01/19/2009 12:42 pm // Alex Bozich
A sad bit of news that was disclosed this past weekend: Former Indiana President and current NCAA President Myles Brand is being treated for pancreatic cancer. Brand released a statement on the last day of the NCAA convention, an event he was unable to attend due to chemotherapy.
Myles Brand, the president of the NCAA., said Saturday that he had pancreatic cancer and that his long-term prognosis was “not good.”
Brand, 66, has led the NCAA, the governing body of college sports, since 2003. He disclosed his condition in a written statement to colleagues on the final day of the NCAA convention in Oxon Hill, Md., which he was unable to attend. He said he learned of the diagnosis “very recently.”
“I am currently undergoing chemotherapy, and I am receiving excellent care” Brand said in the statement. “I will know in the next several months the success of this treatment.”
On behalf of the ITH team, I’d like to send our thoughts and prayers to Mr. Brand.
01/17/2009 8:34 pm // Ryan Corazza
FINAL SCORE:
Penn State: 65 Indiana: 55
THE GOOD:
After a couple of woeful games, IU returned home Saturday night and played Penn State well enough to keep it interesting and fight for a win. There was no doom and gloom like we experienced throughout the Ohio State and Illinois games. Tonight’s team competed, and competed well. Sure, you may say it was just Penn State, but this is not the Penn State of old. This Nittany Lions incarnation has talent at many positions. They’ve beaten Purdue, and played very close against Wisconsin and Michigan State.
First thing to point out: Free throws. IU was a remarkable 12-of-14 for 85.7 percent. I think that’s the best they’ve shot all season. Too bad it wasn’t close enough at the end for this to make a difference.
IU also continues to out-rebound their Big Ten opponents. They snatched 32 to Penn State’s 25 tonight. I don’t know how much this has really helped the Hoosiers in Big Ten season so far, but it’s encouraging nonetheless. IU’s defense was also rather strong tonight. Though Penn State was hot, hot, hot for a stretch in the first half, things weren’t as quick and easy as they’ve been for our opponents the last two games.
Lastly, even when we went down 10 and this game looked like it was done and over, IU fought hard, hitting two threes late to try and keep it close. Credit the guys for not giving up, and the coaching staff for continuing to keep this team’s effort level high. Penn State scored 34 points in the second half. IU had 32.
It’s games like tonight’s when you realize if IU can keep this kind of intensity and hard work up once more talent arrives next year, the Hoosiers should be just fine.
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01/17/2009 9:25 am // Staff
Around the Hall is recommended reading from the Inside the Hall crew.
+ Terry Hutchens examines Indiana’s 15-0 home record against Penn State and talks to former Hoosiers Brian Evans and Greg Graham about the test the Hoosiers will face. {The Indianapolis Star}
+ Derek Elston tells Patrick Dorsey that he’s been “kind of disappointed” by Indiana’s performance this season, but he’s eager to get to Bloomington and help push along the rebuilding process. {The Indianapolis Star}
+ Bobby Capobianco’s mom Barbara, a former standout at Vanderbilt, recalls the moment she realized her son was no longer a pushover in their one-on-one games. {ESPN Rise}
+ Despite Indiana’s 0-4 start in the conference, Penn State coach Ed DeChellis says he expects the Hoosiers to win in the Big Ten. {Evansville Courier Press}
Quotable:
“For every one person that loves you, there are three people that hate you. I’ve gotten about everything in the book. You know you’ve achieved something when everyone hates you. I always think like the movie ’300. It’s the whole ‘me against the world’ thing. I’m going to go out and prove to people that I can do it.” – Capobianco on his approach for answering his skeptics.
01/16/2009 4:26 pm // Ryan Corazza
It’s no secret that attendance INSIDE THE HALL this season has not been very good, at least in terms of what we’ve come to expect. We’ve come to expect sellouts or near sellouts, so when that doesn’t happen, it becomes a topic of conversation.
In some of the earlier live chats this season, we were curious: “Are there even any fans in the balcony?” “How many students are there?” The results were bleak. As Chris Korman wrote back in November, student ticket sales were down about 4,000 this year. This math seems to match up with attendance. In games when classes are in session, IU is averaging somewhere in the 13,000 range for number of attendees. Capacity at Assembly Hall is 17,456. (17,456 – 4,000 = somewhere in the 13,000s.)*
*Quickly: I believe last year, because of the demand for tickets, not all students that bought packages got tickets for every single game. So the numbers could be off here, but for the purposes of this post, we’ll just go with it.
It seems one member of the Rumors and Rants crew has taken the latter part of their name, and ranted like mad about students not showing up to these games. (I counted six f-bombs in this thing, as well as six exclamation points. This rant is not for the faint of heart; tread lightly.)
Anyways, for fun, I’m going to blockquote the rant, and then I’m going to give my own commentary under the blockquote. This is a technique no blogger has ever used. Ever.
Here we go:
Well, today on his local radio show (I only ever hear the teasers because I have a day job) Dan Dakich discussed how fans of IU basketball, especially students, are staying away in droves from Assembly Hall this season.
My reaction: You’re full of s–t, Dan Dakich! I don’t believe it. There’s simply no way. You’re just a loser who couldn’t win games with Eric Gordon and DJ White and a supporting cast higher than Snoop Dogg!
And yet, after a little non-scientific investigation, turns out he’s right. IU fans are avoiding 1001 East 17th Street in Bloomington, Indiana like it’s infected with the Ebola virus.
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01/16/2009 11:52 am // Alex Bozich
With the world of recruiting in college basketball spinning out of control, the brass at the NCAA finally decided it was time to close the loophole of coaches recruiting kids without regulation in the seventh and eighth grade.
The old rule defined a “prospect” as a ninth-grader or older, but this allowed coaching staffs to start developing relationships via camps and clinics with younger prospects. The camps and clinics were not regulated by the NCAA.
This will no longer be the case:
The organization voted Thursday to change the definition of a prospect from ninth grade to seventh grade – for men’s basketball only – to nip a trend in which some college coaches were working at private, elite camps and clinics for seventh- and eighth-graders. The NCAA couldn’t regulate those camps because those youngsters fell below the current cutoff.
“It’s a little scary only because – we talked about this – where does it stop?” said Joe D’Antonio, chairman of the 31-member Division I Legislative Council, which approved the change during a two-day meeting at the NCAA Convention. “The fact that we’ve got to this point is really just a sign of the times.”
Schools had expressed concern that the younger-age elite camps were giving participating coaches a recruiting advantage, pressuring other coaches to start their own camps.
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01/16/2009 11:15 am // Alex Bozich
Ryan Cost, a senior producer over at the Palestra, sent along this feature he put together after IU’s loss at Ohio State on Tuesday:
