DISQUS

Not that I'm expecting big things in this tournament for IU anymore, but I have to say that I'm a little worried after reading the Indy Star online this morning. I think it was Gordon and Stemler with quotes about not looking past Arkansas, immediately followed by talking about shocking the world when they play UNC.

It's not like they're a #1 or #2 seed playing Belmont, they're an #8 playing a team that just lost the SEC conference title game. It just worries me that the players are already talking about UNC when they couldn't beat Penn State or Minnesota. Not a good sign.

That pretty much summed up the season right there. A glimmer of hope, things are starting to look good, then bam it all ends badly.

Minnesota scored in 2 seconds...What!?!?!

You could argue that I started it with my post:)

Since we can't see the game, I guess this is the next best thing.

I know I'm in Maryland and ESPN News is on three ESPn channels and SportsCenter is on ESPN, but I guess they don't have rights to look-in live to Big Ten games...Sucks

DJ White tipped in Gordon's missed free throw to tie game with 3 seconds...

10 seconds left down 2 with the ball.

down 5 with 1:49 to go.

That's not a bad idea.

I'll tell you one thing, after watching Pitt-Marquette I have taken Tom Crean and Jaime Dixon off my wish list. Neither was at the top, but they were on the list. It has nothing to do with their coaching skills or style of play. They might be the two most annoying coaches to watch. Dixon is halfway onto the court most of the time and Crean is constantly running up and down the sideline with his hands behind his back.

As someone that played college basketball (D2, not claiming to have been on the same stage as these guys) there is noting more annoying or distracting than hearing your coach screaming the whole game and acting like an idiot on the sideline.

I almost put more evaluation into a coach based on his conference tournament record. Most likely you're playing a team you've already seen twice that year, and for the coaches you see that team twice a year for who knows how long.

If you're consistently losing in the conference tourney I question your X and O skills and ability a as a game coach. Although it is worrisome if a coach is losing to lower seeds in the NCAA's quite often.

That's interesting about Grant, how long has he been the coach there? Also adds to my suggestion that it would be cool to have an entry somewhere that follow these coaches teams throughout there tournament.

This is totally off topic, but someone should do an entry on the homepage following some of the potential coaching candidates and how they're teams do in the conference/NCAA tourney.

I actually don't like to judge a coach on NCAA Tournament performance. I think more weight should be placed on the larger body of work, but still it would be fun and interesting, considering the coaching candidates being tossed around.

For instance, Wright State and Brad Brownell lost in the second round of the Horizon League. Not suggesting that rules him out as a candidate, just saying it might be fun to follow how these guys do.

You make some great points Jerry, and I agree those flaws have been there all year.

I think why people are so upset is that, whether it was rallying around Samson or whatever, for about 4-5 games (probably the roughest part of the schedule) the team seemed to have turned the corner culminating in the Purdue win. They went 3-1 with the only loss on a lucky three to Wisconsin, and the team was starting to look better and clean up some of those flaws.

But, It seems that once KS left, all that momentum left with him.

I guess an argument for Miller in that case would be, look at who he's beating with less talented players, must be a good game coach. It's not exactly easy to recruit to Xavier when you're batting Big Ten and Big East schools in the region.

I assume that his recruiting would have to improve at IU, so imagine him coaching the same winning ways, but with even more talent.

That's another thing to bring up. Everyone says, "this is an Indiana/Midwest guy so he'll be able to recruit the state". But that's limiting.

Bring in a guy like Wright (just an example) who has ties elsewhere and that broadens the recruiting base. Whoever the coach is will be able to recruit Indiana and Midwest guys just being the coach at Indiana, assuming he's a half decent recruiter. Add to that ties from another region and we'll be even better...Especially places like NYC, Philly & Balt/DC.

How about the next Uwe Blob:)

Sounds like most of us can agree on Miller.

That's another part of this for IU. Bringing the fan base together.

I'm with you guys on Miller. He's the one "up and comer" maybe along with Bennett, that would excite me.

