The news has been over run the last few days with stories about Jett Travolta’s death. It is a truly sad thing for his parents and sister to have to go through.
I cannot make the argument that this is not news. Deaths are almost always news worthy. The death of children even more so. And the death of a celebrity’s child trumps all of those things.
You know what isn’t news; when other celebrities give their condolences.
I have seen news stories about how Oprah, Tim Allen, Kate Hudson, Lisa Marie Presley, Forest Whitaker, Billy Ray Cyrus and one of the Backstreet Boys have all come out to express their condolences. They are not wrong for expressing their sympathies to the family. I’m not even saying their wrong for doing it publicly (I’m fairly certain most of these people can’t think of any other way to do anything).
I’m just saying it’s not news. Everyone feels sympathy for a family who has lost a loved one. The news is for things of vast import or rare events. Not for things that everyone is doing all the time.
It would have been news if one of these celebrities had come out and laughed at the Travoltas, or pointed and laughed. That would have been cruel and heartless, but it would have been news.
I’ve been struggling lately. The last three losses have been tough to take. So much so that it has taken me nearly a week to write about each game and I’m writing this as I am watching the Iowa game.
This season has lead my to question some of my beliefs about the team/fan relationship.
The fan and the team have entered into an agreement. The entire sports relationship is based on this agreement, though it has never been written down, signed, or even spoken aloud.
It is a symbiotic relationship. Without the team there are no fans, and without the fans there is no need for a team. They each provide, for the other, important services.
The team provides the fans with, at the basest level, entertainment and distraction, but much more than that, the team provides the fan with a sense of community, of belonging. They also allow the fan to experience the glory of victory without having to put in the work.
The fans provide the team with support, both financial and emotional, as well as a sense of purpose. Every team plays to win for themselves, but also for their fans.
But this is not a relationship without expectations. The fans expect the team to win. That is a given, but on a more fundamental level, the fans expect the team to represent them. If the fan sees the team as an extension of himself, and he must in order to gain any sense of pride or accomplishment from the successes of the team, then he expects the team to live up to the ideals he has for himself. No one wants to be disappointed in his own actions. The same is true for his larger self, his team.
When the team is not meeting the expectations of the fan, the fan has the right, and I would even argue, the responsibility to do his part to help the team meet those expectations.
The fan cannot go onto the court and play, or go into the locker room and coach, but there are things the fan can do, though not all of them are appropriate or effective at all times.
1.) The fan can cheer harder. If it seems that the team is suffering from a lack of confidence or motivation the fan can let the team know they have his support.
2.) The fan can boo. This is much more appropriate at the professional level. College kids, more often than not, need the support of their fans and hearing your fans boo you is not likely to help. Sometimes the pros need to know that their job performance is not acceptable. Sometimes, Santa needs to hear about it too.
3.) You can quit going to the games. This again is another approach better used against the pros. It tells the owners, in the only way they will hear it, that the fans expect a better product on the field or the court. If they can spend less, put out a crappy product, and still take your money, they will continue to do so. Sadly, the attendance in Assembly Hall this year indicates that some of us have decided this is the way to express their discontent. I don’t think this is helpful.
4.) You can criticize the play of the team in very specific terms. I am a big fan of this one. A lucid, intelligent assessment of the teams’ problems can be useful. Calling the team, or the players, names not so much. But pointing out that this guy isn’t rebounding or playing good help defense, or that the coach is continually employing a strategy that doesn’t work, is constructive. Where I struggle with this is in relation to this year’s team. I’m not sure that a group of freshmen, who mostly need to be built up, will benefit from being told repeatedly why they are failing.
5.) You can give up and wait until next year. This is the coward’s way out. If this is your plan, you are not a true fan. If the team is an extension of the fan (as I believe it is) the true fan cannot give up on the team any more than they can give up on themselves.
This team, over the last three games has not been meeting my expectations, and those are not tied up in wins and losses, but in quality of play. For now, I am going to cheer louder. They need our support. But, after getting a good chunk of Big Ten games under our belts, freshmen cease to be freshmen, and option four becomes much more appropriate.
I am still hopeful for our prospects of improvement over the course of the next two months, but I need to start seeing it. My heart can’t take much more.
In the moments over the last four days that I haven’t spent giving and receiving presents, preparing for a weekend in Vegas, or trying to get my car in and out of the garage through an alley full of snow and ice, I’ve tried to put a happy spin on what I saw Monday night.
I don’t think I’ve gotten there yet.
