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Hoosier Headlines for December 15, 2009.

John M (The Crimson Quarry) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:59:39 -0000

Crean sees growth for Hoosiers in recent play (The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.)
"We had a week where we had some payoff for a lot of hard work," Crean said during the Big Ten men’s basketball teleconference Monday. "A young team was able to gain some confidence in a win in Madison Square Garden against Pittsburgh. That really helped us. We turned around and learned how far we really have to go when you play a team like Kentucky. We showed flashes of what we are capable of in the future. We showed flashes of what we’re learning. But we also showed flashes in the second half of what we’re not capable of yet, which is battling and bearing down in a very physical game and holding our own. We’ve got a long way to go in that area, but the good news is I think we can get there."
Big Ten Conference looking into expanding to 12 teams? (chicagotribune.com)
Redefining expectations (Inside the Hall)
"Because heading into Big Ten play, IU will likely be 7-5. Which means the Hoosiers are going to have to go 8-10 during Big Ten play — I’m not counting the Big Ten tourney here — to finish the season at 15-15. Is this out of the realm of possibility? No. Is it likely? Probably not. It’s a safer bet to project IU in the 10-14 win range right now."

Expect Hoosiers to regroup after lopsided UK loss (The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN)
"Life is never an absolute, but we're going to give you one: Indiana will win its final three non-conference basketball games and begin Big Ten play with a 7-5 record and a chance - a small chance, but a chance - to finish with an overall .500 record."

Hoosiers add Ernest, Smith to baseball roster (Hoosier Hype | Indiana Daily Student)

Crean: We don’t want sumo wrestlers (The Hoosier Scoop)
"Bottom line is we want to have an ability to go inside-outside," Crean said. "We want to have guys that can hold their spot in the post, that can defend pick n’ roll, and that can develop their offensive potential as we go down the line. But we’re also not looking to find sumo wrestlers that clog the lane where you can’t get into the lane and make plays. That’s not the game. I don’t think that’s the winning edge you need right now in this game."

Hoosier Headlines for December 13, 2009: postgame coverage of Indiana's loss to Kentucky, plus football and Big Ten expansion.

John M (The Crimson Quarry) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:00:16 -0000

More photos » by Darron Cummings - AP

2 days ago: Kentucky forward DeMarcus Cousins reacts after hitting a shot and getting fouled during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Indiana in Bloomington, Ind., Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009. Kentucky won 90-73. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Browse more photos »

Hoosiers run out of gas (Post-Tribune)
"Energized by a raucous Assembly Hall crowd, which IU coach Tom Crean called "one of the most incredible atmospheres" he has ever been a part of, the Hoosiers (4-5) jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the first half and trailed Kentucky by just one at the break."
Wildcats need run to stop Creek, IU (The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.)
"A year ago, we play at Kentucky (a 72-54 loss), it was a stunned locker room," Indiana coach Tom Crean said. "This year, we play Kentucky, it’s a hurt locker room. That’s progress to me."
Wildcats' growl grows | TIM ETHRIDGE COLUMN (Evansville Courier & Press)
"I want to tell the people of Indiana, we’re not any better than that," said Calipari. "That’s all we have that’s a February effort we put together. They got our best. "This was a statement game for our guys. We came into a hostile environment, got punched in the mouth early, but we stayed on our feet and came back at them. So this was a great learning step for us."
Different philosophies on display (The Indianapolis Star)
Warning: Bob Kravitz column.
Terre Haute News, Terre Haute, Indiana- TribStar.com - Effort vs. Wildcats shows how far Hoosiers have come
"Tom Crean has two measures for judging his team’s progress: as compared to last year and as compared to last week. By either measure, Indiana is getting better, even if it doesn’t always show up in the win column."

IU's Crean teaches until the bitter end against UK (The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN)
"One last timeout. Why not? The game was lost, the teaching wasn’t. Indiana coach Tom Crean had a point to make with 80 seconds left against Kentucky and he gathered the Hoosiers around him, diagramming a play, pushing his message from mouthwash range, driving details great teams understand."

Column: Cats pass nerves test in first road game (The Kentucky Kernel)
"For the first time this year, UK played an opponent on its home floor. And UK’s schedulers didn’t ease into that first road game, either. Assembly Hall is one of basketball’s most hostile environments, stemming largely from a fiercely loyal fan base and a creative (if not a bit ruthlessly over the top) student section, even while coach Tom Crean and the Hoosiers are up to their eyebrows in rebuilding."