I think the A-10 falls somewhere between Major and Mid-Major, and Miller has proven himself somewhat in the tournament.

Part of it it's the program and part of it is the coach, but I think we need a proven recruiter at a high level. The name on the front of the jersey has not been getting the recruits for IU recently.

Either way this debating is fun, this is what sports is all about:)

I noticed somewhere above that Miller is a guy your hoping for. Even though I'm hoping for a little more proven guy, I can definitely get on board with Miller. He was a smart player and seems to be a smart coach as well. I think he's kind of meeting in the middle of our sides of the debate.

I think you need look past the tournament. The tournament is a crap shoot most of the time. Keith Smart's jumper hits front rim and all of the sudden Boeheim and Knight have the same # of titles, and Knight hasn't won anything since 1981.

I'm looking at a complete body of work. Roy Williams has been to multiple final fours and championship games (winning one), consistently recruits McDonald All-Americans and is consistently in the top 10 whether at Kansas or UNC. You bashed Bill Self above, he consistently recruits 5-star and 4-star players and is in the top 10 every year.

You know what, I'll take that body of a work from a coach and roll the dice in the tournament.

You just made absolutely no sense at all, and with your logic there are no good coaches in the country. You just questioned the coaching abilities of the men coach the #1, #3, #4, #5 and #9 teams in the country. Plus Hewitt and Matta have both taken teams to the championship game and Gillepe took Texas A&M to the Elite 8...Texas A&M?!?!

There's so many Final Fours and championship game appearances in that list that I don't even have the time to research the total number.

IU should be so lucky

I agree. Make him meet the new coach before you let him out, assuming IU makes a quick decision once the season ends. If they drag their feet until the NCAA hearing in June (which I don't think they can afford to do or will do) then you have to let him out beforehand.

I do like Miller. I think he kind of falls somewhere in the middle of the already proven/young up and comer.

Maybe we can all compromise with that.

To CoveyDale: I hear what you're saying, but how many historically major programs are there? UNC - Kentucky - UCLA - Kansas...Maybe Duke? Well I mentioned four of those five in my list. With the available pool of major programs, that's a large sample size.

We need to look at recent history for this hire. If we consider IU to be on the level historically of UCLA, Kansas, Kentucky and UNC then we should look at the blue print as all of those school have hired new coaches in the last 5-8 years or so, and all have been successful (Jury still out on Gillespe I suppose).

None of those schools went the "young up and coming" route. They all went with a somewhat battle tested coach from a major conference, but not necessarily a major program (Williams from Kansas the exception).

Howland came from Pitt (Big East), Self came from Illinois (Big Ten), Gillespe from A&M (Big 12) and Williams from Kansas (Big 12). You could argue IU already did this with Sampson, but I would say two things. 1) Minus the violations he was being successful on the court. 2) The blueprint seems to work, you just have to actually do your homework and work it correctly.

With all that being said, I would start the search with this list before going the "young unproven route". I'm sure I'm missing some, so feel free to add.

In no particular order:
Crean (Big East)
Wright (Big East)
Pearl (SEC...Assuming he's clean NCAA wise)
Matta (Big Ten)
Hewitt (ACC)
Barnes (Don't really like him, but he fits the criteria here)

Just my two cents. If we go the young route, I would then go with Miller or Bennett.

Like Joe said, Gordon was only a verbal commit, so it's totally different situation (although I've always thought Sampson should have notified Weber, although I also think that Weber is such a baby he would have thrown a fit anyways, but I digress).

I'm pretty sure even contacting the coaches and putting out feelers of a signed player is against the rules. Pretty sure it's against the rules until Ebanks is given a release.

I can understand a kid wanting to re-explore his options in this situation, but I think it's poor for a player to not at least keep their current school high on his list and give a new coach the chance to keep him.

Ummm, call me crazy, but speaking of NCAA violations, isn't Memphis contacting a player that currently has a signed letter of intent with another school against the rules?

Isn't that way worse than extra phone calls?