This was the first game this year that has disappointed me. I can’t think of one area where I thought we played well. Even our effort was sub par. I was baffled by all of this until I watched Coach Crean’s press conference after the game.
In case you missed it he said, “I think it kind of was a microcosm of our week. We did not have a great week.” And then he said, “We probably had more days this week that were not good than we had that were good.”
This is not the first time this year that Crean has talked about bad practices. Perhaps the greatest sign that our team is young is how how they practice and Crean has said repeatedly that this team has trouble keeping the focus and intensity up over the course of an entire practice, much less being about to sustain that energy from one day to the next.
One of the things I remember Coach Knight saying to our class was “The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.” Everyone wants to win, but not everyone wants to put in the work necessary to make that happen. We will not find continued improvement until we can find sustained effort, and that can’t come from anywhere outside. The movement we need is on our shoulders.
I’m heading to Vegas in a few hours. Anyone want me to place any bets on the Lipscomb game?
In response to Coach Crean’s call for an increased sense of urgency, I present the theme song for this week’s practices.
I realize that even after watching the theme song, the title of this post may be too obscure for most. If you know what it’s from, please share in the comment thread. I looked for the video clip, but I couldn’t find it.
I spent a lot of my free time yesterday reading the comment thread on indystar.com following the article about drug use on last year’s team. I don’t often have time ot read through people’s comments on articles like that, but I was curious as to people’s reactions to this story as I was still trying to decide how to react myself. I think I’ve decided, but I want to talk about the comment thread first.
If you have some time, I recommend you take a look. I read through 26 pages of comments. I have no idea how many are there now, but 26 seemed sufficient to me. The reactions to the article basically fell into the following categories.
1.) Journalism student at IU who was critical of the grammar in the headline. He was also upset that as someone who is preparing to enter the workforce, that he wasn’t able to get an interview with the Star because of his “lack of experience.” There was quite enough discussion about his opinion of the headline, but what struck me was that he seemed legitimately offended that the biggest paper in the state of Indiana (Packer Method) would expect him to have some sort of portfolio before considering him for a position in an industry that is bleeding money. Kids today, they don’t want to start at the bottom and work their way up. They was to start at the top and work their way sideways.
2.) The conservative wing of the state of Indiana who condemn drug use and think that we should forfeit every game played by people who have used drugs, and don’t seem to realize that drug use and college go hand in hand for the majority of students. I’m not saying they aren’t right that college athletes, or college students in general shouldn’t be using drugs, but I am a realist. As Jimmy would say, I mean, come on.
3.)The Spock-With-A-Goatee to the group in number two. This group decided this was the forum to lobby for the legalization of marijauna. To be fair, most people who fall into this category deem every discussion as the proper forum for this argument. I would, however, question their decision to make this argument to a bunch of people who are pissed at the people who are alleged to have done the drugs and not likely to see any argument favorably that doesn’t point out their innate douchiness.
4.) Those who think this isn’t a big deal because everyone who has graduated from IU has at least one story of seeing an IU basketball player at a party. The libel police should raid these comment threads. I once saw Landon Turner do a speedball of a hooker’s ass. My favorite one of these was the guy who claimed to have seen a picture of Bracey Wright snorting coke.
This seems like a good time to tell my Todd Lindeman story. One weekend a friend of mine was coming to Bloomington and we were looking for a party. He jokingly suggested we call “The Neck” (Thus named because Dick Vitale once said that Lindeman wasn’t a true seven-footer because he had such a long neck) as we heard he was at a lot of parties.
We found a party to go to at one of the apartment complexes. We walked in the door and who do you think was manning the keg? Award yourselves 50 points if you said Todd Lindeman, Give yourselves 100 if you called him “The Neck.”
5.) Those who think EJ is wearing a big Rastafarian hat in the middle of Sonic Youth’s set at Homerpallooza. NARC!!!
and 6.) Purdue and Illinois fans who thought it was funny.
Where do I come down on this story.
A.) They don’t say who it was but the penalty for testing positive twice is a three-game rip. There were two guy who got three day suspension last season for unspecified reason. I’m not naming names, but 2+2=4.
B.) They don’t say what the drugs were, but I find it highly unlikely it was just pot. Eric Gordon will be 20 years old next week (He shares his birthday with both Jesus and Donna Martin) It is incredibly improbable that having gone through high school in America that he has had no contact with the stoner crowd. He’s bound to know people who smoked pot. That being the case I can’t image he’d be so shocked or offended by that that he felt the need to talk about it a year later. That just doesn’t make sense.
