Bad Boys.

I haven't done as much as I had hoped with this off week for the basketball team, although the Indianapolis Star managed to fill the void with its interview of Eric Gordon, who confirmed long-circulating rumors about drug use on last year's team. I gave an interview on this matter to Chadd Scott of Bustersports.com last night, and hopefully between all the throat-clearing and baby crying you will hear something coherent.

Of course, neither Gordon, nor Adam Ahlfeld, nor Jeff Rabjohns provided a ton of detail. I would be curious to know whether the problems related only to marijuana or whether they included hard stuff. Either way, if it was rampant enough to cause divisions between teammates, it was far too much, and yet another item is added to the bill of particulars against Kelvin Sampson. There is no college campus, and probably no basketball program, that is free of marijuana use (and that includes Knight's IU program), but again, there seems to have been a lack of focus by Sampson on anything outside of basketball. One of thing that I found refreshing about Sampson was that he wasn't a pretentious pseudo-renaissance man. For instance, Sampson would never appear in a credit coach claiming to be "a leader who happens to coach basketball." He was a pure gym rat who saw no dishonor in the title of basketball coach. But there is a flip side. This drug issue, and the phone calls, and the academic implosion of the program all show that he was doing a disservice to his players. Sampson was screwed as soon as the news broke in October 2007. But wouldn't Jamarcus Ellis, Deandre Thomas, Armon Bassett, etc. be better off if Sampson had cared a bit more about the other stuff?

Now, as if the football team was embarrassing enough on the field, redshirt freshman defensive back Cortez Smith was arrested for robbery. Unless this is a case of mistaken identity, it's safe to say that Smith's brief stay in Bloomington is over.

It would be nice to have something good to say about IU sports. I don't give much coverage to the women's basketball team, but they did recently finish the non-conference 7-2 and are ranked #23 in the RPI and #35 in the Sagarin. The women's team hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since its surprising Big Ten Tournament championship in 2002 (still the only such championship by any IU team) and hasn't received an at-large bid since 1995. Given the lack of suspense regarding the men's postseason prospects, this is worth watching.

Eric Gordon.

To the surprise of no one, Eric Gordon announced that he is entering the NBA Draft. Check out Inside the Hall for press conference video. Here's Gordon's Yahoo game log. Unfortunately, Gordon's stat line tracked the Hoosiers' fortunes. Gordon's career high, 33 points, came in his first game, against Chattanooga. Gordon's lowest scoring output, 8 points (not counting his injury-shortened performance against Tennessee State), came in his last game, the NCAA loss to Arkansas.

Much has been said about IU's late season decline: the coaching change, insubordination by certain players, Dakich's stubborn refusal to stick with the zone defense that saved IU's season, and so forth. All of those issues played a role in IU's tailspin, but absent Eric Gordon's complete inability to hit three pointers for the last quarter of the season, it's likely that the end would have been different. It's hard to say what the cause was. Was it just a slump? Did he hit the freshman wall? Did he somehow aggravate his wrist injury? My guess is an undisclosed injury, but it's hard to say. Gordon had played 18 games before he injured his wrist, immediately before the trip to Wisconsin. At that point in the season, Gordon was 46-114 from behind the arc (.403). In the first six games that Gordon wore the wrist brace, a stretch that included two games against Wisconsin, the trip to Illinois, and a home game against MSU, Gordon was 16-41 from three point range (.391). Beginning with Sampson's last game, the home win against Purdue, Gordon was 8-53 (.151). Certainly, given the huge volume of shots taken, it's possible to question shot selection. But just a minor slump, say, a fall to 30 percent, and IU may well have been a bit more respectable down the stretch. Still, Gordon was an important recruit and provided some exciting moments and I wish him lots of success in the NBA.

Big Ten awards announced.

The Big Ten announced its postseason awards today. Here's the link. The Hoosier highlights:

• DJ White was named Big Ten player of the year, apparently unanimously, by both the media and coaches.
• Eric Gordon was named Big Ten freshman of the year, apparently unanimously, by both the media and coaches.
• White and Gordon were both named to the all-Big Ten first team. The reason I said "apparently unanimously" above is because the link indicates that all caps denotes a unanimous selection. While White's name is in all caps as Big Ten POY, it is not for First Team. Is it possible that White was the unanimous Big Ten POY but not unanimous first team all Big Ten? Odd. Gordon and Robbie Hummel of Purdue were both noted as unanimous first team selections.
• Armon Bassett was selected to the third team by both the media and coaches.
• Jamarcus Ellis was honorable mention by the media.
• Eric Gordon was a unanimous all-freshman pick, along with Hummel and E'Twaun Moore of Purdue, Kosta Koufos of Ohio State, and Manny Harris of Michigan (all unanimous).

