I've finally made it to my Spring Break location, where the beer flows like wine and the woman flock instinctively like the salmon of Capistrano. That's right. I'm talking about a little place called ... Bloomington.
Thanks to the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments, I am sort of stuck here waiting to see where I'll be traveling in a few days. I'm not complaining. Rather, I'm really excited about following IU to the tournament, and about hanging out with some townies at Kilroy's in the meantime. We're going to get, as the kids say, "hyphy."
Anyway, my drive back from Chicago today allowed me to collect my thoughts a little bit about the Hoosiers' loss last night. My theory remains: Illinois is simply a team with which IU struggles. The Hoosiers, for all of the perhaps unexpected success they've had this year, are just not athletic enough to get good looks or open shots against a rangy defensive juggernaut like the Illini. Not only that, but IU doesn't have a second post scorer, someone to take the pressure off D.J. White and prevent the post double teams that crippled him in the second half. It ain't Mike White, and it sure ain't Ben Allen. If Lance Stemler can find his shot again, the Hoosiers are probably better off playing Stemler and White in a four out, one in scheme, to make those double teams easier for White to handle. We'll see if Sampson makes that sort of adjustment any time in the near future.
That said, last night's game was basically a road contest for IU, and Armon Bassett still had a good look at the buzzer that just missed. That shot goes down, and IU survives another day. The bright side here is that the Hoosiers can rest an extra day or two, get healed up, and focus on the NCAA Tournament tomorrow and Monday.
Which brings me to my next subject, the NCAA Tournament. We'll find out tomorrow what seed the Hoosiers are going to get and where I'll be spending the rest of my Spring Break. I said last night that the Hoosiers were probably a seven or eight seed. Terry Hutchens, our compatriot from the Indy Star, has IU in the 9-11 range. That looks more likely now than it did a week ago; Joe Lunardi has dropped the Hoosiers accordingly, and currently has them as the 10 seed playing Marquette in Winston-Salem. Besides the fact that I'd really rather not go to Winston-Salem, that seed might be a little difficult to swallow for IU fans, seeing as the Hoosiers were considered a possible No. 3 or 4 seed before they started dropping all those road games down the stretch.
(What do you think? Is IU a 9, 10, 11? An 8? Let us know in the comments.)
But, like I said, we'll find out tomorrow. Which brings me to my other next subject, Selection Sunday. I'll be viewing the proceedings tomorrow at Coach Sampson's house along with the team and other media. We're doing interviews afterward, I hear, so keep your head on a swivel for some fresh stuff tomorrow night. Should be fun.
One more thing: as this season has wound down, so have our off-day contributions to this blog, but during the run up to and throughout the NCAA's we'll (probably) be posting at least once a day.. In other words, keep checking back for stuff, because we'll be in March Madness overdrive.
That's all for now. See you tomorrow.