C.) I’m disappointed that they were doing whatever they were doing, but let’s just add that to the list of things that disappointed me about this group of guys. I’d like to pretend to be surprised by this, but I just can’t get there.
D.) I don’t think the drugs were the mitigating factor in last season’s melt down. There’s an American Indian in Milwaulkie who gets to wear that hat.
E.) We all want IU basketball players to be great role models to the kids who look up to them. We want them to represent the university, the state, and all of us well, so we hold them to a higher standard, which I think is appropriate, but the guy who used the Packer Method to come up with the fact that 75% of NBA smoke pot, is right. Drug use in college is rampant and statistically speaking there are a few kids on every team in America experimenting with things that aren’t legal either.
So, I’m bothered by this in gut, but when I let the information get all the way to my head I just can’t be too surprised about it. I just hope the guys Coach Crean recruits from now on make better decisions.
There can be a tendency by fans this season to focus on the youth, inexperience and mistakes of this team. There can also be the tendency to do the exact opposite and focus on the improvements throughout the year, putting aside the usual expectations of Big Ten contention and NCAA success. I will be doing more of the latter than the former this year, though I will be doing both with whiplash enducing frquency.
Today however, following the UK game, I am choosing to focus on me.
For you in the Teaming Masses who don’t know me personally, I grew up in Clarksville, IN (For those who do know me personally, that is a lie). That puts me in the half of the state that views UK as our biggest rival. I didn’t have much contact with Purdue fans growing up, but I knew a lot of Kentucky fans. I’m sad to say I’m even related to a few, and what’s worse, I know people who went there. I know. It gives me the creeps too.
I had many arguments over the years about the superiority of IU over UK and when we lost to them, it hurt in ways that are hard to describe. It hurt for all the reasons rivalry defeats usually hurt, but also because it made my argument harder to make, at least for that year, and there’s very little I like more than being right.
So, I’ve been on quite the emotional rollercoast the last few years.
Let’s examine this rivalry over the course of the 00’s. We earned a trip to the Final Four by winning in Rupp Arena. Mike Davis ran onto the court hitting himself about the head in possibly the worst sideline decision ever. He held a press conference in which he said he hated them. He lost to them by 39, then by 15. Then he won by 15. Then the neutral site game went away, in favor of a home and home. We beat the crap out them last year, which felt great, until Sampson did as Sampson does and here we are.
Is it any wonder that it took me three days to figure out how to write about our latest loss to UK?
So here’s the thumbnail of the game. We continue to turn it over at a crazy-making pace. The first 8 minutes was a huge step backwards, the first real back step we’ve had this year. The rest of the game was much better, but it was hard to recognize that at the time, what with the taste of my own stomach acids in my mouth.
“That’s all true, Jeff. But what does this tell us about you?”
That’s a great question and here’s the answer.
After the head beating game and the 39 point debacle, I was angry and inconsolable for days after. After Will Gladness decided to try the game winning lay-up without the help of the backboard I almost broke my foot kicking the coach. This year, I was bothered by the way we played this game, but I was able to pull back from the edge of rage. I haven’t spent the last three days fixated on this loss. I still don’t like losing to these ass baskets, but somehow, I’ve been able to view this as another step in the progression of this team, and not as a referendum on IU basketball as a whole.
And more importantly, but perhaps harder for you to understand, this loss does not speak to my innate goodness as a person, my intelligence, integrity, good looks or charm.
It turns out, that even after we play poorly against Kentucky, I’m still a fantastic human being. My self-worth, at least for this year, is not inextricably linked to the IU v. UK game.
My personal growth 1
Kentucky Basketball 0
Your move UK. Your move.
The theme song for today’s game, is also about me. Enjoy.
I’m working on two other posts right now, but I started to get bogged down in slow brain. So, to cure that, and to address the TCU game, I’m putting them on hold for a few to gets this out there before the moment has passed.
Prior to this game I was telling people that I thought we should go 3-4 over our next four games, and I wasn’t so sure the UK wasn’t winable. I haven’t changed my mind, but more about the UK game in a later, vitriol-filled post.
TCU was a Type 1 game. We were supposed to win that one and we did.
The first half was ugly. There was very little good to talk about, but there were a few things worth noting.
Tom Pritchard works his ass off. He ended the game with 9 offensive rebounds and I don’t remember one that didn’t involve fighting for the ball with one or two TCU players. I love his effort and ability. And what big eyes he has!
