Lavin... now he was funny!

Lavin had some real winners tonight. I wasn't interested enough to DVR and rewind, so these quotes are close, but not perfect...

Early in the game, ESPN promoted ESPN Classic with a clip from Kentucky at LSU in 1995. If you don't remember that year... zoobas, those hideous balloon pants with the crazy patterns were huge... and Kentucky had long shorts with a horrible white splatter pattern all over them. Musberger comes back from the clip and comments "How about those shorts?" Lavin, obviously not having watched the clip stated "Those short shorts from back then were just crazy" and then launches into a lengthy discussion about short shorts. Musberger just let him go... funny!

As IU was in the midst of a 5 minute drought, Lavin stated "IU just can't get their shots to fall. It's been their problem all year long. They get great shots out of Davis' offense, they just can't make those open shots."

In the midst of talking about how great a recruiter Davis is... Musberger asked Lavin "Recruiting or Coaching? Which is more important?" Lavin predictably states "Recruiting, hands down. Wooden proved the most important thing was talent." Note to Steve, that is why you are no longer coaching, coaching is important and you can't coach!

In the second half, Lavin comments about how Davis has a deep bench. "In fact he has 19 players on his team, though they can't all travel. But Davis is just doing a great job of rotating his players and keeping everyone fresh." Hmmm... Davis only played 8 guys and Marshall, Vaden, White and Ratliff played nearly the whole game with Ewing, Wilmont and Hardy sharing time in the 5th slot... not sure what Lavin was watching.

ESPN ran a graphic showing former head coaches who are now assistants and IU has 2 of them in Donnie Marsh and Kerry Rupp. Lavin points out an assistant on Matta's staff that was a long time assistant to Huggins at Cincy, then talks about some NBA assistants who made their career as long time assistants. HUH????? Lavin, do you even pay attention before you flap your gums?

With IU on a run early in the second half, Lavin stated "IU is at their best when their backs are against the wall. During Davis' tenure, last year down the stretch was the only time Davis' kids failed him." Great... blame it on the kids. It is Davis who failed the kids with his lack of coaching knowledge.

While IU was still ahead, Lavin brought up the following: "Davis brought a lot of experience from the CBA. He brings alot of those sets into the college game. It's a great strategy because most college coaches aren't used to that type of offense." It sure has been great... averaging 63 pts a game and being held to 44 in this game sure highlighted the success of that strategy.

And the best... "It is going to be a special environment in here on February 7 when OSU retires John Havlicek's number and hangs his uniform in the rafters." Had he just said it once, I would have chalked it up as he meant March 7, but he said it a second time and Brent didn't correct him. So does Lavin have a time machine so he can go back and experience that special environment 8 days ago?

And Brent can't go unscathed. In the first half while praising Davis and his youth and their difficult schedule, he commented that if IU wins 4 of their next 6 games, they are lock for the NCAA tourney. It's a moot point as they won't win 4 games, but even if they had, they wouldn't be in the NCAA tourney.

At least Jay Bilas has a brain. At the half, he disagreed with Brent and laid out IU's credentials, or should I say lack there of... 10-11 overall, 1-7 against top 50 teams, 96th in the RPI and only 2 more games against top 5o teams. Even if they win out, they won't have enough quality wins.

Thank you Jay! After Digger and Jarvis put IU in the tourney last night, I thought all ESPN heads had gone loopy. At least there is one intellegent talking head out there... actually 2 as Bill Raferty is smart guy.