Kentucky 90, Indiana 73: Postmortem (A Sea Of Blue)
"Congrats to the Indiana Hoosiers for playing a great first half of college basketball. Maurice Creek is definitely the real deal, and Tom Crean has this team playing at a high level considering how few true big people they have on the roster. Indiana is a team on the rise, and Tom Crean is quite likely a future Hall of Famer. This series will get much tougher for UK in very short order, I predict."

Rick Bozich: Even Calipari impressed with Wildcats (The Courier-Journal)

Cats 10-0 after beating Hoosiers 90-73 (Lexington Herald Leader)
"Prior to this convincing crunching of the Hoosiers, Calipari had consistently poured water on UK's best start to a season since 1992-93. UK's play merited a .500 record, he kept grumbling."

Young Cats turn in veteran performance (Lexington Herald Leader)
"It had played in a quirky chandelier-filled ballroom in Cancun. It had played against a defending national championship team in Rupp. It had played before Pat Riley, Michael Douglas, Oscar Robertson and the like against some Big East bangers at Madison Square Garden. But it had not played before a group of rabid Midwesterners, chafed by the cold, crammed into their own gym, out for blue blood. "This place," said Patrick Patterson, the veteran Cat, "is as loud, if not louder than Rupp."

Cal pooh-poohs perfection (Lexington Herald Leader)

Alvarez: Big Ten will push for expansion (ESPN)
IU doesn't play again until Saturday, so I'll have more to say about the expansion issue this week.

Kentucky 90, Indiana 73 (The Hoosier Scoop)

Second half run, rebounding too much for Hoosiers (Inside the Hall)

The NFL Draft says, "ACC > Big 10!"

BirdGT — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:00:17 -0000

A lot of the Big 10 talking heads have flooded our humble abode since the Orange Bowl announcement. They have denounced, degraded, and mocked the ACC's defensive state of affairs. One thing they fail to bring is facts. I like facts. I like facts that are numbers. Here are two numbers for Big 10 fans: 19 and 3. The ACC has had 19 defensive players taken in the first round of the NFL Draft since full expansion in the 2005 season. The Big 10 has had 11. The ACC has had 3 Pro Bowlers emerge from those 19 1st rounders (Beason, Mario, and Cromartie). The Big 10 has had 0. Those are some interesting facts for Big 10 fans to mull over. Here are 5 more interesting facts about ACC/Big 10 defensive players taken in the 2006-2009 NFL Drafts:

5. Georgia Tech has had 6 defensive draft picks since 2006. That's more than Illinois, Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Wisconsin.

4. Duke hasn't had a player taken in the NFL Draft since 2005.

3. The Big 10's highest Draft Pick since 2006 was A.J. Hawk, the fifth overall pick. He was four picks after Mario Williams.

2. All four Drafts saw more ACC defensive players taken than Big 10 players.

1. The ACC has had 81 defensive players drafted since the 2006 NFL Draft, which is 6.75 players drafted per team. The Big 10 has only had 62, which is 5.63.

Really when you factor Ohio State and Penn State out of the Big 10, there's not much talent going to the NFL. It's the definition of a blue collar conference. Good defensive coaching is what keeps them afloat in major out of conference match ups. I kinda believe they play the isolationism game and simply avoid major OOC games until bowl season. The ACC and Big 10 have met only 9 times since full expansion. The ACC holds a 6-3 edge over the Big 10 in that time span.

What do you think about the Big 10 talent level? Do you think the Big 10 hides behind their conference schedule? Let me know your thoughts.

Barry Alvarez's Big Ten Expansion Talk Has A Logistical Problem

Oops Pow Surprise — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:00:20 -0000

For years, the Big Ten has been struggling with just what the hell to do about the whole "11 team in the conference" thing. It's made the BXI a bit of an anomaly, being that it's the only I-A conference without either a conference championship game (SEC, Big XII, MAC, C-USA, ACC) or a round-robin schedule (Big East, Pac-10, MWC, WAC, Sun Belt). After all, when it comes to automatic bowl bids, you'd want the conference to, y'know, pick the right team, right?

Well... maybe not. As Jim Delaney will be more than happy to remind you, the Big Ten has this funny habit of sending two teams to the BCS nearly every single season--and grabbing more of that filthy BCS lucre. So until a championship game nets as much money as a second BCS bid (a little under $5 million for the conference for the second team) or the conference slips enough to stop consistently sending the second team, the impetus isn't exactly strong to expand.

