank you. I find the insider reports here entertaining, even though I take them with a grain of salt. But "Dolson met with AAU coaches and told them he was hiring Stevens" might be the most outlandish report I've ever heard, and that's saying something.

No. His conduct on that night makes him unfit to be the coach of IU. The fiancee ultimately deciding not to cooperate with the investigation doesn't change that. My point is, he's not some down on his luck guy who just needs a second chance. In fact, he suffered very little consequences given the gravity of his charges, and he was already given that second chance almost immediately.

Chris Beard was hired to coach Ole Miss for $3.25M / year, less than 3 months after being fired for cause from Texas due to his arrest for felony domestic violence. He's doing just fine without us on the "getting second chances" front.

I hope we always have at least one marquee opponent on the home non-con slate. As a season ticket holder, this year was super disappointing. I'd also rather watch us in a feast week style tourney on TV, than have a bunch of home games vs Northeastern Wyoming State lumped into my season ticket package.

Plenty of guys on IU's roster could be winning players in a different environment. Myles Rice already showed it last season. For example, Mackenzie Mgbako is not my favorite player on this roster. I find him incredibly frustrating. But it's easy to imagine him contributing to a winner under a different coach who makes him guard 4s, and doesn't tolerate poor effort or jacking contested 17 footers.

That's a pretty cool stat. Two of the three are from Indiana. One of them is an IU grad, and the other is the son of a former IU football player. Who is the third?