As I watched the Hoosiers struggle through a six win season, I took some solace in what I saw take place in Lexington, Kentucky this season. Despite two future NBA players and one of the worst years ever in the SEC, Kentucky managed to lose 14 games and miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 17 years.

Kentucky, which ran a perfectly respectable coach in Tubby Smith out of town a mere two seasons ago, is reportedly on the verge of severing ties with Billy Gillispie. The rallying cry amongst Big Blue Nation has shifted from ‘Blame Tubby’ to ‘Blame Billy.’

The notion of changing coaches after just two seasons is drastic and unheard of in most cases, but Gillispie’s unwillingness to stray from his stubborn ways have probably sealed his fate more than the wins and losses.

(Excessive phone calls do not qualify as most cases.)

But ultimately, like any top five job, the pressure to win big and win immediately might be more apparent at Kentucky than anywhere else.

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Indiana assistant coach Tim Buckley filled in for Tom Crean on this week’s Big Ten teleconference. Here is the audio, courtesy of the Big Ten Network:

Related:

• Tubby Smith teleconference audio

Judging by the comments in our game thread last night, this was not a game most of you were stressing. That makes sense: It’s a late-season Big Ten game against Minnesota, the conference is now fully out of reach, and it comes after a lackadaisical 30 point drubbing at the hands of Michigan State. Not to mention the Coaching Situation of Which We Do Not Speak.

Moreover, those of us watching at home got to feel the pangs of senior night, but it’s not like this is the last time we get to see D.J. White suit up. There’s Penn State on Saturday, then the Big Ten Tournament, then the NCAA’s, then, if you really want to get devoted, you can become a fan of whatever NBA team takes White in the late first round. (And Eric Gordon in the lottery.) So no matter which way you slice the thing, last night’s game was a little boring. It was emotional without being heartbreaking, important without being dire, and interesting without being enthralling. It was IU-Minnesota on
March 5. Apathy ruled the day.

– Of course, it didn’t help that the Hoosiers were so sluggish for the first 30 minutes of the game. If we were nonplussed, what were they? D.J.’s three aside – at least he got that under his belt as a Hoosier – was there a single exciting moment in the first half?

Part of that is the situation: March 5 vs. Minnesota. But part of that seems worrisome. Since Dan Dakich took over as head coach, he’s done the following:

• Barely beaten then-0-13 Northwestern in a defensively horrid performance.
• Barely beaten a bubble-scrounging Ohio State team at home; again, not a great defensive performance.
• Gotten absolutely blasted out of the gym against one-time offensive force of nature (1.5 PPP!) Michigan State.
• Played sluggish, ugly basketball at home against the 8-8 Minnesota Gophers and Tubby “How long do I have to be mediocre before people stop calling me great?” Smith.

In each of the above games, the defense regressed while the offense has improved. If I remember correctly, Dakich claimed at the beginning of his tenure that he planned to keep the offense in place, but that he would tinker with the defense. Maybe four games is too small a sample size to judge, but note to Senor Dakich: STOP TINKERING.

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In the days leading up to the Minnesota game, it seemed fashionable to proclaim Minnesota IU’s first road loss. It was an understandable diagnosis; The Barn is an historically difficult place to play, Minnesota has been playing well, and the common perception (a correct one, might I add) was that the competent coaching of Tubby Smith would be the difference in the game. Everyone convinced themselves of this, to the point that it became some kind of non-intuitive general consensus that IU would lose last night.

Am I the only one annoyed by these snowballing alternative consensuses? They happen every March, too. Some ESPN pundit or sportswriter somewhere or — heaven forbid, blogger! — says: Hey, watch out for Team X! And then a hundred thousand of us put Team X in our Final Four. (Not that it matters, but Team X usually flames out in the Sweet 16.)

So, for once, it’s nice to be on the side of the general consensus that should have been: That the Hoosiers are so much better than Minnesota that they can play the worst game of their season and still win in a tough road environment. Consensus or not, that was right. (Oh, and props to Big A, who put his nuts on the line a day early.) Onward:

– In many ways, the Gophers betrayed a blueprint for how to beat IU last night. That blueprint? Pressure defense to produce harried guard play; double-team D.J. White and force jump shots; tweak or otherwise bother Eric Gordon and get him in foul trouble early; hang on and hope for the best. The Gophers did each of those things last night, preying on erratic guard play and Gordon’s proclivity for silly fouls. It helped, of course, that the Hoosiers gave up 26 — 26! — turnovers, thanks to the lack of a true point guard on this team (more on that below) and the pressure defense. It’s hard to tease out how much the pressure defense had to do with it, and how much was just a bad performance by IU’s guards … either way, the turnovers kept Minnesota in the game for all 40 minutes.

