College basketball seasons are long and dynamic things. They’re not like college football seasons, which require drilled excellence from the outset and where a midseason loss can kill your chances at winning a truly screwed-up national championship. They’re not like NFL or NBA seasons, where each team is basically what they are starting in training camp. They’re not baseball seasons, either, where the playoffs are such a comparably small sample size that all a fan can hope for is a division title — the rest feels like a crapshoot.

Instead, college basketball teams, the ones that compete in March, have similar blueprints: They roll the balls out in October, look terrible in November and December, coalesce in January, fade slightly in February, and, if they’re really good, peak in March when the games matter most. This blueprint hits close to home; just look at Michigan State this year. Or North Carolina. Or any of the teams still playing basketball next weekend. Or any of the 20 or so teams that lost last weekend that deserved to win. That’s the blueprint you’re supposed to follow.

I wish we could look back at IU’s season, as this TMA intends to, and say they followed the blueprint. A loss to a good Arkansas team under those auspices would have been OK. But we can’t say that. Instead, they didn’t push to the finish, or peak in their late games. They quit. They just quit. And for some reason, I’m not even mad.

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Courtesy of the Big Ten Network:

This is weird. Isn’t it? Isn’t it strange to be in this position right now? To gather, as I did last night, with friends at a bar, to celebrate another game with a Fat Tire and a sandwich, and to know all along that no matter what happens, your team’s coach is going down? He can beat your most hated rival (who just so happens to be the Big Ten’s top team) and still, against his will, it will be the last win of his tenure.

That’s two such wins now. The first was Saturday against Michigan State, a dominating performance that showed a resilient team rallying around their coach. The second was last night. Was it me, or did the focus seem to shift? Maybe it was because I was in a bar and couldn’t make out the commentary very well, but did last night’s audience — swept up in an important rivalry atmosphere — seem to forget about the sanctions for 40 minutes? I know I did.

It will be jarring to lose Sampson on Friday, but at this point, I’m not sure his presence is needed on the sidelines anymore. Stay with me here. It’s hard to complain about distractions after two very solid wins, but Sampson’s saga is a distraction. His assistants have been coaching this team all year; no doubt IU’s players feel just as comfortable with each of them as they do with Sampson. (Perhaps moreso, given the player-assistant-as-friends dynamic a lot of teams have.) It will be a difficult adjustment, seeing Dan Dakich running up and down the sidelines, but if the Hoosiers showed anything last night, it was a level of maturity and self-definition that gives me confidence in the coming games.

But that confidence doesn’t mean part of me won’t miss Sampson. He’s only been here for two years, yes, and even if this eulogy is premature (we still think Sampson’s going to be suspended Friday rather than fired), it will be a different place without him. He’s a frustrating coach, but if the past two years have taught us anything about his style it’s that his teams improve. They get better. They can make you miserable in November and December and even January, but come February and March they coalesce. They play hard together. They defend. And they’re fun to watch.

It’s a shame we can’t have a third year, but it’s a self-inflicted shame. And we know what we have to do. The dog might be cute. You might love the dog. But if the dog can’t control his bite, you put him down. It sucks, and it’s sad, but it’s best for everybody.

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Notes written while basking in the defeat the smug jackass to the right took last night.

First off, forgive us ITH’ers. E is still recovering from Super Bowl Sunday. Apparently he was drinking cranberry juice yesterday in an attempt to recover from a particularly debaucherous Saturday. In other words, he was already spent by the game last night.

So this is where you come in: Thoughts from last night’s game and discussion are welcome in the open thread version of “The Morning After.”

If you need talking points for discussion, here are a few:

• What did you think of Kyle Taber’s surprise start? Should he continue to play?
• A.J. Ratliff saw significant action. Did his play justify more?
• Mike White didn’t leave the bench. Did that make you happy, sad or indifferent?
• Eric Gordon looked like Eric Gordon. And that was really nice to see.
• Not that there was any doubt, but D.J. White is an absolute beast.

Also, if you want to express your joy about the Patriots choking away their chance at history, those thoughts are also welcome.

It took a while for the Hoosiers to pull away in this one — thanks to Northwestern’s back cuts and three-point shooting — but with around eight minutes to go, Eric Gordon hit a few shots, D.J. White chipped in some free throws and that was that: 75-63, IU wins. For the afternoon Gordon had 29 points — 18 of which came on three-point baskets. White racked up his fourteenth double-double with 26 points and 13 boards. Craig Moore led the Wildcats with 17 points.