Barry Alvarez didn't get that memo, though; according to ESPN, he's priming Wisconsin for the prospect of having another baby in the family:

Speaking to Wisconsin's athletic board on Friday, Alvarez, the former longtime Badgers football coach, said the conference already has investigated possibilities for expansion "from all over the country." And though he places no timetable on the search, Alvarez thinks conference commissioner Jim Delany will respond to a group of athletic directors and coaches who want expansion.

"I have a sense he is going to take this year to really be more aggressive about it," Alvarez told the board. "I just think everybody feels [expansion] is the direction to go, coaches and administrators."

All of this makes lots of sense; when teams miss two fellow conference members a year on a weird rotating schedule. A 12-team, two-division setup would simplify matters dramatically and eliminate any prospect of a 2002 scenario (and yes, we know OSU won the title; Iowa would have smoked that Buckeye team).

But if it were that cut-and-dried, it would have happened already. And there's one screaming bulletproof bitchgoblin of a problem in front of the prospect of expansion: logistics.

Here's a map of the Big Ten members:

There's a pretty obvious geographic division inherent in this setup; we've used the modern power of "Computer Internet" to make it more conspicuous:

Yeah. That's five to the west, six to the east. Moreover, there's really no moving that line east without disrupting the Michigan or Indiana rivalries. That's straight out of the question; Jim Delany may be ambitious, but he's far from an idiot.

Thus a problem: the most natural candidates for expansion are teams like Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Rutgers. Cincinnati or Kentucky if we're drunk enough to tell ourselves they'll work on academics. And they're all on the east side of that divide. That line might as well be a Berlin Wall. Go ahead, try to add any of those teams and show us where the new line is.

On the west, though, there aren't nearly as many possible candidates; moreover, they're basically all in the Big 12. So unless we want to bump Marquette or Wisconsin-Green Bay to I-A (err, FBS or whatever)--and what fun that'd be--it's time to start thinking about a little old-fashioned thievin'.

Iowa State is probably right out; they're a decent academic school, but they don't do much in terms of adding media attention. Further, their only real potential rival would be Iowa, and that gets its own special treatment already.

There's probably no way Nebraska leaves, and the two Kansas schools are likely too far away.

But what about Missouri? They've already got some bad blood with Illinois, and I kind of think the Iowa-Missouri thing could get real entertaining, real quick. Something about states that border Iowa that make them hate us. Feels fun. It brings the St. Louis media market into play, and a little less so Kansas City. St. Louis is probably more than enough. They're ranked as the #102 university in the country; not great, and it'd be the worst in the Big 10 Which Is Actually 12. But it's hardly an embarrassment, and merely aligning with the BXI could prop that ranking up to the standards of the rest of the conference.

Of course, that all depends on whether Missouri actually, y'know, wants to leave the Big XII. The Big 10 would have to make the case that it's in the school's best interest to join our conference instead and make it convincing enough that Delany doesn't have to go through the embarrassment of Missouri triumphantly announcing that they're staying in "the best conference in the land" or whatever they'd declare the Big XII to be in that scenario. Frankly, none of us have the stomach for that.

Philosophically, the case has already been made for expansion, and emphatically so. I don't think anyone's going to argue against a 12th team because 11 would be better than 12 for a conference. That's all settled. I just can't figure out who, aside from Missouri, would make any sense from a purely practical standpoint.

Or we could just say "screw it" and add Cornell.

[UPDATE: I'm fanposting it above this, but just to have it in the article: there's some good, interesting reaction from the Missouri POV over at Rock M Nation. Varied responses, as you might expect. Go check it out.--OPS]

Hoosier Headlines for December 11, 2009.

John M (The Crimson Quarry) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:32:31 -0000

Indiana faces strong test against No. 4 Kentucky (al.com)
Indiana's Pritchard hopes for turnaround against Kentucky (The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN)
"The numbers don’t lie. Indiana’s Tom Pritchard is a foul waiting to happen. He is the LeBron James of fouls. No one spends more unwanted time sitting next to assistant coach Bennie Seltzer."
Welcome back, Jibreel Black? (Hoosier Hype | Indiana Daily Student)
To be clear, this post contains nothing but speculation, but it is worth wondering if Black, who decommitted from IU and committed to Cincinnati,will reconsider IU now that Brian Kelly is headed to Notre Dame.
Poll question: what team do you want to beat worse than all of the others? (Hoosiers Insider | The Indianapolis Star)
Know Thy Opponent: Kentucky Wildcats (Inside the Hall)
Glass: "We’re in a bit of a quiet period." (The Hoosier Scoop)
"Rumors circulating today that an announcement about IU’s next soccer coach will be made tomorrow are not true, athletic director Fred Glass said moments ago."

