A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
On Saturday at 7:00 ET, the 20th-ranked Indiana Hoosiers (17-6, 5-6) travel to West Lafayette to take on their arch rivals, the Purdue Boilermakers (15-7, 5-4), on the Big Ten Network.
As always, Jerod, Ryan, and Andy will be here with another episode of The Assembly Call as soon as the game ends with instant analysis and fan reaction.
March Madness 2012 can’t get here soon enough for me, although last Saturday’s action brought plenty of madness on its own.
Interestingly enough though, finding teams for this week’s stock watch was tough because so many teams appear to be locked into win-one, lose-one mode.
Since we’ve reached the halfway point of the season, I wanted to break down the contenders for Big Ten Player of the Year. I think it’s fair to say this list has some significant changes compared to what I would have put together prior to the season.
A number of college basketball bracketologists released updated projections on Tuesday, and while it’s easy to argue the merits of doing this so early, it certainly makes for some interesting discussion and helps gauge where teams stand as conference play gets rolling.
I’ll be releasing my own projections starting next week, but for now I thought it would be worthwhile to look at how Big Ten teams are shaping up with as many as nine of them in some of these mock brackets.
I learn something new each week from watching college basketball.
For instance, this week I learned Marquette coach Buzz Williams’ fashion sense is questionable at best.
I also learned that sometimes big games can actually live up to the hype (yeah, I’m talking to you Alabama and LSU).
And I learned that whenever there’s a game I’m really excited to watch, somehow Jimmy Dykes always ends up on the call trying to ruin it for me.
I also learned about some teams and conferences, which I’ll share in this week’s stock watch.
The 13th annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge tips of on Tuesday, and after 10 years of disappointment the Big Ten is looking to extend its own winning streak to three.
For the first time, both leagues have the same number of teams, so there are 12 games on this year’s slate. (In the event of a 6-6 tie, the Big Ten will retain the Commissioner’s Cup in case you were wondering. Spoiler alert: That shouldn’t be an issue.)
The old “battle for the Shillelagh Trophy” will ensue this Saturday when the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame (2-2) travel to West Lafayette to take on the rival Purdue Boilermakers (3-1).
Notre Dames’ 15-12 win against Pittsburgh last Sunday was anything but pretty, but it was a must-win game on the road if the Irish have any hope of playing in a major bowl game.
Purdue is coming off a whopping 59-0 victory over Southeast Missouri State, but the Boilermakers will be facing a much bigger test this Saturday.
I believe it was Bon Jovi that sang/asked, “Who says you can’t go home?” In the case of Matt Painter, it may be more like, “Who says you can’t leave home.”
Rumors have steadily intensified over the last few days that Painter was the #1 choice of Missouri to replace the departed Mike Anderson as its head basketball coach. I laughed off the rumors at first, considering them absurd. Painter grew up in Indiana, played at Purdue, coached there under Gene Keady, and has rebuilt Purdue from rubble into one of the top teams in the Big Team. Why the heck would he leave?
Well I’m not laughing off the rumors anymore, and neither should Purdue fans. In fact, it’s time to get very, very worried if you don the old gold and black.
From Vahe Gregorian at STLToday.com:
Purdue coach Matt Painter will meet with Mizzou soon to gauge the school’s commitment to the basketball program, sources told the Post-Dispatch today.
A resolution to the Painter situation will likely be Wednesday. One source said it was better than a 50 percent chance that Painter would accept an offer.
Purdue fans, all together now: *GULP*.
I’m often asked why I started Midwest Sports Fans a little over three years ago, and why I spend so much time creating content for it and trying to grow it today.
There are a number of answers that would be partially right, but none would be more right than this: I started MSF so that when I feel passionately about something in the sports world, I have a forum where I can express it and promote it and know that at least a few people will read it.
Well tonight is one of those nights where I feel pretty strongly about something, and although I’m sure there are other, perhaps better ways I could spend a Sunday evening, I’m going to spend mine angrily pounding the keys of my laptop to defend a man whose alma mater is my sworn enemy.
Last night, immediately after the brackets were announced, I went about the process of running through my bracket picking system to figure out my official one-and-only bracket. Now that this is out of the way, I can step back a bit from trying to analyze what I think will happen and take a look at what I hope will happen – independent of if it is what I predicted.
One of the most entertaining activities to engage in with a fresh, new bracket is to see all the possible matchups that could reasonably (or unreasonably) materialize. In this post, I run down 10 matchups that I really hope to see happen, and encourage you to share yours as well.
On Wednesday night, the highly ranked Purdue Boilermakers head south to Bloomington for a battle with their arch rivals, the Indiana Hoosiers. In the first battle a few weeks back in West Lafayette, the Hoosiers played valiantly but ultimately came up short. In the friendly confines of Assembly Hall, the Hoosiers will be looking to salvage their season by taking down the hated and favored Boilers. Regardless of what happens Wednesday night, this game will most likely mark the end of a recent era that has seen Purdue dominate Indiana in almost every conceivable way.
After Wednesday, the Boilers will go as far as seniors E’Twaun Moore and JaJaun Johnson can take them in the Big 10 and NCAA Tournaments, but will then have to fill those gargantuan shoes next season. Indiana, on the other hand, loses only defensive specialist Jeremiah Rivers while adding McDonald’s All-American Cody Zeller to a lineup that will be more experienced and more talented than any IU team since Eric Gordon was wearing the Cream & Crimson. And with Tom Crean already lining up commitments from top in-state recruit after top in-state recruit for the 2012, 2013, and 2014 classes, the balance of power in the Basketball State seems to be shifting back towards Bloomington.
Crean and Purdue head coach Matt Painter recently discussed the relative states of their programs, and as expected MSF was there to capture the entire conversation. It is presented below, verbatim, in photo story format.
My little brother does a lot of things that make me proud of him.
Among many: he’s battled back from three – yes three – ACL tears in his knees; he gave a lot of his time in high school, and still does when he’s home, to our family’s little brother in the Big Brother/Big Sister program; he does well academically and will someday be an outstanding physical therapist; he’s a ridiculously awesome gamer (though we debate whether that’s a good use of his time or not…); he has impressive game with the ladies; and many more.
But I’m not sure I’ve ever been as proud of him as I was last night when he sent me a few pictures from his foray into the Land of Mediocrity: West Lafayette, Indiana.
I just got back from running a few errands. I opened Twitter and the first thing I see is this from my Twitter buddy @AaronPotter19:
@JerodMSF Robbie Hummel: OUT FOR SEASON
As you know, I’m an IU fanatic. I hate Purdue, with every fiber of my being. Yet I still felt like someone had punched me in the stomach the second I read that.
And sorry Tyler, I cannot agree with you. The IU fan in me most certainly does not love this.
Were Notre Dame fans expecting an Irish victory on Saturday against Purdue? Of course. Like Cubs fans, hope springs eternal for the Irish fan base. But after the last eight years, there was really no way to predict what ND’s on-field product would look like.
The most surprising part of Saturday’s 23-12 Irish victory? The competence shown on both sides of the ball. [Read more...]
Week one of the 2010 college football season seemed to just sneak up on us.
If you’re a fan of Indiana football (the state, not the university), you have to enjoy this first week match-up between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Purdue Boilermakers.
Both teams come into this season with a lot of mystery to them. They both begin 2010 with a new quarterback and an inexperienced backfield, which makes analyzing and predicting that much harder; but it also will lead to some surprises…some bad and some good.