It also helped that IU went to a zone in the second half, negating some of Northwestern’s nifty screening and cutting. At one point, Northwestern didn’t notch a field goal for just about eight minutes. Kyle Taber got the start at the four for the Hoosiers and saw some considerable playing time. (Clearly, Kelvin Sampson — like many of us — is realizing the Mike White/DeAndre Thomas/Lance Stemler combo has been lackluster as of late.)

Though Taber saw considerable playing time, he was just sort of, well, there. He didn’t do anything particularly notable. He didn’t do anything particularly awful, either. (Although, I do remember an errant pass for a turnover in the second half.) It was nice to see Sampson try something else there, even if it wasn’t quite the answer. Taber does have size and if he can play some defense — which he seemed somewhat capable of today — it might be another serviceable option for IU as the season progresses.

Our guy A.J. Ratliff saw the floor for a good stretch this afternoon as well, but it’s clear his shot just isn’t there yet this season. He attempted six threes and only hit one.

Oh and since we’ve all been rather critical of Sampson, his offensive schemes and the way this team has played this year, I highly recommend you read Chris Korman’s article from today. Sampson responded to a lot of that criticism yesterday. (One thing I’ll say: Sampson was able to maximize the talent on last year’s squad: they played well together. Why he hasn’t been able to do that for this year’s team, well, I don’t know. But we’re eight game deep in the Big Ten season, he better figure it out soon.)

The Hoosiers are now 18-3 on the season and 7-1 in the Big Ten. They play Illinois on Thursday night in Champaign, Ill.

(Yes, we are aware of the Eric Gordon wrist injury rumors floating around various message boards. We’ll keep you updated if anything official comes to the surface. Now, onward…)

Ahh, the four spot. No doubt about it, the lack of production from this particular position has been a killer for the Hoosiers in their two losses. Here are the numbers and there’s no way around it, they’re ugly:

– Xavier: Lance Stemler and DeAndre Thomas combined for 31 minutes, four points, seven rebounds, one block and eight fouls.

– Connecticut: Lance Stemler, DeAndre Thomas and Mike White combined for 34 minutes, five points, four rebounds, no blocks and two fouls.

Now, before I dig into this deeper, first let me say that I’m not expecting one of these three fine gentlemen to morph into Luke Harangody. That would be too good to be true (and really awesome).

What I would like to see is some form of consistent contribution from this position. Guys, you don’t even have to score. That’s already covered. Play good defense, take a few charges, rebound on occasion and I’m ecstatic. That said, it’s just not happening right now. So let’s examine the three choices and then get your take (OK, I might give mine too) on who the best option is to get the bulk of the minutes.

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Eric Gordon scored 29 points and D.J. White added 18 points and 14 rebounds as No. 15 Indiana held off Georgia Tech 83-79 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Tuesday night at Assembly Hall.

The Hoosiers (5-1) led 38-34 at halftime, but the Yellow Jackets opened the second half on a 15-5 run to claim a 49-43 lead.

Gordon took over after Tech’s run and scored 15 of his 18 second half points in the final 13:04. Gordon played all 40 minutes and shot 7 of 14 from the field and 13 of 16 from the free throw line.

White played arguably his best game of the season, hitting 6 of 9 from the field and adding three blocks.

Lance Stemler found his way back into the starting lineup and had a season-high 15 points. Stemler hit 3 of 6 three-pointers in 32 minutes. Jamarcus Ellis also had 15 points and seven rebounds.

“My job on this team is to make other players better. It’s easy for me to score and just go to the basket like I did tonight. Without Jordan Crawford, I had no other choice but to be in attack mode,” Ellis said.

Lewis Clinch paced Georgia Tech with 18 points and Gani Lawai chipped in 17. The Yellow Jackets (3-3) shot 47 percent from the field but committed 13 turnovers and were out-rebounded 37-32.

Mike White saw his first action of the season for Indiana and scored two points and grabbed six rebounds in 20 minutes. Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson had announced that White would redshirt last week, but had a change of heart after the loss to Xavier.

“They (Xavier) just exposed how really immature and inexperienced we were. We just can’t go to the transaction wire and get somebody, we have somebody sitting right here that can help this team,” Sampson said.

Sampson also announced the suspension of guard Jordan Crawford prior to the game. Crawford will return December 8 against Kentucky.

Related:

• Box score
• Hoosiers Crawford out 3 games for violations