Insight Bowl: A Quick History

jerdogg1 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:16:57 -0000

They say that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. So what exactly does that say about the Minnesota Gophers football squad returning to the Insight Bowl for the third time in four years?

We'll get to that another time. As for today, what is the history of this bowl?

The Insight Bowl is the third incarnation of the name of the bowl that started out as the Copper Bowl in 1989, then changed to the Insight.com Bowl in 1996 when Insight Enterprises took over the naming rights. The game has been called the Insight Bowl since 2002.

The Big Ten got involved with the Insight Bowl in 2006 when the game began to feature a match-up between our beloved conference and a Big 12 school. That, of course, was the year Texas Tech staged the biggest comeback in Division I bowl history, coming back from a 38-7 deficit mid-way through the 3rd quarter. That utter collapse also proved to be the final straw in Glen Mason's undoing as head of the Gophers.

In the three year history of the Big Ten v Big 12 match-up in the Insight Bowl, the Big Ten is 0-3, with Minnesota accounting for two of those losses (2006 v Texas Tech, 2008 v Kansas). The other was an Indiana loss in 2007 to Oklahoma State.

The reality of the situation is that, outside of the first two and a half quarters of the 2006 Minnesota v Texas Tech Insight Bowl, the Big Ten has not been competitive in this game.

Gopher fans and Big Ten fans alike can agree on one thing, that needs to change this year.

Hoosier Headlines for December 10, 2009: more Pitt coverage.

John M (The Crimson Quarry) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:39:08 -0000

More photos » by Julie Jacobson - AP

6 days ago: Indiana's Christian Watford (2) tries to drive around Pittsburgh's Dwight Miller in the second half of a NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009, at Madison Square Garden in New York. Indiana won 74-64. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Browse more photos »

I have to say that I can't quite go along with this "signature win" consensus emerging. As I said yesterday, it was one of the most rewarding regular season wins I can recall, but that's because of where we've been in the last two years. As fun as it was, Pitt is a rebuilding team that will have a tough time going .500 in the Big East. It was cathartic, it was the best win of the Crean era so far, and it was an important step, but signature win? Kentucky would be a signature win. Purdue or Michigan State would be a signature win. A rebuilding Pitt team? Given the state of the program, the venue, and the national TV exposure, it was a big deal. But not that big.

Finally, Crean's team gets big win (South Bend Tribune)
"More than anything else, they needed something to really go right for them," Crean said. "They needed a signature win for themselves. Like I said to our coaches, it's going to be a lot more fun to have some teachable moments after a win. They needed to see why they practiced twice on Thanksgiving, why they do individual instruction, and why the demands are the way that they are.
Hoosiers worked hard to earn signature win (The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Ind.)
"Leadership really came into it," sophomore guard Verdell Jones III said. "Devan (Dumes) did a great job, behind the scenes, of calming us down. It was a big game, nationally televised game, we knew that, and we really wanted to win. Our hunger really showed."
Win over Pitt gives IU's confidence a boost (Evansville Courier & Press)
"There was nothing new with the effort Tom Crean saw from his Indiana University basketball team on Tuesday night. What was different in one of basketball's most storied arenas was the result: IU built a lead that it didn't relinquish, defeating Big East bully Pittsburgh 74-64 at Madison Square Garden in New York."
Rick Teverbaugh: Hoosiers showing promise (The Herald Bulletin)
"I would really like Tom Crean to succeed as the Indiana University men’s basketball coach. I found good reason to want it to be him who brings the Hoosiers back to national prominence when he visited Hoosier Park and I heard him speak and got to meet him. I found good reason to think it might happen by watching IU win a big game Tuesday night against Pittsburgh in the Jimmy V Classic in Madison Square Garden. "

Not Exactly Vintage (Pitt Blather)

Scenes from the Jimmy V Classic (Searching for Billy Edelin)

A closer look at the four factors and Pittsburgh (Inside the Hall)
"Since we did an in-depth analysis of the four factors prior to the IU-Pittsburgh game, it's only appropriate to look at how each of the factors played out."

