Dancing with Hoosiers

After two unsuccessful tries, Randy Wittman's son Ryan has finally put Cornell into the next round. Ben Allen helped St Marys shock everyone by beating Villanova to advance to the 3rd round. North Carolina and Tyler Zeller have advanced to the NIT's Elite 8. The Butler Bulldogs took care of UTEP and Murray State, and are now halfway home. Who can forget Ohio's Armon Bassett's amazing March performance? Like Allen, Meezy played for Kelvin Sampson a couple years ago, as did Jordan Crawford - probably best known as that kid that dunked over LeBron James, now has Xavier looking to make another Regional Finals appearance.

Purdue Boilermakers have shushed all doubters by advancing to their 2nd consecutive Sweet Sixteen.
Ohio State and Michigan St are also representing the BigTen, with Northern Iowa/Tennessee standing in the way of a trip to Indy. However, not all is bright in the Schrockstar Galaxy of Stars: Notre Dame lost in the first round to Old Dominion; IUPUI lost the league championship to Oakland; and Indiana, Ball State, Evansville, Indiana State, Valparaiso and Vincenses were not even invited.

Tri-State Hoops Preview

Michigan State returns everybody, including Kalin Lucas. Purdue returns everybody, including E'Twaun Moore. The Hoosiers loaded up. Ohio State, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois are all ranked. Louisville's returning backcourt has been to multiple Elite Eights. Calipari has brought the swagger back to Kentucky. As far as mid-majors, Butler is primed for a big season. Dayton, Xavier and Notre Dame are also hoping to be dancing. Note to Syracuse, Duke, Kansas or any other teams outside 150 miles that are Final Four-bound: there's still a good chance of hotel vacancy.

Marvellous Marvin and Crean's Cream

It may be too soon to comment on this, but Tuesday's shooting in Philly has been linked to Marvin Harrison directly. What we do know is that the Colts' Pro-Bowler owns a club (Playmakers) where the altercation happened and the gun used that injured a man's hand. Ballistics link #88's gun (found at his carwash) to the six bullets found at the scene of the crime, where a boy was also injured from shattered glass during the incident. What's not surprising is that none of the eyewitnesses are giving statements, other than the victim saying Marvin is NOT the shooter.

First IU dismissed Armon Bassett and JaMarcus Ellis for being insubordinate, then Eli Holman throws a tantrum in the coaches office and requests a transfer, now DeAndre Thomas is being released for unknown reasons; that accompanied with the graduation of Seniors DJ White and Lance Stemler and the departure of lottery-bound Eric Gordon, Jr leaves new Head Coach Tom Crean very few options at practice (2-on-2? knockout? 21/tips??). Jordan Crawford and Kyle Taber started a few games last year, so there will at least be some continuity from the Sampson Era (or Error), but I wonder if any Elite program has ever hit the bottom so quickly? That doesn't even consider any NCAA sanctions that may be announced this summer, or the additional scholarships IU may lose due to poor grades. The Hoosiers might go from twenty-five wins to twenty-five losses in '08-09.