DISQUS

Sherron, do your homework. Forde had nothing but great things to say about IU after the IU-UK game. He wrote a solid piece on the Crawford vs Crawford rivalry.

I even appreciate his sincere honesty regarding the Sampson situation in the Q&A above.

ITH, keep up the good work!

R, really displeased with Jamarcus' inability to keep his composure. He picked up a silly foul playing post defense on Randle after all that jawing at the free throw line. Sampson had to take him out because he was too fired up. I appreciate that he isn't backing down from a challenge, but as an upperclassmen, Ellis must display some leadership on such a young team.

PB, while this is certainly one of the bigger games in Big Ten, even us Hoosiers have to think that the game @ Illinois will be even more dramatic.

The Orange Soda Pop will be jeering him with the JJ Reddick treatment and that's when I'd really like to see EJ go off for 40+ points.

E, it's funny you mention Memphis. I think Calipari and Sampson are running similar offenses. A lot of drive-and-dish action, with a few set plays sprinkled in. Of course some people do miss the good ol' days of the motion offense, but you won't hear a complaint from me considering the frequency of our FT attempts.

James, you're right, should have given Nover his props, but was merely focusing on the NBA caliber guys. Let's be honest, Matt Nover will always be Ricky Roe for the rest of our lives.

Stephen, unfortunately can't take much credit for the spelling. Used google just to make sure.

PostmanE, great stuff all around. Only one comment on this quote:

"No matter what the Wolverines did, no matter what their players tried individually or as a group, they weren’t going to keep IU from scoring when it wanted to. As an IU fan, that was a tremendous feeling, and a totally alien one."

You're not that young are you? John M mentioned Alan Henderson and the 1993 team above. I was still in middle school at the time, but even talk about IU domination! That team also included Calbert Cheaney, Greg Graham and Damon Bailey. Watch that assemble on ESPN classic and you'll have a similar feeling like last night.

The guys mentioned above were all NBA first rounders except Bailey, who Donnie Walsh of the Pacers drafted in the 2nd mostly because the draft was held in Indianapolis that year.

UWE (nice reference by the way)...again, you're missing the "point" here. It's not about how many points they scored. The guys here at ITH are doing the homework for us. As much as I like reading about recruits, I don't have the time to read each of their local papers or websites to get that info. Ergo, I get all things Hoosiers at this one-stop-shop. The beauty of all this, is that you can simply ignore it. Imagine that! Or you can continue to complain about a free service.

I'm jumping on the anti-AS bandwagon. Besides ITH and Terry Hutchens' blog on Indystar, there is nowhere else to go with this type of in-depth coverage. Well Peegs I guess, but that's a subscription fee.

Besides, I love reading about recruiting tidbits. And I could care less whether we're talking sophomores or seniors. The more I learn about them now, the more excited I am when they finally put on that Hoosiers uniform.

Keep up the good work fellas, don't let the haters get you down.

Corey, the Mel-Kiper Jr. in you predicts a 3rd round selection for Hardy? No chance the guy lasts beyond the 2nd round. Although if he performs poorly at the Combine, I'll gladly retract my statement.

If he's available at the end of the 2nd round, wouldn't be surprised to see the Colts take a shot considering Marvin's age and injury problems.

Ha! Must have been the dominating wins over this "tough" 3 game stretch.

Thanks for the heads up and keep up the good work.

Big A, any idea if Nick F____ from that Idaho paper finally voted for us?

Jack, saw Deibler play against UNC and Butler. Not so impressed with his skills on the court. Just saw him gun a bunch of threes in both games, showing no signs of a complete game offensively or defensively. Who cares if his stats in Div II high school in Ohio were better than EJ?? Clearly he's not in the same league as our prized recruit.

David, do you think Butler was worried if AJ Graves could "shoot over some of the bigger guards"?

Bottom line, if you can shoot the rock in high school, you can shoot the ball at any level. At worst, he sounds like the 2nd coming of Kyle Hornsby. If he has any ball-handling or above average defensive skills, that's just icing on the cake.

Settle down Ryan and David -- no need to criticize these guys for making us aware of all things Hoosier related on the web. And yeah, with 3 cupcakes on schedule before the New Year, of course things are a tad slow.

A similar situation happened a few weeks ago when a sports journalist was giving his predictions on the Big Ten. He said that EJ would have about the same impact on this team as Rod Wilmont. I'm sure I wasn't the only one to email the guy and enlighten him on EJ's Durant-like potential.