Is Knight warming up? (The Hoosier Scoop)

Indiana Hoosiers season recap (ESPN)
Come on. You know you want to relive it in all its glory.

Big Ten Power Poll - Regular Season Final

Bama Hawkeye — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:08:54 -0000

Let's wrap this season up. We skipped two weeks so that everyone could get their final games played. Here are the results of the final vote. And as you plan your travels, here are some final thoughts about what to wear as you bowl...

1.	121 (11)	It was festive of the Rose Bowl to go with the Christmas-colored matchup. The Buckeyes will be wearing their whites in Pasadena.
2.	110	A side note: If you're going to a bowl game, you have to get the helmet T-Shirt. There is nothing better, win or lose, than pulling that out of the drawer 15 years later. Although they're the home, team, Georgia Tech has chosen to wear white. That means the Hawks will wear their black in the Orange Bowl.
3.	99	LSU is the home team, but they too prefer to wear white. Bring the Navy to the CapOne Bowl.
4.	85	Last year, the Badgers were humiliated in the Champs Bowl while wearing their whites. Let's hope for a different result in the reds.
5.	80	The 'Cats will be wearing white when they play Auburn on New Year's Morning. Hopefully you can make it out through your bleary eyes.
6.	62	Any Spartans who haven't been suspended yet will wear white as they face off with Texas Tech in the Alamo Bowl.
7.	55	The Gophers will be decked out in white. I know that this is the three season-old jersey style. Apparently the play of the last two years hasn't moved a lot of product.
8.	46	I recommend rocking the basketball jersey while reminding everyone that Purdue is the basketball school in the state.
9.	25	Scrub team...scrub top. Perfect for the couch.
10.	21	Put on your slippers...you're not going bowling this year. Again.
11.	20	I'd wear this sweatshirt to remind friends that Illinois is still a part of the Big Ten. For now. If they lose to NIU next year, we'll have to reconsider if we have the right state school in the league.

Maize and Brew Dave, Adam Hoge, Hawkeye State, Pete Rossman, BoilerTMill , Joe Kutsunis, Rodger Sherman, Sam @ WWAHT, DailyGopher, Graham Filler, Law Buckeye, Bama Hawkeye, HMLee

The Rivalry, Esq has reached out to the SBNation Big Ten bloggers to create this poll. Its purpose: find a consensus as to the power of the Big Ten teams. We invited each SBNation Big Ten blog to participate. We will vote each week. Invitations remain extended to the writers of Black Shoe Diaries and the Crimson Quarry to participate.

Final regular season Blogpoll ballot.

John M (The Crimson Quarry) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:50:50 -0000

More photos » by John Amis - AP

Browse more photos »

Here it is. Nothing more until after the BCS championship game.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama
2	Texas	1
3	Cincinnati	1
4	TCU	1
5	Boise State	1
6	Florida	4
7	Oregon
8	Georgia Tech
9	Ohio State
10	Iowa
11	Penn State
12	LSU	1
13	Virginia Tech	1
14	Miami (Florida)
15	Pittsburgh	4
16	Nebraska	2
17	Clemson	6
18	Oregon State	2
19	Arizona	5
20	Stanford	2
21	Oklahoma State	1
22	Southern Cal	7
23	Mississippi
24	Brigham Young	1
25	Central Michigan
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: California (#17), West Virginia (#21).

Hoosier headlines for December 7, 2009: new football uniforms?

John M (The Crimson Quarry) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:39:34 -0000

New football jerseys? Via a mysterious poster called "baseballbab" on the Indiana Rivals board, here's a link to a photo of a scrawny mannequin wearing what appears to be an updated football jersey. No commentary was offered with the photos, so it's unclear whether this is simply a concept or whether they are the official 2010 uniforms. The uniforms look "official" in that they have the Adidas logo, they don't appear to be mere merchandise, and they look like they were taken in the football facility (note the sideline lockers visible in the background). It's true that IU's current uniforms, while basic and classy, bear a strong resemblance to the uniforms of other teams. In fact, during the Alabama-Florida game last weekend, my two year-old kept pointing at the TV and saying, "IU! IU!" I wish, kid. The good: they aren't in the Cam Cameron/Sam Wyche zone; I like the Colts-style shoulder stripes; they don't mess with the color or logos imposed in 2002. The bad: I don't like the white dickey around the neck, although that's certainly the trend in basketball uniforms; the serifs on the numbers look goofy. We'll see if this it what the Hoosiers wear next season or if there is any announcement.

More headlines below: