OK, so the ZOsterman Weekend is more than willing to admit he's been derelict in his promise to regularly provide his wit and prose to this space on a regular basis. The mid-semester stress has finally gone to the brain, it will soon be time to zombie out for All Hallow's Eve.
It is that spirit that brings you the second installment of the ZOsterman Weekend, tricks and treats alike. We'll make our weekly round of the Big Ten, starting right here in Bloomington.
Sixth man ... to walk on
This just in to TZW, Evan White cannot be an IU basketball player for the holiday. That's because he already is one.
White is officially a part of the roster now after what Tom Crean termed last weekend an extended tryout, and he will wear the number 1. Crean said he and his staff liked what they saw out of the freshman 6-footer from Fort Wayne.
So put away that Mike Woodson fro, son, you're a Hoosier now.
Robbie Hummel loves the floor
No kidding. The ZOsterman Weekend found this story, written by Pete DiPrimio of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, which chronicles the events that led to Robbie Hummel diving for a line and cutting open his face.
Basically, Hummel was running during practice, lost count of how many laps he had run (is losing count of anything allowed in West Lafayette?), and sprinted for his designated line, diving across to beat the 28 seconds he had to finish the run. He didn't make the time.
Good hustle Robbie. Seriously, The Weekend respects it as much as the rest. But do you really want to be known as Left Eye Hummel for the rest of your life, just to avoid one more sprint?
No candy for Delvon Roe
Tom Pritchard's high school teammate is apparently still working his way through some of the rigors of Big Ten practice, specifically with regard to his knee, which he injured his senior year. Things don't look good for Tom Izzo'z blue-chipper.
"The knee is better, but he missed 9 1/2 months," Izzo told the Detroit Free-Press at Big Ten Media Day last weekend (which The ZOsterman Weekend is sad to say it could not attend). "He's not able to practice every day yet, and that's going to take a little time. The schedule is so brutal early, and it was made with him as a key component, and he probably won't be a key component (at that time)."
TZW thinks that last bit hurts the worst. Walking house to house probably won't be on the agenda this fall for Mr. Roe.
Boilers No. 1?
In case you missed this like you missed The ZOsterman weekend, Matt Painter's boys were tabbed by a 22-person media poll to finish tops in the conference this season. And, as you may have guessed, IU was stuck at the opposite end of the spectrum in last.
That's a lot of black and gold.
The Weekend hopes this comment doesn't come off as too homer-iffic, but that won't stay that way for long. Painter is a great coach and a solid recruiter with an outstanding bunch of kids, and Indiana is a program in the ditch right now.
But Indiana is still Indiana, as Tom Crean is so fond of saying, and programs like that are rarely -- if ever -- relegated to the ranks of mortals. Just a thought.
Lastly, The ZOsterman Weekend would like someone to update us as to the exact whereabouts of Brian Butch. We know not where the big man of bank shot landed, though quick research shows that he was last seen with the Memphis Grizzlies' Las Vegas summer league team. Butch spent time as a grad student in Life Sciences Communication at Wisconsin. The Weekend is unsure what that means, but we assume Butch could make a good living doing it.
