An upsetting Butler loss to Drake (Butler came before Drake, therefore Drake stole Butler's colors and mascot).
An ugly IU win against a pathetic Northwestern team.
A Purdue loss to IU. And to make it worse, IU was in the middle of an investigation of their head coach. Which brings me to probably the biggest and worst...
The whole Kelvin Sampson debacle.
Yes, this was a bad week for Indiana sports. And with all the debating about the biggest basketball states, it came at a really bad time.
Since I was at the Butler game, I'll start there. Two things were wrong at that game. Butler's shooting and the officiating. Butler's shooting was atrocius. They could not make anything. They were 10-16 from the charity stripe. Terrible. They were 25% from 3 point range. Disgusting. They shot 10% lower from the field than they average on the season. They could not stop Young (# 20, don't know his first name), who scored 25. Appaling. And as bad as Butler's shooting was, the officiating was 10 times worse. They would call non-existent fouls agaisnt Butler, and then try to give Butler a sympathy foul. At one time when the officials actually made a good call. The guy next to me stoop up and tried to start a standing ovation. It's a shame when officials have such a direct impact on a game. I wonder when the officials graduated from Drake...
I'll tie the other three points into one. Purdue's loss hurt them, but they're fine. They have a core of players that will be together for three more years, and will still make it to the Big Dance. IU, on the other hand, is in trouble. Next year, they will be without their top two players, will probably lose a couple of the recruits they signed this year, and will have a new head coach. I've looked at some of the candidates that have been mentioned, here:
- Bruce Pearl: Has said IU is his dream job, but he could have some character issues, and why would he leave Tenneesee? Especially now?
- Tom Izzo: Has a team in Michigan State that is constantly Top 25, and has the most wins with one Big Ten team. Why would he leave to start over with a team that might have to face NCAA sanctions?
- Brad Brownell: He's the coach at Wright State. Wright State is a decent team, so I'm okay with this one. We need a coach that will recruit players that will stay for four years and be team players. Look at Purdue, they're set for four years. That's what IU needs. I've heard this is Rick Greenspan's favorite.
- Tony Bennett: This is my favorite, but the current Washington St. coach seems to have something there. He will recruit my kinds of players, and his team plays good defense. We'd have to wait and see if Greenspan will attempt to go after Bennett, and if Bennett would leave the Cougars for the Hoosiers.
Thank God it's almost baseball season...