I know not all of you have been following along with our enormous, unwieldy live blog this season. And if you are following along, you might notice if you blink twice, you miss a lot. It’s a lot like life, in that way.

Last evening during the live blog, Chris Korman of the Herald-Times typed these words sometime in second half: And we’ve been shut down. I kid you not.

There was a lot of confusion in the following moments. Was it the dirty, filthy NCAA shutting those blogging from courtside down? No. Was it that monolith ESPN, the TV rights holder for the game? Closer. It was actually International Sports Properties.

I’ll let Korman explain:

Steve Shutt, an assistant athletic director at Wake Forest, cited an ACC rule permitting only four blog posts per half when making the request, which both publications complied with. The live blog continued to be operated by contributors from the H-T, IDS, HoosierNation.com and Inside the Hall who were not credentialed to cover the event.

After the game, Shutt said that the ACC rule on blogging was probably not in writing anywhere but followed common practice. Last year, the NCAA began limiting the number of blog posts reporters could make during all of its championships events.

He also said that Wake Forest could not allow the dissemination of information about the game on the Internet by courtside reporters because it violated the multimedia rights agreement the school has with ISP (International Sports Properties).

Under the agreement, which is for between $800,000 and $1.2 million per year according to Shutt, ISP owns the radio and Web rights to Wake Forest games.

ISP relies on drawing viewers to the Wake Forest Web site — which includes a GameTracker feature that allows fans to follow the game in close-to real-time — to set its advertising rates and generate revenue, so the university could not allow reporters to operate a blog that may divert readers from the official Web site.

(more…)

Usually, The Morning After is a combination of the following:

1. Me talking about basketball in a barely informed fashion, including but not limited to offensive sets, efficiency, tempo-free/possession-related statistics, and how irritating it is when people take too many bad shots, or

2. Why the Big Ten Network sucks.

3. Why Player X is incredibly interesting to me, even if that player isn’t particularly effective. Last year: Eli Holman.

You get the idea. Even better if you’re a regular reader, you know the idea. Unfortunately, today’s TMA will not look much like the idea.

Why? Let me tell you about my Wednesday night.

I got off work, which was sort of busy but not too busy (which could describe just about anybody’s work day four times out of five), and I got on the train and went to the store and then to Starbucks and then I walked home. I sat down, got on my computer, approved a bunch of live blog comments, and watched IU play Wake Forest in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. I saw a scrappy, well-disciplined, seemingly focused IU team hang on for about 10 minutes or so before getting blown out. I approved some more blog comments. I whined about ESPN a bunch. I ate some pad thai. I approved some more comments, and watched some more basketball, and winced as IU got torn to shreds by a team that was barely even trying, barely even sweating. I approved some more blog comments. And then the game ended.

(more…)

THE GOOD

I know this is going to get redundant this year as we slog through against teams with more size, more strength and more athleticism, but these Hoosier play hard. They don’t give up. That’s encouraging to see.

And the first 15 minutes of this game, I thought IU had a real chance to keep it respectable, maybe even lose by less than 15 points. (We even had the lead twice!) The packed in zone worked well for a bit, as Wake struggled to hit threes. But then the levee broke, and that was about that.

I was impressed with Matt Roth’s range tonight as he hit 4-of-5 threes for 12 points. Get this guy with some more talent around him the next few years, and senior year he’ll hopefully absolutely light it up from beyond the arc. (A blogger can dream … )

THE BAD AND UGLY

Oh-vey, where to begin. I made this comment in the live blog (FREE KORMAN) but it’s a good thing the NCAA doesn’t officially track dunks and alley-oops or IU might have been on the wrong side of an NCAA record. (That dunk over Matt Roth was diiirty.)

And getting into the numbers game, IU had a ridiculous 26 turnovers. (15 of those came in the first half.) But again: Let’s keep this all in perspective. The Hoosiers were undersized and outmatched at every step of this game.

All and all it could have been worse, right?

James Johnson scored 21 points and No. 15 Wake Forest shot 62 percent in route to a 83-55 win over Indiana Wednesday night in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

The Hoosiers (4-3) committed 20 or more turnovers for the fifth time this season and shot just 37 percent from the field and 54 percent from the foul line.

“I think 26 turnovers tells the story,” Tom Crean told reporters after the game.

Three other players besides Johnson scored in double figures for the Demon Deacons (7-0). L.D. Williams had 16, Indianapolis Pike product Jeff Teague had 14, all in the second half, and freshman sensation Al-Farouq Aminu chipped in 12.

Matt Roth was the lone bright spot for Indiana on offense. The freshman guard had 12 points on 4 of 5 shooting. Tom Pritchard struggled against the athletic frontcourt of Wake Forest and scored just four points in 29 minutes.

The win moved Wake Forest to 8-1 all-time in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge and dropped Indiana to 3-5 in the event.

Indiana will return to action on Saturday against Gonzaga at Lucas Oil Stadium. The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network at 1:30 EST.

• Box score

Each year in college basketball, there is a group of young teams flying somewhat under the radar yet capable of a deep run in the tournament.

In 2006, a team in the aforementioned group was Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators. They were a fringe top-25 team coming into that season, refined their ridiculous pool of talent during SEC play and ended up cutting down the nets.

To call this year’s Wake Forest Demon Deacons a threat to win it all would be a bit premature at this point in the season, but the talent is certainly there for a serious run.

Led by another Indiana kid who got away in sophomore Jeff Teague from Indianapolis Pike and a pair of do-it-all forwards in sophomore James Johnson and freshman Al-Farouq Aminu, the Hoosiers are going to have their hands full Wednesday night in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

Teague has opened the season on fire — 21.0 ppg in six Wake wins — while shooting a ridiculous 57 percent from 3-point range.

Johnson (15.0 ppg, 9.2 rpg) and Aminu (13.2 ppg, 9.5 rpg) are perhaps the most athletic front court duo anywhere in the country. They’ve been so good early on that head coach Dino Gaudio has two five-star freshmen in Tony Walker and Ty Woods that have yet to see major clock.

The result of this mismatch will not likely be pretty for our Hoosiers, but fans of good basketball will enjoy watching one of the up-and-coming teams in college basketball that just might make a run come March.

The pairings for the tenth annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge were announced today and Indiana will play at Wake Forest on December 3. You can read the complete release from the Big Ten here.

Here is the complete schedule:

• December 1: Wisconsin at Virginia Tech
• December 2: Duke at Purdue; Clemson at Illinois; Ohio State at Miami (FL); Virginia at Minnesota; Iowa @ Boston College
• December 3: North Carolina vs. Michigan State (at Ford Field); Indiana at Wake Forest; Michigan at Maryland; Florida State at Northwestern; Penn State at Georgia Tech

The Demon Deacons are going to be stacked in the paint with their incoming freshmen Al-Farouq Aminu, Tony Woods and Ty Walker. They’re also returning their two leading scorers, James Johnson and Indianapolis Pike product Jeff Teague, who were both freshmen this past season. IU is 3-4 all-time in the challenge and Wake Forest is 7-1. Also, Duke at Purdue will be tough for me to pick a rooting interest. Can both teams somehow lose?