AJ should be playing about 18-22 minutes a game. While he may not be the ball hawker that EJ is, his court awareness will be vital. EJ's greatest weakness on defense is when his man doesn't have the ball. He gots lost following the ball instead of maintaining the proper balance. Of course, I have no doubt this will be corrected by Sampson in mid-January. Either way, we need more veterans and AJ provides that heading into the Big Ten season.

With 5 extremely capable wing players (Basset, EJ, Ellis, AJ and Crawford) and no true point guard, we should be able to come at teams in waves of speed and athleticism. I hope to see a fair amount of full-court pressure on made baskets and pushing the ball in transition off an opponent's missed basket. Now that DJ understands the importance of owning the glass, this team has all the weapons. Well, except a true point guard I guess -- where is Michael Lewis when you need him?

Hoosier Hound, I'm with you on the constructive criticism of Crawford's ability to play point guard.

On at least 2-3 occasions, I recall Jordan hitting a big 3. The ensuing offensive possession, he immediately wanted a heat-check shot where he made no effort to run the offense, kept his down and tried to take his man one-on-one. These are freshman mistakes and of course EJ is guilty of them as well. I appreciate Crawford's fearlessness, but a point guard has to be in control and not have the mindset that, "I'm gonna show the world what I can do" when making decisions.

Still very early in the season and if these are the only things to complain about (besides the undisclosed suspensions), then I'm content.

Any championship caliber team needs that 3rd scorer. Obviously we are led by E.J. and D.J. And recently JaMarcus is stepping up to the plate as the guy making opposing defenses pay because he can score anywhere on the court. Last night we saw outside jumpers (still needs a little work), a transition basket, and offensive board tip-ins.

The thing I love about our team right now is once we get A.J. and Crawford back, no opposing coach will be able to predict who that 3rd scorer is going to be night-in, night out. We know Bassett and JaMarcus are proving themselves right now, but think of the possibilities when Ratliff and Crawford return.

No guard will have to play more than 30 minutes a game, although I expect EJ will still play 33 minutes. I certainly hope we run a whole lot more and maybe even full court press to dictate the tempo. This year's squad has 5 interchangeable guards that will come at teams in waves.

Huge win last night -- even Vegas had us as 3 point underdogs.

Just a quick addendum, I'm not trying to point out that AJ would be a better PG for this team than Crawford. Ellis or Bassett are better suited to initiate the offense. My only beef with Ellis is a lack of a consistent jumper from 15 feet out.

I wrote this in a more detailed explanation in Terry Hutchen's blog on the indystar website, but I just want to reiterate that we missed AJ Ratliff badly tonight. Crawford bringing the ball up in the 2nd half and trying to initiate the offense was miserable. His one-on-one game works against inferior competition, but not major conference teams.

AJ's perimter defense and ability to spread the floor was sorely missed. His experience playing away from Assembly Hall will prove to be vital during this young team's growing pains. Go to class AJ...we need you!

John M. wrote,

"Gasaway is what he is, which is a stat guy and a damn smart one. Whatever anyone says about Gasaway, he’s way, way smarter than the typical lunkhead of the sort employed by the Indianapolis Star, etc."

Comparing Gasaway to Hutchens is almost as bad as the EJ/Wilmont issue we've all got beef with. Hutch is a phenomenal beat reporter and is very in tune with the on-goings of both the football and b-ball program. And just a caveat, I neither work for the Star nor am I related to him. But I do appreciate solid journalism when I read it.

Kelin, I've heard Ebanks is in the same mold as Rudy Gay (i.e. long, lean and a stud athlete). Melo had a much more mature body as a freshman in terms of strength as well as a certain killer instinct that can't be taught. Not sure it's fair to put that much pressure on Ebanks to have the same effect on our team as Melo did for Syracuse. Although, I can't say the same thing about EJ -- we do expect the world from him!

Kelin, no issues with what you said regarding EJ, but have to call you out on the Jamarcus/Cheaney comparison.

I think you're forgetting what a dominant player Cheaney was. Go here for all the facts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calbert_Cheaney but just to summarize -- he is the Big Ten's all-time leading scorer as well as 12-13 year NBA veteran!

Not trying to knock Jamarcus here since he will be the perfect complement to EJ and DJ, but a little history lesson is in order because Cheaney was no role player.

I see Ellis in the same mold as Vaden -- great defender, willing to make the extra pass, and more than capable of knocking down the open jumper.