Matt Roth’s shooting finally looks to be what we were told it should be. He’s been picking it up lately. His stroke looks better, more comfortable. Based on the way our offense has been working as of late, we’re going to need his shooting ability, if we want to be competitive.
Speaking of our offense. Have you ever tried to dribble a football? You drop it on the ground, it kicks off in directions you cannot predict, you run around after it, bent at both the knees and the waist with both of your hands stretched out, fingers straining to get a grip on it.
That’s what it looked like in the first half against TCU? We looked crazed and almost completely out of control.
But for all that sloppiness and general unpleasantness, we only had 8 turnovers in the first half. That is an amazing improvement!
Story’s three at the buzzer was exactly what this team needed; a positive end to a rough half and a chance to start some real momentum.
Which we did to start the second half. We played with more confidence, energy, and skill than we’ve played with all year. It was great to see it all come together that way.
With 2:32 left in the game we were up by 24, and had only turned the ball over 14 times.
What followed is a perfect example of why turnovers are bad. We had five in the next 2:32 and game up 14 points of our lead. Thank the Gods of Kobol that we had enough cushion to still win the game, but this drove me nuts.
I was all set to write about how we got a handle on our turnovers, at least for one game. We showed free throw improvement against Gonzaga, and we were showing turnover improvement against TCU, and the train was set to start rolling with improvements each game until we were playing real consistent basketball, but we ended up with 19 turnovers and you can’t writing glowing praise of 19 turnovers, unless you are writing the pastrie column of the food section.
I think I’ve set myself up as “anti-crowd cheering guy” and there a lot of things that annoy me, but for some reason I find giant cut outs of Snoop Dogg’s head really funny. So Shine on, you crazy diamonds.
And finally to return to form. You guys went 4 and 5 with To-Om Cre-ean. At the end of the game.
“You mean the mob only did me a favor to get something in return? Oh, Fat Tony! I will say good day to you, sir”
The theme song for today’s game is all about the video and all about the first half. Enjoy, cause this is a great song.
Today we, the third graders and I, were printing out animal pictures for their animal projects. They would come up to my desk, say “Giant Panda” and I would google the Giant Panda and then print a picture.
One student came up and said, “Red Fox.”
I typed Redd Foxx.
She didn’t get it.
In my head, I looked at her and said, “SHUT UP DUMMY!”
Because if I said it out loud she would have cried.
You know what I find fascinating? Self-applied Nicknames.
Even when they work really well, as is the case with The Dude, one has to constantly remind people, especially ones they just met, not to call them by their given name but rather by the name they have given themselves.
See also: T-Bone Castanza. George ordered a steak at lunch, in the hopes of having others give him the nickname, but the after him ordered one too, and they called him T-Bone.
Sean Combs has given himself roughly 30 nicknames to date. They even let him on The Today Show to announce we was changing his name from P. Diddy to Diddy. You can actually watch that announcement here. It was at this point that I just gave up in his nicknames altogether and began calling him Sean. His momma call him Sean, I’ma call him Sean.
It’s with this in mind that I bring up Gonzaga. America’s Team. First, I’d like to focus your attention on my previous statements about self-applied nicknames. Second, that one’s already taken. I can’t just start calling my self DJ Jazzy Jeff. It’s not taste infringement, but if there was a law, it would be against it. Third, who says you’re America’s team? Now, I’ll allow that most people, given neutral circumstances will probably root for the Zags, but lack of widespread animus does not make you America’s Team.
In short, who are the ad wizards that came up with this one?
Now onto the game. Submitted for your approval, a very quick look at our previous three losses this season.
1.) No. 10 Notre Dame, 38 point loss and we were never in that game.
2.) Unranked St. Joe’s, 26 point loss and we were out of it at the beginning of the 2nd half.
3.) No. 17 Wake Forest, 25 point loss, got behind, but played them even for a lot of the game.
Which brings us to Saturday’s game against Gonzaga. This game was a HUGE improvement in most areas of the game. They are the best team we have played thus far and it was a nine point game with 3:36 to go in the second half. We lost by 16, but we were in this game.
Our defense was pretty solid, more so in the first half, but overall it was decent. Our rebounding was also solid. We got outrebounded by four, but we had 11 offensive boards.
Our hustle, as usual, was exemplary.
We made big strides on the free throw line, getting to the line more than Gonzaga, and making 79.2%. That was one of the three areas we really needed to improve on. We did and we wee competitive because of it.
