IU - Lafayette Postgame

Wow... that was weird... where to start?

IU 91 - Lafayette 66 - iuhoosiers.com

Attendence... announced at 8,000... I guessed 6-7K, which is just plain sad. At least 2K were Butler fans, 100 Notre Dame fans and about 50 Lafayette fans. That leaves IU fans at under 6,000. Anyone who doesn't think 5 years of Mike Davis did serious harm to the IU program and fan base needs to pull their head out. But come on IU fans in Indy... Kelvin Sampson is a great coach and the IU basketball program will be turned around very quickly... get on the bandwagon now and get your asses to Conseco Tuesday night.

The Pregame... very interesting to see the assistance coaches out leading the first 20 minutes of IU's warmup... going through specific drills. Then the strength and conditioning coach lead 10 minutes of stretching... then the last 20 minutes was a normal warmup after 10 minutes back in the locker room.

The Officials... I can't really comment on the game without commenting on the zebras since the entire first 32 minutes were non-stop whistles. It was awful... the first half took an hour to play 20 minutes and there was never a flow. The second half began the same as the first with DJ picking up his 4th foul on a ticky tack call 17 seconds in... and continued until the score was 61-58 with 8 minutes to go and the time sitting at 11pm. Interestingly enough, the lead official spent the tv timeout talking to the ESPN crew, then called all 3 officials together and guess what happened next? The game changed 180 degrees. The whistles were swallowed and suddenly both teams were allowed to play and IU ran away from Lafayette. All I can figure is that ESPN wanted the game over as quickly as possible since Sportscenter was supposed to start at 11am on ESPN2 due to MNF. By swallowing their whistles, the last 8 minutes were played in 15 minutes. If anyone else can explain why the officiating changed, I'm listening.

Did I mention that 52 fouls were called between the 2 teams along with 44 turnovers... that's a lot of whistles.

The Players... a big shout out goes to Earl Calloway for his best game yet as a Hoosier. With everyone else in foul trouble, Earl just started taking the ball to the basket for layup after 10 foot pull up to the tune of 22 points. When he wasn't scoring he was dishing 9 assists... most to Wilmont, who went for 24 points. Now that was some serious guard play!

Congrats to IU as a team for playing through the first 30 minutes and finishing the game strong. And great job DJ, for staying in the game mentally and being a cheerleader on the bench when you couldn't be in there.

Tomorrow against Butler should be interesting. If more IU fans don't show up, it won't be a home court advantage for IU. And if the same officials show up, it won't be enjoyable to watch either. But I will be there!