Hoosiers losing respect, votes

IU basketball gets no love.\n I don't put all of my faith in college basketball polls. But let's be honest -- they're a necessary evil. And evil they have been to the red and cream…or whatever we are now.\nIU is currently playing the best basketball of the season and is arguably the hottest team in the Big Ten along with Ohio State. But the Hoosiers find themselves at the bottom of one poll and left out of another.\nOnly the computers give them any respect.\nIU is currently on top of the Big Ten conference after commanding victories over its first four opponents. The team is 10-5 overall and has played the fourth-most difficult schedule according to the latest RPI index. In the past two games, IU waxed then-No. 25 Michigan State by 18 points before embarrassing then-No. 13 Iowa on the road by 11 on national television.\n Did anyone else see that?\n The AP sportswriters ranked IU 25th, which was by no means generous but no doubt fair. But when the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll was released Monday, the state of Indiana turned colder. Once again, the Hoosiers found themselves "also receiving votes" -- seven of them. \nOne reason is IU head coach Mike Davis and former coach Bob Knight.\nIf Knight still wears a red sweater in Bloomington instead of sending fingers ablazin' in Lubbock, Tex., this team would be ranked. Davis is young, unproven and purposely more out of the spotlight. \nIU is unranked.\nKnight's Texas Tech Red Raiders entered the week 13-2. Wow, that's good! They entered the week coming off a loss. That's not good. That loss was by 26 points to Oklahoma. That's real bad -- as is their 53rd-toughest schedule even after losing to Texas this week.\nTexas Tech received 13 votes.\nIU basketball is not getting the respect it once did, and the coaches are telling the nation so with their ballots. When once slapping on the Hoosier jersey automatically put you in the running for a top 25 nod, it now gets you slapped in the face.\nBut maybe that's good. The coaches are making a statement by putting teams such as Butler in the mix even after a loss to Detroit. The coaches are telling the basketball public that teams can no longer plead their cases with reputation, but with victories. After all, 31 coaches, including Fairleigh Dickinson's Tom Green, are voting for the best teams in the nation. Green's team is struggling at 2-12 and ranked last (324) in the RPI. You know he has no bias.\nThen we watch Michigan State, at 8-7, tally 13 votes after being blown out by the Hoosiers and upset by Wisconsin in East Lansing. \nThat's a statement. \nI can just see the coaches filling out their slips and thinking to themselves, "Well, the Hoosiers are playing good ball, but how 'bout dem Spartans. Sure they're playing the worst basketball in the conference and their record sucks, but they got Izzo." Check.\nOnly the computers give IU the respect it's earned in the past two weeks. IU stands at 14 in the RPI, second in the Big Ten behind worthy Illinois. But what can we make of that because perhaps even the computer's are biased? IU has been voted one of the most wired campuses in the nation. I think the computers know.\nThe top 25 of college basketball is arbitrary, biased, confusing and frustrating. But it's important. It's a measure of respect and a credit to the success and hard work of a team throughout the year. Rankings mean television ratings and school exposure (see Gonzaga).\nWith a victory Saturday in Columbus, the Hoosiers have a chance to extend their lead in the Big Ten and perhaps grab the attention of the voting coaches.\nThey might even coast by Wyoming, who received 15 votes this week.