We are still having trouble shooting, as we only hit 30.4% for the game, but our three-point shooting came alive in the second half and we shot 36.8% from three point range, which means we shot better from three than we did from two. Interesting.
And we turned the ball over A LOT, 24 times.
If we can play with the 5th best team in the country by improving on only one area of play, who out there thinks we wouldn’t be able to play with everyone on our schedule if we can bring our shooting percentage up into the 40’s and cut our turnovers in half?
We still have our problems, but this game was a good sign.
That three-pointer that Matt Roth hit from about 35′ out. I mean wow, man. War, man, wow.
I loved seeing how animated Coach Crean was toward the end of the game. This team needs to see him like that. I am, every day, happy with that hire. He gives us all the things we need.
I knew Kyle Taber was a stud, but 2-2 from three-point range is awesome. And the one in this game came at a crucial time.
I don’t need to hear the Kipp Schutz Three-Point-Contest-Brought-Him-To-The-Coach’s-Attention story again.
Two final thoughts, neither of which are directly about the game.
Once again The Big Ten Network is being run by chimps in bow ties, with those little reporter hats, and maybe Angus Young shorts. They ran a commercial for tickets to the game they were currently showing. They ran it before the game, at half time, and in the second half. I trust you enough to realize why that is an act of purest ass-basketry without my having to delve any deeper into it.
And lastly, Walt Bellamy was kind enough to stop by and talk to the announcers at the beginning of the second half. They asked him about the game and he said, (and I’m paraphrasing here, but nothing I changed was for comedic effect, it’s because I didn’t write it down, but trust me, I’ve got the gist of it) I think it’s great the Indiana is a part of the opening of this facility and I’m really excited about the game, but the I’m more excited about the amenities of this place. Have you seen it? This place is great!
He was like Forrest Gump, in line to meet the President and he’s more impressed with the amount of Dr. Pepper available. And for FREE!!
For today’s theme song, I have to say two things. 1.) This is neither safe for work, or for children, (language only) so please watch at your own risk. and 2.) I will call Gonzaga America’s Team if they start playing this as they enter the arena.
I will be submitting most of these observations to Duh! magazine as well, but sometimes it’s worth pointing out the obvious.
The Packer Method can be used thusly. The winning percentage for any team that turns the ball over 25 times, shoots 37% from the field and 54.5% from the line is not zero, but it is less than 1%.
It’s real easy to see, so you can check sounds from Nate D-O-Double-G.
I’m going to jump off topic here for a second. I decided to drop a quote from Deeez Nuts. I wanted to make sure I had it right, so I google the line. There’s a website called behindthelyrics.com where the lyrics of songs are posted and people can write insights or interpretations of the lyrics in a comments thread. What possible insights can anyone have into Deeez Nuts. It is my considered opinion that one listen and you can pretty much gather the meaning all on your own, without a group discussion.
But, uh, back to the lecture at hand, perfection is perfected so I’ma let ’em understand. (Sorry, seems like it’s a Death Row kind of day, a Dre Day, if you will).
As was pointed out last night, in between the Jimmy Chitwood and Hoosiers comments, this team is not one with a large margin of error. We are undersized and inexperienced. In order to beat better teams we are going to need to play with fewer errors, shoot better and not leave any points on the free throw line.
The majority of our turnovers last night were caused, not by action on Wake Forest’s part, but by poor decisions and communication on our part. We drove too deep into their defense with no thought as to what we should do next. We knew how to get in there, but we had to exit strategy. We tried to make passes at bad angles, or to people’s feet.
But, there is reason for optimism. All of our mistakes are correctable, and we will learn and improve.
If you would like signs of improvement, how about this. Wake Forest had 22 turnovers and the VAST majority were caused by our defense. We got into passing lanes, deflected the ball and made steals. Our hustle is outstanding.
Wake Forest is a better team than St. Joe’s and we played Wake tougher for longer.
Or how about this, Teague had to have been our defensie focus heading into the game and he didn’t score a point in the first half. The excitement over that is tempered slightly by the fact that everyone else scored on us in the first half, but the guy we were worried about, we contained.
Our 2-3 zone was pretty good. We got beat in tranistion all night, but they are more athletic and if we don’t turn the ball over 25 times, that’s much less an issue.
I know that Tijan Jobe is raw, and I’m sure the coaching staff is having no trouble getting him to work, but if they are, they should put the video of he and Finkelmeier going up for the same rebound, and Finkelmeier coming down with it on a constant loop. If he can’t be shamed into working harder after seeing that, there’s no hope for him.