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The word on the street is that the Hoosiers are ripe for an upset tonight in Minneapolis. Terry Hutchens of the Indy Star addressed it earlier this week and Paging Jim Shikenjanski, a Minnesota blog, has already predicted the Gophers will knock off IU at the Barn.

Nothing against Minnesota, I think they’re a nice story and a possible NCAA team if they finish fifth or better in the conference, but nothing about their resume screams: “We’re ready to knock off a top 10 opponent.”

Consider this: They’ve played three teams with RPI’s in the top 100 and lost all three times. (At Florida State, At UNLV and At Michigan State.)

If you thought IU’s non-conference schedule was weak, Minnesota’s was flat out terrible. They feasted on cupcakes like UC Riverside, South Dakota State, Army and Kennesaw State. Their best win, according to the RPI, is Nicholls State at No. 121.

Does this sound like a team that is ready to derail D.J. White, Eric Gordon and company?

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The Hoosiers are finishing up their cupcakes and the New Year is nearly upon us, which can mean only one thing: It’s Big Ten Preview Time! Here’s a look at the teams that will challenge the Hoosiers for the conference crown … or fall under the weighty boot of crimson dominance. Probably the latter. Today: Minnesota.

One thing the Minnesota Gophers will always engender for this humble author, whether right or wrong: gratuitous Fargo references. It’s less a pastime and more a disease, really, and therefore, in the interest of giving the Gophers their fair season preview like everyone else, let’s just get a silly Fargo quote out there to cleanse the palette:

Jerry Lundegaard: Now we had a deal. A deal’s a deal.
Carl Showalter: Is it, Jerry? Why don’t you ask those three poor souls in Brainerd if a deal’s a deal. Go ahead, ask them!
Jerry Lundegaard: The heck do ya mean?
Carl Showalter: [mimicking] “The heckya mean?”

Now that that’s out of the way, we can go about previewing the sneaky Minnesota Gophers. If you haven’t been paying much attention to the fellers up north there, you might have missed this: The Gophers are 8-1 this year. What you also might have missed is that not one of the wins has come against a team in the Top 50 of the RPI, and that in six of those wins Minnesota toppled weak over-100 RPI squads. So while Tubby Smith’s new squad will have almost 10 wins before conference play begins, the wins have come against teams — like our own Hoosiers’ opponents — that make it pretty difficult to learn anything of value.

What we do know, from last year and beyond, is that Dan Coleman is the Gophers’ best player. Coleman’s a truly tough defender and rebounder on a team lacking in both, and has lead the Gophers in points thus far this year while averaging just under two blocks a game. Coleman’s effective field goal percentage isn’t great — he’s only 18.8 percent from the three-point line this year — but he makes up for his outside shooting woes with tough interior play. Coleman did all of these things last year, and he is doing them again; he’s a safe bet to continue his play well through the Big Ten season.

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In our experience with him, if there’s one thing to know about Kelvin Sampson, it’s that he has a pretty great sense of humor. He gets bristly at times, but most jokes are well-delivered and well-received. (Ahem: most of the time. Sometimes he’s not so nice.)

Anyway, that sense of humor is probably a positive now that Kelvin’s out on the recruiting trail at IU for the first time. He’s had to take a little abuse from some old friends in the coaching fraternity:

Kelvin Sampson took it like a man. The Indiana head coach was razzed by Texas’ Rick Barnes and Minnesota’s Tubby Smith when he walked in the gym on Sunday afternoon.

“Where have you been?” joked Barnes. “Call me sometime.”

“Still got the ankle bracelet?” added Smith.

In my fantasy world, Sampson tells both of them to eff off. He tells Rick Barnes exactly how much better Texas’ last season could have been with a coach who actually knew how to utilize the once-in-a-generation talent that landed in his lap … and he tells Tubby Smith to forget about beating IU for any recruits in the next five years, because if he couldn’t recruit at Kentucky, he’ll never land anyone at Minnesota. “I recruited better than you from my living room, Tubby!”

They probably just shook hands and laughed. But a guy can dream.

(HT: The Hoosier Report)