The plot thickens.

Like NBC's ER, the melodrama gets ever more unrealistic, except this is really happening. Hoosier Scoop (see sidebar and below for the link, I'm rushed) reports that six Hoosiers (DJ White, Armon Bassett, Deandre Thomas, Brandon McGee, and Jordan Crawford) are not at practice. If my math is correct, that means that four active scholarship players (Eric Gordon, Lance Stemler, Mike White, and former walkon Kyle Taber) are practicing, along with walkons Brett Finkelmeier and Adam Ahlfeld and the ostensibly injured Eli Holman. I'm not jumping to any conclusions, and there are any number of innocent explanations, but this is worth following. Per the H-T, Ray McCallum is also absent, and Dan Dakich is leading the practice, and made a statement at the beginning of practice that seemed to confirm that Sampson is out and Dakich is in.

Indiana 83, Illinois 79 (2OT).

As I said last night, I can't believe IU won. I wasn't confident going in, the atmosphere was even worse than expected, and IU ended up down 10 in the second half, thanks to the Illini's uncharacteristically good performance from behind the arc. Eric Gordon struggled, scoring only one point in the first half and finishing 3-13 from the field. Still, despite a nice performance from Illinois, IU pulled it out.

About that atmosphere. IU fans are not innocent in this regard. Transfer Luke Recker and hometown product/legacy Sean May were treated poorly by IU fans when they played in Assembly Hall in recent years, as was Lawrence Funderburke back when I was a student. When I was a student, I thought it was just great. By the time the Recker/May games rolled around, I thought it was a bit much. The booing, the chants, and all that aren't classy, but they happen everywhere. And I certainly won't object to the well-deserved ribbing that Kelvin Sampson takes for his NCAA violations. My problem with Illinois is that the atmosphere wasn't a grass roots exercise spurred by immature and intoxicated students: at Illinois, it starts at the top. Illinois athletic director Ron Guenther repeatedly has referred to Gordon's change of heart as a "defection" (who the hell does Guenther think he is, Fidel Castro?). Weber complains about it constantly, particularly in the press conferences surrounding the first IU game, when he discussed being one player away and all that. Of course Weber is right, to a degree. As I have noted in most of my previous posts, Illinois does lots of things very well, but offsets those successes by shooting very poorly most of the time. This would be a much better Illinois team if Eric Gordon were on the team. But he's not, and he never will be.

Weber should look in the mirror and ask himself how in the world a program that played in the NCAA title game in 2005 can be so dependent on a single one-and-done recruit that the program ends up in the cellar without him. He also should ask himself whether his constant whining enhances the public image of his program. He and Illini fans have allowed Eric Gordon's switch to become the defining moment of his program. At some point, he should move forward, accept it, and try to beat Kelvin Sampson for the next recruit. For a college head coach, Weber just doesn't seem to relish competition. In his press conference last night, all he did was whine about the bad bounces that the Illini have had this year. They have had some bad bounces, but they also shoot 30 percent from three point range and 60 percent from the line. Any team with numbers like that is going to lose a bunch of games. As I said, the chants were going to happen no matter what. But Weber's constant complaining about this certainly fuels the anger of the Illinois fans. I won't blame him for the chants, but I will blame him for promoting an atmosphere that led to debris raining down on the Gordons and an Illinois player taking a cheap shot at Gordon during introductions. The game should have begun with two shots and the ball for IU. What kind of wuss must one be to take a cheap shot at someone during introductions? The kind of player who plays for a self-pitying, mouth-breathing crybaby like Bruce Weber, apparently. He complains publicly. He won't shake the hands of IU players or assistants. All this over a 17 year-old who changed his mind about where to go to college.

