Senior Day Cancelled This Year!

In an interview today on WNDE in Indy, Mike Davis made some very bizarre statements.

Davis commented that if IU had 4 seniors and were 12-11, that might be cause for concern. But the wheels aren't falling off. The youth on this team is showing tremendous improvement over the year. Schools have rebuilding years and we must face it. This is a rebuilding year. Next year is going to be awesome. We don't lose anyone and we have 4 new guys coming in.

What??? There's that rebuilding excuse. Funny, we only lost 2 players from last year. Usually rebuilding years occur after a team loses 4 or 5 seniors. And what about not losing anyone? What about Mike Roberts? Ryan Tapak? Mark Johnson? Last I saw, they were all seniors. I guess we won't have a senior day this year since we don't have any seniors. Between Davis today and Kellogg yesterday, they must know what they are talking about.

Davis also mentioned that he was watching the NBA Slam Dunk contest this weekend and was envisioning what could have been had Josh Smith come to Indiana and Rothbart as well. Instead of starting 3 or 4 freshman, he would have been starting 5 freshmen.

Interesting... instead of preparing for Michigan, he was watching an NBA dunk contest. Did I call it? Also, what happened to the Bracey love fest? Starting 5 freshmen means Bracey sitting on the bench. I just can't believe Davis would do that.

Davis also spoke to the Hoosiers NCAA chances. Davis absolutely thinks IU is in a good position with the Tourney committee. They are 12-11, 7-5 in the B10 and they have played a tough schedule with a young team and the committee will factor in that they played 3 games without Bracey. He figures that if they can get 2 or 3 more wins, which would put them at 9 or 10 B10 wins, combined with the fact that the B10 is the 3rd best conference, that should put IU in the NCAA. He also figures that the committee will factor in the Charlotte game due to the clock error. Davis then went into a lengthy analogy about the Charlotte game being similar to getting a 75 MPH speeding ticket in a 65 MPH zone. Once you have paid your ticket, if they find out that the Radar Gun is 10 MPH over, you won't get your money back. When JMV stated that he must've thought about that game a lot to come up with that analogy, he stated that he heard that from AD Greenspan.

Oh where to start... let's see, IU wins 2 more games and goes 9-7 in the B10 and 14-13 overall... unless they win the B10, that won't get them in. It's one thing to play tough teams, but if you don't beat them... 1-6 against the top 50 won't cut it. The B10 is the 3rd best conference? Are you kidding me? Outside of Illinois, this is a very week B10. If the committee didn't take Tech's loss 2 years ago at Oklahoma into account, they aren't going to take the Charlotte game into account. And what kind of analogy is that? If that did come from Greenspan, that really, really scares me.

JMV asked Davis about his relationship with Rick Greenspan. Davis commented that he has a great relationship with Greenspan and President Herbert. He commented that he meets every week with Greenspan and he is a great AD, because he understands basketball, he understands scheduling and he understands the cycles of youth in today's game.

If that is the case and Greenspan is listening to Davis, that will be the death knell of Greenspan. Nothing like keeping Davis around to screw the BBall program even more.

JMV asked Davis what the most difficult thing was in recruiting kids today. Davis immediately jumped in that the negativity of the IU fans is his biggest challenge. He claims that every recruit asks him if he is going to be there for all 4 years? They ask him if he is liked up there? This negativity out of the fan base has just really killed his recruiting.

Let me pull out one thing... "is he liked up there?" So where is Davis recruiting again? Oh yes, the SOUTH. Not Indiana, the SOUTH. And kids today listen to Internet sites? Right! It's my fault Davis hasn't landed the #1 recruits he promised 5 years ago.

And finally, Davis wrapped up his comments by stating that "If we can't get up for these last 4 games, there is something wrong with us. But you have to remember, we are such a young team, 9 or 10 B10 wins is a GREAT SEASON for this team."

Davis is absolutely the master of lowering expectations. If only he could coach as well, we wouldn't be having any problems. 9 or 10 B10 wins is a GREAT SEASON??? Wow!