Gonzaga better than IU:
When teams don't hit their threes or all their frees, we don't look so terrible. This was something of a moral victory, as IU hung around close enough to engage the press-and-foul strategy in a not-entirely-futile-hope at the end of the game. They've got a little to learn there, too, though. However, a bit of concern: IU's turnovers are getting worse, or at least not getting better.
This team looks capable of rebounding okay, and hitting some threes to keep us in games, but until we trim our turnovers down, it'll be hard to be competitive. Btw, don't expect Jeremiah Rivers to be the answer at point next year. Going over his KenPom profile from his two years at Georgetown, he had the fewest assists and the highest turnover rate both years. He might serve as a stopper, but that's it. Now comes what should be a revealing stretch of non-conference play: TCU at home and Kentucky on the road. 1-1 would be a pretty good outcome, and while Kentucky's not all that good this year, but I'd be surprised if we were in it at the end of that road game.

*Big Ten Basketball to get 5+ Bids?
I had penciled in the conference for 4 bids, barely, but that looks to be changing with middle of the conference looking quite good now.
Big surprise: Michigan takes down Duke, who clearly seemed the better team in an earlier match. granted it was at home, and it points out that Duke's deficiencies are probably the same ones they had last season, but still, a very big win. And Ohio State beat Notre Dame on a neutral floor, and having that plus the Miami-Fla. road win in their pockets looks pretty good on their at-large resume. These two plus Michigan State, Purdue, and Wisconsin would seem to put the conference in good standing for at least five bids. It's early, and Michigan's inconsistency does put a question mark on their ability to do well enough in the conference to earn that bid. But they're now in the driver's seat. Also, don't look now, but Minnesota (8-0), Illinois (7-1) & Northwestern (6-1) are all doing quite well. Yes, yes, I know it's Northwestern, but NU probably has the best "quality win" of the three so far when they terrorized Florida State in the second half of the ACC-Big 10 challenge game, and FSU just went on to beat Florida this last weekend. The Wildcat's only blemish was a narrow loss to Butler who is currently undefeated.

*IU Soccer goes down. 3-2 in OT.
In 1994, I saw the string of Championship game appearances end for varsity soccer four-year players. This weekend, the string of College Cup (Final Four) appearances for varsity soccer four-year players has also come to an end. All good things, I guess. This year's team was soclose, they were battle-tested, tough defensively and peaking at the right time. I think if IU had managed to get homefield advantage, they'd be looking to play at least one more game. A game they should've had, but another late goal (three, actually) sneaks in to once again rob IU of the victory.

At this point though, all you can do is appreciate the effort of departing seniors
Brad Ring, Chay Cain & John Mellencamp,Brian Ackley, Kevin Noschang, Billy Weaver (as well as Doug Reisinger, Nick Sutter, & anyone else?) They'll be missed, but Indiana Soccer should actually be in a little better shape next year. IU'll be more experienced, and our wunderkind freshmen, Will Bruin & Tommy Meyer will be more comfortable being go-to guys at their positions. As long as Michael Munroe can take over goalkeeping duties as well as his brother, and Freitag can snag a talented freshman or two to juice our offense just a little more, Freitag should have a title contender on his hands next season. If not, he's actually going to start be looking at a warming seat, especially with other IU Soccer former players/asst. coaches doing well at other venues: (John Trask at UIC, Caleb Porter at Akron) I don't think this should be anything weighing on Coach's mind throughout 2009, but maybe the players ought to be aware going into next season. Work hard, guys, and let this OT loss burn you a little bit. Anything short of the College Cup next year should not be considered a success.

Go Hoosiers!

Men's Hoops!

So, IU wins by 24, didn't shoot as well on threes ("only" 43% for the game) and Gordon gets big highlight reels. As for my other predictions, the surprisingly close halftime score? Not so much. Gordon is so good, that he's just bailing IU out as he can score pretty much whenever he wants. The other teams get that look that JJ Redick's foes used to get in their eyes where all of their fear and attention is concentrated on that one scorer, and then Indiana is able to move the ball around for DJ or DeAndre to get easy twos or Bassett and Crawford get easy threes.

Indiana's points per possession remained basically the same, although the defense continues to improve.
1.27 ppp/0.86 oppp= +0.41

Again, the competition is less than stellar, so this weekend's games with Illinois State (who beat UNC-W by 17) and then Kent State or Xavier (both should be NCAA tourney teams) should make the Hoosiers have to react a little more strategically than just waiting for Eric Gordon to be awesome.

I've signed up for Basketball State, which isn't going to be really cool until some solid data comes in, but it is a pretty amazing site. But what else would you expect from Kyle Whelliston? I'm hoping that the $20 subscription proves worth it so I can stop all of my "home-cooking" of stats.

I watched Michigan State-UCLA, and it was pretty much a display of two different teams in two different halves for the Spartans. I've watched UCLA in a couple of games now, and they are a legit #1 and Kevin Love is a legit lottery pick next spring. But they were playing without Darren Collison, and they were already weak in the backcourt after Michael Roll's injury. MSU definitely should've beat them, if they were a legit Final Four team. But I think they still could be, if Izzo's freshmen improve a little.

When the freshmen were confident and loose, they made MSU's offense look normal. You spread the floor with a shooter, allow your big men to screen and hit the glass, and if the shot clock's low, you give the ball to a wing and allow him to penetrate. MSU's frosh guards were able to do that as long as UCLA was behind. When UCLA made a strong push in the second half, MSU got nervous and went back to old habits of running Nietzel into the ground. Drew had to launch long threes with men in his face, or they had to wait for UCLA to slip up defensively so they could get a backdoor play. And UCLA isn't going to let that keep happening. MSU's best clutch offense seemed to be springing Drew Naymick for baseline jumpers. Don't get me wrong, Naymick's a good player with a nice jumper, but that's not an offense that's going to make defenses scared or react. Getting Durrell Summers or Chris Allen slashing to the bucket might.

Also watched a bit of Duke taking apart Illinois. The Illini look like they don't have any idea what they want to do on offense. It's hard to believe that Bruce Weber coached one of the most dynamic offenses ever just a few years ago. Duke took away Shaun Pruitt, and Alexander & Meachem couldn't hit threes, and that was it. Duke is not a top-ten team, but Illinois made them look pretty good. The one bright spot was that Brian Randle looked pretty good with his back to the basket

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Northwestern finally got win, but it was over D-II Benedictine (it's gonna be a rough year in Evanston). Purdue barely squeaked by Lipscomb in West Lafayette. Perhaps projecting PU in the NIT was generous. Iowa moved to 4-0 with a win over Maryland-Eastern Shore. And while the Hawkeyes have done well to win without Tony Freeman (out with an injury), the competition's been pretty weak. The upcoming game at Bradley should provide a little clarity on their quality. Minnesota picked up probably the win of the night, beating Iowa State on the road. Of the new coaches, Tubby Smith has the best fit in personnel to succeed, I think.