Box score. Yes, there was a basketball game, and a damn good one. It is to the Illini's credit that watching them play IU is a stressful experience--I can't imagine what it's like to play them. They defend well, crash the offensive boards, yet still manage to get back on defense to prevent transition opportunities. Pomeroy's tempo-free numbers for this game aren't up yet, but this appears to have been about a 77 possession game, which computes to about 61.5 possessions for a 40 minute game. So the pace certainly was consistent with Illinois's game. It certainly felt as if the Illini shot better than 36 percent from behind the arc, probably because of the sheer number of threes made (11). The Hoosiers also made 11 on 23 attempts. Illinois took more shots, mostly because they took good care of the ball (11 turnovers, which is very good for a 77 possession game) and didn't shoot many free throws. Ultimately, the Hoosiers won the game at the line, with 22-29 compared to Illinois's 8-17. Neither team rebounded all that well offensively, given the number of missed shots. Really, this was a pretty evenly matched game that came down to free throws at key moments at the end of regulation and overtimes, and IU made shots while Sean Pruitt did not.

Individuals:

• Further evidence that Eric Gordon isn't capable of a truly bad game. Sure, 3-13 and seven turnovers are bad numbers, and the 10 second violation was inexcusable, but Gordon still scored 19 points thanks to the free throws.
• Jamarcus Ellis also shot poorly (9 points on 10 shots), including two free throws that could have ended the game in the first overtime. Still, 11 rebounds on 3 steals.
• DJ White's line wasn't as impressive as in other games (17 points on 11 shots, 9 rebounds), but he also added 3 steals and 2 blocks.
• Jordan Crawford is always dangerous to one team, and fortunately he was dangerous to the opponent this time. 18 points on 13 shots, 4-6 from three point range, only 2 turnovers in 32 minutes.
• Armon Bassett scored 16 points on eight shots. Despite 3-8 from the field, he was 8-8 from the line, mostly in the second overtime.
• Kyle Taber, by playing invisible, mistake free ball, continues to take minutes from Mike White and Deandre Thomas. In 21 minutes, Taber made his only shot (a putback), pulled down three rebounds, and didn't turn the ball over (although he did bobble a ball that he could have saved from going out of bounds). Hopefully his do-no-harm approach will provide an example to his teammates at the power forward position.

Well, I'm glad it's over, although IU certainly could face the Illini in the BTT if the Illini win on the first day. IU now plays at Ohio State on Sunday (thankfully, it's not Saturday, so the Hoosiers will have some time to recover. After that, IU plays home games against Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Purdue. While IU has a good chance to win each individual game, even a 3-1 record over that stretch will put IU in excellent position to contend for the Big Ten title and a high seed. IU is now 4-1 on the road in the Big Ten with Penn State and Northwestern still remaining (in addition to OSU, a toss-up, and MSU, a likely loss). If the Hoosiers can continue to defend their homecourt, and especially if they pick up a win in Columbus, they will be in the hunt for the conference title until the very end.

Illinois, take two.

Illinois Fighting Illini

Current record: 10-13

Big Ten record: 2-8

Current RPI: 123

Current Sagarin: 87

2006-07 record:

2006-07 RPI: 30

2006-07 Sagarin: 51

Series: IU leads 82-77

Last IU win: 1/13/08, 62-58 in Bloomington

Last Illinois win: 3/9/07, 58-54 (OT) in Chicago (BTT quarterfinals)

Last IU win in Champaign: 2/24/99 (70-64 in OT)

TV: 9 pm Thursday, ESPN

Pomeroy profile

The Illini, just three years removed from a one-loss regular season and NCAA title game appearance, would require a dramatic turnaround even to find themselves in NIT contention. Still, the Illini were very effective against IU in the Hoosiers' close win in Bloomington a month ago and have invariably played the Hoosiers tough during the Weber era. Weber is 6-3 against IU, and the three Illinois losses have been by four points or fewer. IU's effective field goal percentage (the Pomeroy metric that includes free throws in the calculation) of 44.9% is IU's second lowest total of the season (the loss to Wisconsin was worse). Last year, Illinois (in the two losses, in Champaign and Chicago) was responsible for two of IU's six worst EFG performances. IU managed a 50 percent EFG in the 2006-07 win in Bloomington, but IU's EFG was worse than 50 percent in only 13 of IU's 32 games that season. In short, win or lose, no Sampson-led IU team has had a good offensive game against Illinois. IU currently ranks #37 nationally with an EFG of 53.5, while 44.9 is a sub-300 average. So, IU, normally one of the most efficient shooting teams in the country, was made to look like one of the worst on its home court by an Illinois team that is now 2-8 in the Big Ten. Is it clear that I'm worried about this game?

