Rejoice, Hoosier nation. This man is now eligible to play basketball for IU this season:

A few minutes ago, Tom Crean dropped this on his Twitter account:

Moments ago we just learned that Bawa is completely eligible. If you see his smile as wide as it has ever been you will know why.

So yes: the NCAA has decreed Bawa’s lingering high school coursework is in shipshape, and he’ll be able to participate in game action now. Anyone else interested to see how his game fits in with Crean’s more up-tempo style of play this season?

+ Indiana coach Tom Crean appeared on Kravitz and Eddie on 1070 the Fan on Tuesday afternoon and talked about Wednesday’s exhibition against Grace, Bob Knight’s decision to not attend his Hall of Fame induction and Mike Krzyzewski’s comments a couple of weeks ago to ESPN.com. You can listen to the complete podcast here.

+ Crean also met with the media today and Chris Korman of the Herald-Times/Hoosier Scoop has the audio here.

+ Dave Telep of Scout.com posted an update on five-star wing Jelan Kendrick and the Marietta (GA) product says he’ll likely wait until the spring to sign a Letter of Intent. Kendrick visited Indiana this past weekend and attended Saturday’s Haunted Hall of Hoops. (Subscription required to view link.)

+ Jerry Meyer of Rivals.com has a note on Will Sheehey in his “Weekly Whispers” column. Sheehey will visit Indiana this weekend and recently added an offer from Michigan. (Subscription required to view link.)

Around the Hall is recommended reading from the Inside the Hall crew. Send us your links to tips@insidethehall.com.

+ Game notes for Indiana’s exhibition opener against Grace, a NAIA opponent. {IUHoosiers.com}

+ One of Indiana’s top recruiting targets in 2012, North Central’s D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera, recently underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus and will be out several weeks. {Indianapolis Star}

+ Mike Hutton writes that Indiana is on the fast track with Tom Crean at the helm. {Gary Post-Tribune}

+ Kyle Neddenriep looks at five players from around the state who are under the recruiting radar, but ready to soar. Indiana is mentioned with several including Kellen Dunham, Jared Drew and Collin Hartman. {Indianapolis Star}

+ John M. over at the Indiana SBNation site previews the returning players in Indiana’s backcourt. {Crimson Quarry}

+ Andy Katz ponders the question: Could this finally be the year at Northwestern? {ESPN.com}

+ Katz writes that Wisconsin doesn’t mind being picked low in the Big Ten. The Badgers are looking for their 12th straight NCAA berth this season. {ESPN.com}

John Gasaway is a writer for Basketball Prospectus and is a co-author of the upcoming book, The Basketball Prospectus 2010 Major-Conference Preview. He previously wrote for the Big Ten Wonk. We recently exchanged e-mails with John to help us preview the Big Ten and Indiana because, well, he’s smarter than us. The interview is lengthy, so we’ve split it into two parts. Today: Indiana and The Basketball Prospectus 2010 Major-Conference Preview.

Inside the Hall: Indiana is coming off a tough season and is still in the midst of rebuilding. They were nearly last in the country in turnovers a season ago, which I assume you believe will improve this season because it really can’t get worse. What measurable statistics are most important for Indiana to become a competitive team in a seemingly brutal conference?

JG: Measurable statistic? Points! For and against! No, just kidding. You’re asking about the stats that precede that one, and rightfully so.

Fair enough, try this on for size: If Indiana had been playing in some kind of weird parallel hoops universe last year where turnovers were forbidden and each team’s offense was judged simply according to how well they shoot, hit the offensive glass, and make free throws, your scrappy Hoosiers, even as young as they were, would have ranked a somewhat respectable seventh in the conference in offensive efficiency in Big Ten play (instead of 11th, which is where they really came out). So, yeah, the turnovers were huge.

Moving to defense we find that IU ranked 11th there as well, allowing Big Ten opponents to score 1.12 points per trip. That’s bad, sure, but it’s not catastrophic. In recent years teams like Northwestern and Penn State have on occasion done way worse than that. So there’s hope. In fact the Hoosiers were actually normal when it came to rebounding opponents’ misses–it’s just that, uh, there were no misses. Opponents lit it up from everywhere. This year’s deeper and taller roster should help make that a thing of the past.

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Around the Hall is recommended reading (and in this case, listening) from the Inside the Hall crew.

+ The Big Ten Network has video interviews with most of the coaches in the conference (Tom Crean not included). {Big Ten Network}

+ The media selected Michigan State as the preseason favorite to win the Big Ten and also announced its all-league team, headlined by Kalin Lucas. {Big Ten Conference}

+ Fred Glass confirmed that he talked to Bob Knight and the former coach will not attend his Hall of Fame induction. His reason? He didn’t want to detract from the other inductees. {IU Athletics}

+ Michigan State coach Tom Izzo says the Big Ten is the best its been in a decade. And Bruce Weber chimes in on Indiana. {The Hoosier Scoop}

Big Ten Media Day Tom Crean Audio (Thanks to The Hoosier Scoop)

Or if you prefer video

Close to 800 Indiana fans packed Nolan Fieldhouse in Sellersburg, Indiana on Saturday afternoon to watch the 2009-2010 Hoosiers practice and scrimmage.

The team took the floor just before 4PM and the event began with some opening words from Tom Crean, who thanked everybody for coming. One-by-one, the Indiana players and coaches introduced themselves to the crowd. A couple of players didn’t speak loudly enough, including freshman Christian Watford, who Crean told, “start over, freshman.” The introductions ended and Crean urged fans to cheer, boo and sit back and enjoy.

Drills

+ The practice kicked off with the players navigating their way towards the basket off the dribble and attempting to finish against two assistant coaches, Bennie Seltzer and Roshown McLeod, who were both waiting with football pads.

+ After taking a beating from the pads, the focus shifted to defense with Crean and Tim Buckley stopping a couple of different times for teaching opportunities: “Be active, be active, be active,” “Hands up on every catch,” and a question for Bawa Muniru and Tijan Jobe after both were beaten by manager Michael Santa, “How does this guy get past two seven-footers?”

Scrimmage

+ Teams were split up as follows: Red: Kory Barnett, Jeremiah Rivers, Daniel Moore, Steven Gambles, Jobe, Tom Pritchard, Watford, Maurice Creek. White: Matt Roth, Muniru, Brett Finkelmeier, Jordan Hulls, Bobby Capobianco, Derek Elston, Devan Dumes, Verdell Jones.

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Around the Hall is recommended reading from the Inside the Hall crew. You can send us a link at tips@insidethehall.com.

+ Andy Katz talks to Mike Krzyzewski and the Duke coach says that Indiana should “celebrate” Bob Knight before he returns to Bloomington. {ESPN.com}

+ Dana O’Neil profiles the freshman class and gets a must-read quote from Bobby Capobianco. {ESPN.com}

+ Herald-Times sports editor Chris Korman and beat reporter Dustin Dopirak discuss Tom Crean’s focus on “Scoop Talk.” {The Hoosier Scoop}

+ Korman writes that Indiana players have decided they’ll need to become “nasty, scrappy dogs” to compete in the Big Ten. {The Hoosier Scoop}

+ LaMond Pope looks at the progression of Tom Pritchard, who Crean says has become more efficient offensively. {Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette}

+ Verdell Jones tells DaAntae Prince that IU practices are “like a war field.” {Indiana Daily Student}