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.

Now, before I completely deconstruct this rule, let me say one thing: Steve Shutt is well within his right to shut Korman and Matt Dollinger of the IDS down. IPS pays a lot of money to own the Web rights to Wake games, and all this rule serves to do is protect the bottom line. The cash. The scrill. The sweet cheddar cheddar.

But if Steve Shutt thinks that people are coming to our live blog in lieu of the GameTracker on Wake’s site, well, that’s just not the truth. I would imagine the thinking of IU fans goes as such: “I will watch the game on ESPN, and perhaps will have the out-of-control live blog on my laptop as I type.” Or “I will watch the GameTracker on IU’s site or ESPN’s site in congruence with the game.” Or “I can’t watch the game on TV because I am stuck in class, so I will have the GameTracker on IU’s or ESPN’s site up and perhaps have that ridiculous live blog up, too.” Or “I am in the car. I will listen in the radio.” Or “I will listen to the sweet sounds of Don Fischer with the sound down on the TV.” OK, that should just about cover it.

Look: No IU fan is running to Wake’s site being like “OH MY GOD I HAVE TO ONLY FOLLOW THEIR GAMETRACKER BECAUSE IPS IS THE RIGHTS HOLDER.” It’s their team, they’ll go to their site. And furthermore, if this is the case, why does IU and ESPN have a GameTracker on their site as well during the game? (I think CBS does, too.) Can someone explain that one to me?

Now, I’m assuming it’s because of the fact that Korman and Dollinger were actually there, live, in person, blogging. But again, the blog/chat still continued. I still wrote, E still wrote, A still wrote, John Decker still wrote, Zach Osterman still wrote, Doug Wilson still wrote, Jared still wrote, a million of the commenters still wrote. Hell, Korman and Dollinger still wrote, just not as much, as they were allowed four or five postings in the second half.

My point is this: What’s the damn point? The rule does nothing. Nothing at all. But it’s a sign of sports media these days. While sports leagues and networks run to YouTube and ask them to rip down clips of plays from the night before, they should be pushing their own embeddable players down bloggers throats that have these same plays. Throw a 20-second ad at the beginning of these clips. Straight cash, homie. (The Hulu model of having TV shows and movies up legally with small bits of ads here and there is what’s going to win out in the end. Hulu gets it.)

While record companies try and fight people that are illegally downloading music — what has it been, ten years or so now? — they should be taking the Radiohead or Girl Talk route. Let the consumer set their price. (Or even take the Normative route, invest in a band and screw the record industry as a whole.)

These things are going to keep happening. They’ve been happening for some time now. There’s no way you can stop it all. These companies are all just throwing spit on the fire. Just embrace, and find a way to profit from it. If Wake Forest is that concerned, have them give us an advertisement to pepper in a few times a half. That makes a hell of a lot more sense than what happened last night.

There’s already so much going on during the live blog, I’m sure we wouldn’t really mind, right?

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.

Somewhere in all that, I got a little bit sad. Not too sad. It’s just basketball, after all. I didn’t get overwhelmingly, crushingly, end-of-Where-The-Red-Fern-Grows sad. Like I said, it was just a little bit. But it was sadness all the same.

What happened? I’m not too sure, but this is what I think. I think I realized, for the first time, just how bad this team could be. I realized that no matter how well-coached this team is, how hard they try, or how much they care, they are going to be inferior in nearly every way to nearly every team they play against, and with few exceptions, they will lose.

It took me a little bit to get there. I knew they would be bad, sure, but how bad? How to gauge it? The first few games, against supposed cupcakes, don’t tell us anything; they’re as useless as preseason football. I didn’t get to see much of Maui, because I was on vacation. I saw scores, but I didn’t see the games, you know? I couldn’t actually witness it with my own two eyes. Last night, I could. I did. And it was way, way worse than I thought.

I know I’m being overdramatic here. It’s bad, but it’s not that bad. There is some talent and potential scattered throughout IU’s lineup. It’s not desolate. But it is bad.

Which is why I’d like to make a humble proposal, both to myself, and to everyone else who made it this far down the page, because I’d imagine you care about this stuff more than you probably should, like me:

Don’t be cynical. Allow yourself a soft spot. Enjoy the means, and not the end.

What do I mean by that? Let’s see if I don’t butcher this analogy.

ESPN is an annoying network. It’s filled with people that irritate me viscerally, with people that attempt to appeal both to the lowest common denominator and to the casual fan, because they know the hardcore people will stay no matter what. This is a place that continues to allow Chris Berman to crack the same jokes, over and over, time and again. It’s a place that took a great thing, SportsCenter, and stuffed it full of nonsense and screamers and people whose idea of football analysis is to laugh uproariously at things that aren’t funny. In almost every way — but of course not every way — ESPN annoys me.

This includes ESPN’s “I Wish” segments. You know the ones. They take the little kid and put Vaseline on the lens and do these sappy, supposedly heartwarming stories about children that are sick, and who get their one big wish thanks to the benevolence of ESPN. I don’t know. These shouldn’t bother me. They’re innocent enough. But they always feel creepy, like a small, insidious form of exploitation. If I was a little kid, the last thing I’d want to do is have the best day of my life filmed by ESPN. But that’s just me. I’m cynical like that.

So it goes for the saying “they play hard.” It shouldn’t bother me. It’s innocent enough. But I hate that saying. It’s so condescending and wrongheaded. Everyone plays hard, OK? With few exceptions, you can’t be a legitimate college basketball player or team or whoever without playing hard. I hate when people throw that around. I hate it like I hate ESPN’s soft-focus segments.

But I allow myself one exception to the ESPN soft-focus rule. His name is Jimmy V. Every year, I watch that speech, and I allow myself to be inspired. To be idealistic. To understand that yeah, you know what? That’s damn right: Every day is a gift, and we forget it too often. Cherish it. Work for it. Always do your best. Keep trying. Don’t give up. Never give up. The whole deal. It rips me to shreds every time.

So I’m going to try to apply that exception to this year’s Hoosiers. Will I get sick of hearing, constantly, as we did last night, that IU is disciplined and focused and gutty and gritty and hard-working, but gosh, if only they weren’t barely a mid-major in the talent department, they’d be good? Shucks, this team is just bad! Yes, I will grow tired. Very. But instead of getting angry about every time, instead of getting annoyed, I’m just going to suck it up. I’m going to avoid cynicism. And I’m going to remember that the whole point of watching is never just about wins and losses, that the means are often as much fun as the end, that every day — even a day as mundane as going to work and coming home and watching college basketball — is a gift.

At the end of the day, it’s still college basketball. It’s a gift. We might as well enjoy it while we can.

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?

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

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.

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?