My concerns go beyond the objective, obviously. To hear Bruce Weber and his compliant downstate media types talk, Eric Gordon's decision to back out of his verbal commitment to Illinois and attend Indiana is the only reason that Illinois isn't in the top 10 this year. While I think it would be in the best interest of the Illinois program and Bruce Weber for all involved to move on, they may have a point, given how well Illinois does everything except shoot and force turnovers. Still, they haven't moved on. Not by a longshot. The Orange Krush will be in rare form tomorrow night and the Illini team will be pumped up. After a rough first half against Wisconsin, Gordon has shot well despite the splint on his non-shooting hand. He can do it physically, but playing at the other Assembly Hall, the place where he once thought he would be playing college basketball, will present a psychological challenge. Writers and fans often overestimate the effect of intangibles on any given game, but such things will matter in this game. The Illini are 10-13 with nine games remaining, including the first game of the Big Ten Tournament. To so much as qualify for a NIT bid, the Illini must win at least seven of those games. Illinois has played the toughest part of its schedule, but with four road games left plus home games against Michigan State and Wisconsin, such an outcome is not likely. In other words, tomorrow night is the Illini's bowl game, so to speak. The Hoosiers need to approach this one like it's the NCAA Tournament, or they will lose.

Tomorrow I will take a closer look at the tempo free stats and other matters.

Gordon probably out and Bassett definitely out.

Per the Hoosier Scoop, Armon Bassett apparently has been suspended. I suppose it's possible that he is hurt, but in any event, they report from Assembly Hall that Bassett is there in a tie. Also, Seth Davis, at halftime of the Duke-Michigan game, just reported (citing Sampson) that Gordon will dress, but that he is doubtful, and is far from 100 percent. This game just got much tougher.

What is Mike DeCourcy talking about?

I mean that in two ways, both the "huh?" way and as a sincere question. Has there been some incident that escaped my attention and the attention of the local media?

DeCourcy wrote a column untitled "Winning is always a group effort." No controversy there, and the substance is what you would expect: team=good, excess individualism=bad. DeCourcy then says this:

Indiana has wrestled with this issue. Before meeting Georgia Tech, the Hoosiers collapsed against Xavier, losing, 80-65, in a game in which signs of discomfort with the publicity and attention gained by freshman star Eric Gordon began to leak from the Big Red machine.
"I'm sure if you put Kelvin (Sampson) under some truth serum, he'd say they're not playing well together," [Georgia Tech coach Paul] Hewitt says. "Once they figure out they all can have their individual glory when the team does well, Indiana will be one of the best teams in the country."

Actually, no truth serum is required. Sampson said as much, nearly verbatim, after the Xavier game. That a team isn't playing well together isn't necessary a sign of dissension, but could be related to having a bunch of first year Hoosiers in significant roles. So, what "signs" were there? Was there some sort of altercation, some post game quote, something else? Later, DeCourcy continues:

What makes the minor dysfunction at Indiana curious is how rarely Gordon is shooting, relative to his 26.6-point scoring average. Star big man D.J. White doesn't have a problem. He wants to win something that counts before he leaves Indiana, preferably after this, his redshirt junior season, and he understands that a teammate with Gordon's immense talent makes achievement plausible.
It apparently just comes down to Gordon getting his pictures in magazines and his highlights on ESPN. That hasn't worked for everybody. Eventually, it must because Gordon is going to produce the kind of numbers that generate headlines and, almost invariably, benefit his teammates.

Sampson says coaches can preach sacrifice and commitment to the team throughout the year, with signs and slogans tacked to locker room walls. But, he says, "When they hear that stuff in September, you're spitting into the wind. The best time is after a loss, when you can plant those seeds. And then, after a win, you can talk about the team because now they've all had a little success."

There are two direct quotes in that article, one from GT coach Hewitt, another fairly generic comment from Sampson. DeCourcy doesn't support this notion of dissension and Indiana with a direct quote, an anonymous quote, a "people close to the program" citation, or anything. He paints a picture of turmoil in IU's program without providing any way for us to consider the validity of his conclusion. The Sporting News allows comments at the end of its articles. When called on this article by an IU fan, DeCourcy gets cute:

This piece is not about Eric Gordon not being a team player. It's not declared. It's not implied. I would even suggest it's impossible to infer that. It's about how a few of his teammates (as stated in the article, not fellow star D.J. White) reacted to his early success. I'm not skewing anything. Please, read the article again and explain how you can come to the conclusion you did.

