Indiana’s Case for Preseason #1

Indiana Hoosiers head coach Tom Crean’s years of hard work have finally paid off. After enduring consecutive 6-25, 10-21, and 12-20 seasons in his first three years in Bloomington, his recruits developed into excellent players and they meshed as a team. The stars aligned in the 2011-2012 season when the Hoosiers achieved a 27-9 record and a Sweet Sixteen appearance. They defeated the #1 Kentucky Wildcats at home during the regular season, as well as Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State. The NCAA Tournament selection committee gave IU a 4 seed and the Hoosiers defeated New Mexico State and VCU before being eliminated by the eventual champions, the Kentucky Wildcats, 102-90.

In addition to Indiana’s four returning starters and twelve total returning players , including AP Honorable Mention All-American freshman Cody Zeller and Honorable Mention All-Big Ten forward Christian Watford, the Hoosiers bring in the tenth best recruiting class in the country, according to ESPN. Of the graduating seniors, only Verdell Jones III played significant minutes for IU but the team learned how to play without him in the NCAA Tournament due to a knee injury. The four seniors combined for only 13.2 points per game and with Zeller and Watford’s decisions to return to Indiana for another year instead of declaring for the NBA Draft, the majority of the last year’s #13 team in the nation will be back next year.

IU’s 2012-2013 recruiting class features one of the top point guard prospects in the country, Yogi Ferrell, who is a four-five-star recruit by ESPN, Rivals, and Scouts Inc. The other four members of Tom Crean’s recruiting class are Jeremy Hollowell (6’7″, 195 lbs., four-star recruit), Hanner Mosquera-Perea (6’7″, 205 lbs., four-/five-star recruit), Ron Patterson (6’3″, 200 lbs., three-star recruit), and Peter Jurkin (7’0″, 205 lbs., three-star recruit).

Indiana will have a great combination of experience and youth in its starting lineup next season with Jordan Hulls, Victor Oladipo, Will Sheehey, Christian Watford, and Cody Zeller. If Maurice Creek, a redshirt junior who has suffered three season-ending injuries while at IU, can remain healthy next season and return to his freshman year form (averaged of seventeen points per game) alongside the new recruits, the Hoosiers will be a very good from the start of the season. Their opponents struggle at Assembly Hall and they’re coming off of a great season in which they can build off of in the future.

How I Met Anthony Davis

I have been fortunate enough to meet several local sports figures over the course of junior high and high school. Former University of Cincinnati football coach and current Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly as well as Anthony Munoz, the former Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle and Hall of Famer, both spoke at my school in eighth grade. In the fall of my freshman year, I met former UC quarterback Ben Mauk after storming the field when the Bearcats beat the Pittsburgh Panthers 45-44 at Nippert Stadium. Last summer, through my summer job as a snack shack employee at a local country club I served food to Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Leon Hall, former Bengals defensive tackle John Thornton, national radio host and television personality Bill Cunningham, and Cincinnati Bengals then-rookie quarterback Andy Dalton. Dalton is a class-act and talked with me for a solid ten minutes, signed an autograph for me, and called me by name the next time he stopped by.

However famous and influential these sports figures are in the city of Cincinnati, meeting Anthony Davis at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport was on a completely different scale in terms of the timing and national spotlight. Only a week earlier, Davis had been cutting down the nets in New Orleans as a college basketball national champion. Add every 2012 National Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, SEC Player of the Year, and Freshman of the Year award possible to his one-year resumé at Kentucky and you have the biggest sports star over the past six months in the United States.

I was flying solo for the first time and was calling my parents about potentially getting bumped from my flight when I turned around and saw a 6’10” African American with a unibrow, wearing a sweatsuit. I did a double-take and thought to myself “there’s no way that’s actually him.” Then I realized that there is honestly no one else I could be confusing him with and started following him. He was talking on the phone and I didn’t want to interrupt him so I followed him until he sat down at his gate, snapping a few pictures along the way.

A little bit creepy?

Yes.

Was it worth it?

Of course.

The entire time that I was walking a few strides behind him down the “G” wing of O’Hare I felt like I was the famous one, simply because of all of the people who were staring at the nationally-recognized ‘brow and whispering to those around them. Since I was by myself, there was no one to talk to about him, so I had to do the next best thing, which consisted of introducing myself to him and then Tweeting about it.

