IU Basketball Post Game

IU 52 - Wisconsin 70

And mercifully a poor regular season comes to an end. This college basketball season seems to have lasted for years. IU finished the regular season at 13-14, 7-9 in the Big Ten.

Before I get to the game. A big thank you to George Leach, AJ Moye and Jason Stewart. You may not have gone out with a win, but you all went out as winners in life! AJ has the biggest heart I've seen in a long time. If he were 6-8, he would be a lottery pick next year. With AJ's love and enthusiasm for Basketball... I hope he can make some money Europe and then get into the coaching ranks with a good program. As for George I truly believe he gave what he had for 5 years and with a good mentor, could have been such a better big man. I hope to see you both back in the Hall in the future.

As for the game... same 'ol same 'ol. Bad shot after bad shot causing IU to shoot under 40% yet again. Wisconsin exploited IU's weakness at the defensive end... Bracey. In the first 10 minutes, Devin Harris scored 16 points while Bracey just watched him. Finally Davis acted like a coach and pulled Bracey at the 10 minute mark. Bracey sat down beside Dane Fife who proceeded to spend the next 5 minutes talking to Bracey. Unfortunately, Bracey didn't listen to Dane, he argued with him. I would like to point out the excellent job Donald Perry did on Devin Harris holding him scoreless the last 10 minutes of the first half.

The second half was more of the same until Davis pulled Bracey at the 9 minute mark and inserted Ryan Tapak. In the next 3 minutes IU went on a 9-0 run where Marshall ran his man off multiple screens and hit 2 big 3 pointers in a row. The next possession Wisconsin overplayed on Marshall leaving Tapak wide open for a 3. However, Wisconsin never panicked and proceeded to run their offense and score at will while IU took some bad shots and Wisconsin pulled away. I did find one instance with 5 minutes to be quite humorous. Bracey was pulled at the 9 minute mark and while the crowd and team was enjoying the 9-0 run... Bracey clearly was not. He sat on the bench and did not celebrate with his team. Once Wisconsin made their run and pulled away, Bracey got up at the 5 minute mark and went to Davis. Davis sent him back to the bench and sent George in. Mike, why did you wait 27 games to finally use the bench as a motivating tool for Bracey?

Moye led the team today in scoring with 11 pts and 9 rebounds, George had 10 pts and 8 rebounds and Bracey had 8 while going 4-8 from 2pt range and 0-8 from 3 pt range without getting to the free throw line.

As for the post game activities, thanks Mike for keeping the team in the locker room for twenty minutes after the game and making us all just sit there and wait. And then to not come out and introduce the seniors... pretty gutless if you ask me. George and AJ gave their all for you... would have been nice of you to give your all for them. And Bracey... please go pro. What was with you and Marshall standing away from the rest of your team and showing absolutely no support or interest in AJ and George? Way to be a team player... 2 thumbs way up.

And one last thing. What was the excuse for the Students not coming to this game? I heard they didn't come Wednesday because most have classes on Wednesday evening and they were preparing for midterms. What about today? Too early? Couldn't get up by noon... Studying late? During the TV timeout with 4 minutes left in the first half, I counted the empty seats on the bleacher in the North End... 87 empties? Unbelievable. I didn't count the South end, but it was about the same. As for the main level, it was slightly better than Wednesday... probably 2/3rds full. The balconies... pathetic... The west side was about 2/3rds full, but 1/3 of that were the alumni sitting up there. The east side balcony was less than 1/3rd full. I don't ever want to hear a student complaining about the "blue hairs" getting the good seats and not standing the whole game. They were there today. Oh well... I guess the students have spoken. They no longer care about IU Basketball. Now that is SAD!