Maybe not. But the article did suggest that there is dissension at IU. I get the sense that DeCoursy thinks he is doing someone a favor by not naming names. But now all of IU's players are tarred with the "bad teammate" brush. And on what evidence? If there is actual disharmony in the locker room, then prove it, Mike. What were these amorphous "signs of discomfort," and more importantly, how do you know about those signs? Do you have a source? Did you see something on television? Or, faced with a deadline, did you decide to traffic in unsourced innuendo? The more I read the Sporting News, the more I think that the magazine will print nearly anything. What a terrible article. Sampson ought to think twice about giving any more interviews to this guy.

Terry Hutchens, M.D.

Sometimes, the fewer words, the better. Hutch's most recent blog entry would have been much better if it ended after the first sentence:

I have yet to hear anything new on Eric Gordon today.

That would have been true, concise, and worth reading. Unfortunately, Terry kept writing, and were all worse off for it. After guessing that IU might hold Gordon out for a couple of days, Hutch says:

Truthfully, though, I think the absolute best scenario could be to keep him out of the Kentucky game all together. In fact, why not just take it extremely slow and keep him out for a few weeks? Jordan Crawford will be back on Saturday. A.J. Ratliff will be back the following Saturday, and so the situation at guard will not be nearly so dire.

Wha? Hutch saw Gordon limping in the hallway. Therefore, he should miss several weeks. Got it.

But I think we have to look at what is the most important thing here? Is it beating Kentucky? No. I know how personal IU fans make that game but beating Kentucky while taking a chance with Eric Gordon's future is clearly not the answer.

Ah, here's the crux. A perspective post! You silly, silly IU fans. All you care about is winning, so consider yourself shamed by Terry Hutchens. Because Terry Hutchens saw Eric Gordon limping, not only does he suggest that Gordon should miss lots of time, but if you don't agree, you are willing to throw Eric Gordon's future to the wind. Of course, Hutch then dials it back and concedes that he has no idea whether Gordon is even hurting much today, let alone whether he has a serious injury that could become worse if Gordon plays. Then why write the article? After a brief dalliance in the real world, Hutch says:

But if he's hurting, and if he has difficulty practicing this week, then I'm just saying let's not lose sight of what is truly important here. From a team standpoint, that would be the Big Ten. From an individual standpoint, that would be making sure EJ is 100 percent ready to go whenever he does take the floor again. I'm guessing there will be some who will want to see him play against Kentucky at any cost. I just want to be on the record as saying that I'm not one of those people.

Back to the perspective stuff again. Look, Hutch, no one believes that Eric Gordon should play if playing with this injury could cause a more serious, long-term injury. Your contempt for IU fans has been well-documented over the last few years, but give us a little credit. No IU fan expects Eric Gordon to jeopardize his season or career for a game, not even the Kentucky game. But again, as Hutch's own reporting reveals, Eric Gordon's injury is a bruise. Perhaps I shouldn't speculate on medical issues after mocking Hutchens for doing the same, but this isn't a broken bone. It isn't a muscle or ligament tear. It's a bruise. That's not to suggest that it isn't a legitimate injury. Clearly, it is. It was obvious Monday night that Gordon was in a great deal of pain, and may well be today. He may be in too much pain to play Saturday, and if so, that's fine. But, having told his audience that Gordon's injury is a bruise, if Hutchens has any medical evidence that playing with a bruised tailbone can lead to a season-ending or career-threatening injury, perhaps he should bring it. Or, perhaps Hutch could have waited for a further report before lecturing us on win-at-all-costs and all that. But waiting might have denied Hutch a chance to once again show his scorn for IU fans. It's simple. If Eric Gordon is cleared to play and feels well enough to play, he should play. If there is a risk of further injury or he is in too much pain to be effective, then he shouldn't play. It seems silly to take shots at IU fans for future reactions to an issue that may be moot.

Gordon injury.

More on the game later, a lackluster 12 point win by what must have been a tired IU team. The main story, of course, is the injury to Eric Gordon, who left the game in the first half and returned to the sideline with an ice pack on his low back, but never returned to the game.

Terry Hutchens, because of a chance meeting with Gordon Sr. and Jr., has an update on his blog, an update that presumably didn't make the print version of the Star. The key quote:

About an hour after the game had ended, and everyone had left Assembly Hall, the Gordon's returned from the hospital and walked across the Assembly Hall court toward the exits. I asked his dad about the x-rays and he said they were negative. I then stumbled upon Eric Gordon in the hallway outside the locker room. He was walking with a noticeable limp but when I asked him how he was feeling, he simply said that he would be OK.

Worth reading the whole thing, but it doesn't appear that this will be a serious injury.