I was the one person with enough courage to actually approach him. He was sitting down and off the phone, so I went up and said, “Hey Anthony, I’m a big fan.” He had seen me coming so we had a half-second of awkward eye contact and he didn’t respond to my greeting. I had no idea what to do next so I blurted out “It’s nice to meet you” and stuck out my hand. He slowly reached out and gave me the infamous “dead fish” that every etiquette teacher warns against. It may have been awkward but I walked away with my head held high because I just shook hands with the #1 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft.

And that is how I met Anthony Davis.

The Year of the Upset

At the start of the NCAA Tournament Thursday afternoon, it seemed that there would be very few upsets. The first nine games went the way of “chalk,” meaning that the lower, favorited seed won. March became a little madder when VCU followed up its Final Four appearance in 2011 by upsetting the #5 seed Wichita State by three points. In the final matchup of the opening day of the tourney, Colorado set the tone for Friday’s games by shocking the UNLV Running Rebels, #6 seed and #25 overall in the AP poll. As a whole, the number of upsets was surprisingly small. On average, there are eight upsets in the round of 64 based on the seed, putting this year’s tournament to fill only half of the “quota.”

After all the games are finished for the second round, there were eight upsets on Friday, including two #15  seeds beating #2 seeds. North Carolina State, who finished 22-12 and fifth place in the ACC, trumped #6 San Diego State 79-65. The game was close at halftime, with the Wolfpack leading by four points, but NC State took over in the second half, led by Richard Howell’s twenty-two points.

Courtesy of http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/tag/_/name/2012-columbus-region

Entering the 2012 edition of the NCAA Tournament, #15 seeds were 4-104 all-time against #2 seeds. That’s an average of one every 27 years. In historic fashion, two #2 seeds fell on Friday to their higher-ranked opponents. The Missouri Tigers were a trendy favorite to represent the West region in the Final Four. Mizzou was 30-4 in the regular season and won the Big 12 Tournament by defeating Baylor handily in the championship game. Three of their four losses were to ranked opponents and tournament teams, proving to be a tough out all season. In its first NCAA Tournament appearance, the Norfolk State Spartans shocked the basketball world by upsetting Mizzou 86-84 thanks to a great shooting performance. Three Spartans had at least twenty points and the team shot 54% from the floor. Missouri fought back at the end of the game and had a three-point attempt at the buzzer but it clanked off the rim and Norfolk State completed to unexpected upset. What made the night even more unpredictable was when Lehigh came back from being down by two at halftime to stun Coach K and the Duke Blue Devils. Led by junior guard C.J. McCollum, who scored thirty points, grabbed six rebounds, and had six assists, the Mountain Hawks go on to play Xavier.

Courtesy of http://www.silive.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/03/a_pair_of_no_2s_out_of_ncaa_to.html

While a #9 seed beating a #8 is not usually considered an upset, Saint Louis beat Memphis behind Kwamain Mitchell’s 22 points. Robbie Hummell and the Purdue Boilermakers narrowly beat St. Mary’s 72-69. Two years ago, the Ohio Bobcats as a #14 seed stunned the Georgetown Hoyas in the first round. Some of those same players are on the current squad that upset #4 Michigan 65-60. In the final games of the night, South Florida handed Temple a fourteen-point loss to be the second twelve seed this year to upset a five seed. Lastly, Xavier rallied to overcome a ten point deficit to beat Notre Dame after a bad lane violation call nullified a Fighting Irish one-and-one.

At this rate, this will be the craziest March Madness in the history of the tournament. Almost every game is down to the wire and anyone can beat anyone else. While Kentucky is playing at a higher level than every other team in the field, it is a toss-up for the matchups in the round of 32. If you ignore that seeds of the teams and compare them without a bias, there is very little separating the teams who remain in the tournament.

Courtesy of http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebasketball/story/Xavier-Musketeers-beat-Vanderbilt-Commodores-in-overtime-112811

Out of the remaining teams who upset a lower-ranked seed, I predict Xavier, VCU, and South Florida to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Out of the 32 teams left in the field, Xavier, South Florida, and Murray State have the best chances to make it to the Elite Eight. Although, no matter who wins, I think everyone can agree that this has been the greatest opening weekend of the tournament we have ever seen and it can only get better from here.