And finally, the song of the game. It came down to a toss up between anything by Dr. Dre and this song. It’s such an obvious choice, I’m almost ashamed to have made it, but as I don’t believe in shame, I present the following for your approval.
And that is the first time anyone has ever referenced Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Steely Dan and Billy Packer in the same posting. And God willing, the last.
Rather than tell you a tale about how the Pilgrims, Indians, Abraham Lincoln, RCN Cable, gainful employment and a flat tire have all conspired to keep me from posting, I’ll just apologize for my tardiness, and promise to do better.
So, we played Cornell on Sunday. I’m getting the feeling that I’m going to view every game as an important indicator of our overall health (I was going to compare it to a yearly prostrate exam, but I feared I would skew too old, so I gave that a pass). That being said, this was an important win for us.
Bob Knight used to look at each game and slot it into one of three categories (and I’m paraphrasing here) 1.) Games we should win 2.) Games we can win if we play our game and 3.) Games that are going to be hard for us to win.
I think our first two wins were games we should have won. Notre Dame was a game that was going to be hard for us to win. St. Joe’s was, I thought, a Type 2, but it turned into a Type 3. Chaminade was a Type 1.
All of wins have been against Type 1 opponents, and we got our asses handed to us against a Type 2 and a Type 3. Cornell was a Type 2. There were a lot of people picking us to lose that game and we handled them pretty well. Our rebounding looked better. Our defense was tougher. We moved the ball better on offense. Nick Williams came alive, thanks in large part to Tom Crean reading what I wrote about the need for Williams to take mid-range jump shots.
Let’s take a break here to talk about the mid-range jump shot. Basketball has become a game of post play and three point shooting. The 15 foot jump shot has largely fallen by the wayside. It’s not as exciting or high percentage as a dunk, and it’s not worth as many points as stepping back five feet. But we’ve not shot very well from outside. We got no head-toppers, everyone we’re going to play, a bunch of mights. With the exception of Pritchard, who is the best freshman big man we’ve had since Alan Henderson, we can’t pass it into the post and expect to score.
Our offense must rely on our ability to drive and dish, but if we don’t show a willingness to pull up from 12-15 feet and hit jump shots, the threat of the drive diminishes considerably. For us to be a successful offensive team we have to move the ball well, shot fake, drive and pull up for mid-range jump shots. People also don’t defend them that well. No one expects them. Them, or the Spanish Inquisition.
So, why else was this win important? Our next two games are Type 3’s and pretty high profile. Getting a confidence boost heading into this week is important, but more important than that, going through a seven game stretch at this point in the season and only having a two point win over Chaminade to show for it would just about crush this team. I think a win against Cornell increased our chances to win one of the next two games roughly 6 fold. (That number was arrived at using the Packer Method, which in short is making up a number to help prove your point. It’s named after Billy Packer, for very good reasons that I’ll have to get into later. Just remember. Packer Method.)
On to other observations. Now that we know he’s alright, I feel it’s safe to say, “YOU GOT KNOCKED THE F*#K OUT, MAN!!!
Verdell Jones (I know he’s VJIII, but as I don’t see much chance you’ll think I was talking about Verdell Jones, Sr. or Jr. I think the III is just unnecessary) got his bell rung. I saw my brother do that to a kid from Madison Shaw High School once. He received roughly the same reaction our fans gave to the Cornell kid. I understand that reaction, but it’s wrong. There was not one thing wrong with that play, except Verdell didn’t see it coming. Keep that in mind the next time you feel like booing a kid in a similar situation. That was just a great screen.
And while we’re talking about cheers. Koudos again for refraining from the Four and Five cheer. I appreciate it. I would like to caution you, however, that when there is a player on the other team who has hit about 75% from three point range and posted a career high on you, chanting airball when he badly misses his 9th attempt of the game just looks stupid. It reminds me of the kid I once coached who made a lay up when we were down by about 45 points and promptly did a cartwheel. It’s just completely situationally unaware.
And lastly, as I feel this post has gotten a bit long, the was no sighting of the Harbaugh Effect on Sunday. I expect a full return as we head back to ESPN, but I think there’s a very simple explanation for this omission.
It’s not as interesting that Tom Crean is married into the Harbaugh’s when every player on the other team is related to someone who once played at IU. I don’t think anyone would bring up the Kennedy’s to Arnold, if everyone in the room was related to the cast of Terminator.
Tonight’s game has no theme song, but this is always worth seeing, especially since I referenced it earlier.
Jeff Taylor Writes 