This is the 3d year in a row the BigBlewNation is talking smack about going undefeated and hanging another banner in CorRUPPt Arena. I so hope that doesn’t happen…

I know the feeling I get good feeling at work when Kentucky gets beat. Don’t quote me but I think they lost to arkansas last year that was the best work day ever. Then all year i said the B1G was the best conference in college basketball, when kentucky beat mich and wisc i never heard the end of it but I did get to say that IU did to and it wasnt only by one point lol.

I stand corrected. I forgot how highly touted Anderson was. He was a very good player, but sometimes gets lost in those late 80s/early 90s teams with all that talent. Those teams were great.

I feel for your uncle. Although the rivalry became largely one-sided, I’d still like to see it renewed. It was good for college ball and if certain elements in the Athletic Dept continue to offer some lame excuse about not wanting to give UK additional exposure within the State, I’d say Coach Cal is doing a pretty god job of marketing UK without our help.

Agree, the “brand”, thanks in large part to CTC, has been cleaned up in several areas and now it is time to restore the shine to the “brand” on the court by winning consistently, which also includes not only making the big dance but making some noise in it and a whole lot of noise fairly often. While this part of the restoration is by far and away the hardest part to restore it can’t be said that the restoration has been completed until that part is accomplished.

Ditto that on my two favorite teams. People laugh like they don’t think I’m serious when I say that I would pull for the Russians before I would pull for those cesspool dwellers, and when I call them cesspool dwellers I feel like that is a doing a disservice to cesspool dwellers that aren’t pUKe fans. My uncle is in a very similar situation when it comes to his neighborhood and after we beat them with the Wat Shot, he told me that he and another IU fan, made a couple of laps throughout the neighborhood flying their IU flags.

I think most of the fans on this site don’t really care about the preseason polls, except something to talk about. You know, the fans in this forum will be focused on CTCs coaching, and how the team played together, the turnovers, games lost when we had the lead, a lot of things like that. Oh yeah, substitution patterns. lol Personally though, I think we finish 3rd to 5th. Mostly because, IMO, anything lower than 5th won’t make it to the big dance.

ITH posters are similarly expecting a lot from JBJr, RJ, 3 Sophomores and 3 Juniors.

Nebraska returns 4 starters from last year: Terran Petteway, Tai Webster, Shavon Shields and Walter Pitchford. Shields and Pitchford will be loads to handle for every team they play. May be better than 4th best this year. Outside the the top 4 teams listed, it looks like “On any given night…”

Replace the word sometimes with always. The UK fan base contains some of the most obnoxious and narrow-minded people you will ever meet. Do any of your co-workers get sick when the Cats lose? I was the sole non-Cat fan in an entire neighborhood for 25 yrs. To this day, my 2 favorite teams in any sport are IU and whomever is playing UK.

RMK has the longest streak of HS All-Americans: ’87 = Jay Edwards; 88 = Eric Anderson; 89 = Greg AND Pat Graham; 90 = Damon Bailey; 91 = Alan Henderson.

Small correction. Robinson Jr. not Rice Jr.

The AA string is ongoing, so the “of late” doesn’t really do anything for me. I find the suggestion that Crean is an unimpressive recruiter to be grounded in less than the whole truth, but rather in the desperation and exasperation many of us feel at last year’s poor season.

Lots of recruits are unheralded and under recruited. I was listening to a nationally syndicated sports radio program this week, and the host was interviewing the QB of Ole Miss. He asked him if he received any other offers, and the “best” offer other than Ole Miss was Tennessee-Martin. I’m certain that all but about 10 programs in the country would LOVE to have him as their QB. Did those coaches screw up by not seeing the diamond in the rough?

Sure, I’d rather have a 4-5 man class consisting of all top 100 recruits, but that’s not always a possibility. Equally, it isn’t about where you are ranked as a HS junior. We could run down a list of unheralded recruits that have been stars at IU and other schools.

My point is that I’ll reserve judgment on his recruiting decisions, because he’s shown the ability to recruit not only AAs, but also solid players who were not on the radars of other high majors.

Ahh, the elusive sarcasm font.
Yes, it is impressive. I did make it a point to say “of late.” That streak will likely be coming to an end this season. I wonder if Crean also holds the IU record for signing the highest number of least scouted recruits.
Some of the lesser known recruits I’m okay with; others are very questionable and that’s what concerns me. Payoff on any recruit is risky and can be a long term game. This new method of Crean’s is bold because it’s unconventional.
In 4 years will those in favor of these recruits acknowledge it didn’t work out when it was supposed to? Or will they say, ah, that recruit wasn’t ever supposed to amount to much, he wasn’t highly rated?
If Crean is a recruiter, then why isn’t he landing more highly ranked players?

I think 5th would be rather nice especially since I think this team is still a year away from doing big damage. I’m a huge Crean supporter but I understand why people are getting impatient. Fifth or sixth buys him another year with this years team lacking experience and depth upfront. Another ninth place year and he very well could be gone.

It is pretty unimpressive that he’s helped us land AAs for the longest consecutive year stretch in program history.

My big fear is that since the media rankings have set the bar so low, fans are going to convince themselves that a 5th or 6th place finish is wonderful. “We didn’t have a disappointing season– we OVERACHEIVED. Just look at all the preseason polls! It’s because of the great coaching.”

I don’t believe a preseason rating will have any effect on recruiting. None. I look at these publications and preseason ratings with a “who cares?” attitude. They aren’t worth the bar napkin they were jotted down on.

This is the same group that predicted Nebraska to finish 12th last year, so keep this poll in context.

A better way to look at this, IMO, is we are in the 2nd tier of teams. I believe there are three tiers: Tier 1 – Wisky and OSU, Tier 2 – Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, MD, UM, MSU, Minny, Nebraska, Tier 3 – NW, PU, PSU and Rutgers.

Would it really shock any of us if ANY of the teams in Tier 2 finished 3rd? Would it shock any of us if that 2nd tier of teams finished in ANY order? It wouldn’t surprise me at all. Personally, I believe IU finishes between 5th and 7th, and the difference between 5th and 9th may be just one or two games.

Exactly. These guys are looking at every single team, they’re bound to miss something on one particular team. Also I’m sure a lot of these writers have opinions and teams they think will surprise but if they start publicizing that they’re gonna get a lot wrong and their magazine or site starts to lose credibility. If picking college basketball teams was conducted like fantasy football I think some “experts” might tell you to stash Indiana late as a dark horse. In your deeper league finds of course lol.