Baseball wrapup.

Before my hiatus, I began tracking the baseball team but hadn't checked in on the guys in a while. It turns out I didn't miss much. The Hoosiers finished 19-35 overall, 8-23 (10th place) in the Big Ten. Wisconsin doesn't have a baseball team, so that's last place. Outfielder Andrew Means, also a wideout on the football team, was second team All Big Ten, but that was about it. Here are the final stats. A few notes:

• The trend I noted in earlier posts continued. The Hoosiers simply did not hit for power. They finished the season with 8 HR, compared to 29 for their opponents.
• Freshman pitcher Matt Bashore didn't keep up with his early season pace, but struck out 50 in 70 innings.
• IU's top four pitcher by ERA were freshmen or Sophomores: sophomore Tyler Tufts, Bashore, freshman Chris Squires, and sophomore Joe Vicini.

Tough year for the Hoosiers, but the youth of this year's team plus the imminent groundbreaking on the new stadium should point the program in the right direction.

News and notes.

Sorry for the lack of updates. The real job and a baby on the way about a month from tomorrow have slowed me down.

• Joe Tiller: not a nice man. Look, I can imagine that it's upsetting to find one's players staying out until 2 a.m. on a weeknight during spring practice. But when the reason the coach finds out about it is because a player was stabbed and is in intensive care, perhaps a bit of compassion is in order. Can you imagine how the kid's parents felt, the coach expressing his lack of concern while their son was in the hospital hooked up to a bunch of machines? The various recruiting and PR flaps at Purdue simply cannot help recruiting. I know that given Tiller's 10-1 record against IU, this comes across like sour grapes, and it probably is to some degree, but the guy is becoming an embarrassment.
• Basketball coaching carousel. Michigan replaced Tommy Amaker with John Beilein. Iowa replaced Steve Alford with Todd Lickliter. Minnesota replaced Dan Monson with Tubby Smith. Lickliter is a bit of a gamble, but Beilein and Smith both have won in major conferences and, particularly along with Kelvin Sampson replacing Mike Davis a year ago, the Big Ten's dead weight is largely gone. The fans who really must be clenching up are the Northwestern and Penn State fans. How will those programs ever get out of the cellar?
• Spring practice continues. I really want to talk about football, but I just cannot get into spring practice. Ever. It's just a big tease. "Ha, we'll put on the uniforms and hold press conference, but you don't get to see a real game for five months!" IU held a scrimmage today, the traditional "Pancakes and Pigskin" day, but IU canceled the breakfast because of the cold. Admirably, Doug Wilson liveblogged today's public scrimmage.
• Kentucky hires Billy Gillispie. Kentucky hired Billy Gillispie away from Texas A&M. That's a pretty sound hire, but not a home run. Gillispie seems like a good coach, and Kentucky is one of the few programs that has never hired a subpar coach during the NCAA Tournament era. After Rupp, Joe B. Hall won a title, Eddie Sutton had some success before scandal cut his UK tenure short, Rick Pitino rebuilt the program, and Tubby won a title and a bunch of games. Of course, Gillispie has only a handful of seasons of head coaching experience, but he seems to have the personality, and he did a remarkable job at a school with no history of success in basketball. His resume is probably less impressive than that of Tubby Smith when UK hired him, but after nine years of disappointment, it probably was time for a change.
• Baseball off to a rough start. IU stands at 11-11 after dropping three of four to MSU in last weekend's opener. This weekend's series against Northwestern has been hampered by the weather.

IU baseball.

Unlike at many southern and western schools, baseball has never taken off as a quasi-major sport at IU. Frankly, there are very few quality baseball programs in the northeastern quadrant of the country. Of the 25 teams ranked in the current USA Today coaches' poll, Wichita State is the only school that wouldn't be considered southern or western. Of the 26 teams "also receiving votes," only Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota (?!), Southern Illinois, and Kansas State fit the bill. Kentucky is ranked #18 despite a climate similar to that of southern Indiana's, but UK has the advantage of gong south for all of its conference road games. On the other hand, the Big Ten school with the least hospitable climate is the only Big Ten program in the top 50 right now, so go figure.

One of IU's disadvantages is antiquated Sembower Field, a Pony League-caliber field across the street from Briscoe and McNutt quads. If IU's facilities enhancement plan comes to full fruition, IU will be building new baseball and softball facilities that would be worthy of being called "stadium" rather than "field." Until that happens, it seems unlikely that IU will do anything to put a dent in the southern/western dominance of college baseball. On the other hand, with the least severe climate in the Big Ten, IU would seem to be in a decent position to produce a quality baseball program if the resources are provided. A couple of years ago, IU replaced the long-tenured Bob Morgan, who won only one Big Ten title in a generation of coaching, with Tracy Smith, a former IU pitching coach who executed a nice turnaround at Miami of Ohio.

IU begins the Big Ten season this afternoon against Michigan State. The Hoosiers currently stand at 10-8, with all of the wins coming against teams from non-power conferences. IU doesn't have any offensive standouts to date. Amazingly, IU has only one home run this season in 18 games. I don't follow college baseball closely enough to know how unusual that is, but note that the IU pitching staff has allowed eight. Freshman pitcher Matt Bashore, from Tipp City, Ohio, seems to be showing some promise. In 27.1 innings pitched in five appearances (four starts), Bashore has a 1.63 ERA with 22 Ks and only 11 walks. His 1.14 WHIP would be very good by MLB standards, but again, I don't follow college baseball closely enough to know how good that is.

I'll keep an eye on the baseball Hoosiers as the season progresses.

The week to come.

Now that the inaugural season of the Kelvin Sampson era is complete, look for some sort of basketball post mortem this week. I also plan to provide an update and some discussion of the baseball team. Meanwhile, believe it or not, there is an Indiana University team still playing basketball: the IU women play Iona in the WNIT tonight at Assembly Hall.