Wonked off.

As I have mentioned before, John Gasaway, f/k/a Big Ten Wonk, along with fellow stat-head Ken Pomeroy, have launched a promising new website called Basketball Prospectus. In many quarters, including from Inside the Hall and in ITH's comment threads, Gasaway is taking quite a bit of heat from IU fans about the this paragraph:

Gordon is widely assumed to be on track for a one-and-done career in Bloomington. If this is indeed the case, he’ll be doing well during his brief stint in an IU uniform to perform at the level set by Wilmont last season. No one paid much attention, but Wilmont took a lot of shots and had an outstanding year in 2007. In fact, the even more impressive year that Drew Neitzel had on offense for Michigan State last season could be summarized as simply “Wilmont plus assists.” This year Wilmont’s shots will fall to Gordon; Hoosier fans should be thrilled if Gordon hits about 40 percent of his threes and takes obsessively good care of the ball, as did Wilmont. Same performance, way more hype–it could happen.

I think Gasaway and Pomeroy have been godsends to college basketball. They have created, tweaked, and popularized various statistics that make much more sense than the conventional ways of looking at basketball stats. They have done for college basketball something similar to what Bill James and the Baseball Prospectus guys have done for baseball. Still, one very important thing to keep in mind, and I think Gasaway may have lost sight of it here, is that basketball isn't baseball. Baseball is particularly susceptible to statistical analysis because each at bat is an isolated "transaction," for lack of a better term. If David Eckstein gets behind in the count to a tough pitcher, he can't "pass" to Albert Pujols. While certainly weather, baserunners, defensive play, ballpark differences, and the like can have an effect, for the most part, it's the pitcher against the batter. Basketball isn't like that.

Basketball statistics are valuable, of course, but they aren't as valuable as baseball statistics. Unlike baseball, where there is an set batting order and limited number of at-bats for each player, in basketball, the most efficient way to score is to get the ball in the hands of the best players as often as possible. But there are diminishing returns. The 1990s Bulls couldn't give the ball to Michael Jordan and expect him to score on every single possession. Even great players require effective players around them. On the flip side, some players who aren't necessarily good enough to carry a team can be extremely effective and efficient in a limited role. Commenter Neal E from ITH has a pretty good take on it:

If any of you have heard coach Sampson talk about Wilmont, you will know what he thought of Rod’s “obsessive ball control.” He told us a story of the Northwestern game where Rod hit all those 3’s (9 I think, correct?). Before the game, Sampson was not very comfortable with Rod playing against their slap the ball away defense, and their aggressive play of the passing lanes. He could see the writing on the wall and it read a line of somewhere near 50 turnovers. He gave Rod one piece of advice: “Just shoot it. Every time you touch the ball, shoot it. Don’t pass it, don’t dribble it, JUST SHOOT IT.” His impersonation of Rod’s reaction is the best. “FOR REAL?!?!” I love Rod. But the man can’t pass and the man can’t dribble the lane. EJ can do both. If anything it’s like he is 2 different players. Rod Wilmont plus someone who can touch the ball without losing it.

Wilmont was fantastic last year, and it was to Sampson's credit that he convinced Wilmont to play a specific role. He played it well. As the commenter noted above, Wilmont was a limited player, a spot-up shooter. He wasn't a distributor and wasn't a shot creator. Wilmont's productivity last season was a direct reflection of the change at the top of the IU program. What Gasaway seems to miss is that even if Gordon's points per shot, rebounds, and the like are identical to Wilmont's, it is likely that Gordon will have done much more to make his teammates better. Again, I think it's important to consider statistics. It's possible for a player to be talented and exciting to watch without being terribly productive. Still, the Gordon to Wilmont comparison shows that using stats to analyze basketball is limited when compared to baseball.

Recruit barnstorming; Holman eligible

Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier Journal has been all over the recruiting world, including this article about the IU recruits' game in New Albany. Gordon scored 38 points, but the most encouraging nugget was buried in the article:

Eli Holman, a 6-10 forward from Richmond, Calif., played better than his billing. Holman, who said he just heard from the NCAA Clearinghouse that he is eligible, hit his first 11 shots. Holman finished with 30 points, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots.

Holman is eligible, and played well. Good news.

Inside the Hall has some great coverage as well, including a live blog of Thursday's game in New Albany. Terry Hutchens also has a wrap-up, include an indication that there may be an Indy-area game at Noblesville or Center Grove.